Jeff Playter has launched a site to bring hard-to-find wine offerings to collectors in a unique way. A collector himself, Playter launched the new wine marketplace, called RadCru.com, in July, featuring just one special wine per day. "Think eBay and Woot mashed together," he said.

Radcru's one-wine-per-day site similar to Woot, a website profiled in AuctionBytes in 2004 (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m12/i13/s03). But where Woot sells many different kinds of products, from consumer electronics to inflatable beds, RadCru offers only wines. (Note, that Woot launched its own Woot site for wine in May at http://wine.woot.com/, partnering with Wine Country Connect.)

RadCru seeks out hard-to-find, small production wines and sells them for a period of 24 hours or until the stock is sold out, whichever comes first, before moving on to a new wine the following day.

RadCru.com has agreements with a number of suppliers and small family wineries to dedicate a certain portion of their production to the RadCru.com program. It has also entered into a marketing partnership with Inertia Beverage Group (IBG), which will work with its winery clients to provide RadCru with wine offers. Playter called IBG the "Channel Advisor of the wine industry" with over 250 wine clients, including Brooks Winery, Cornerstone Cellars, Luna Vineyards, Medlock Ames, McDowell Family Vineyards and Titus Vineyards.

RadCru charges wineries 10 percent for completed transactions. Once the item sells, the winery sends it directly to the customer, and according to the website FAQs, any problems with purchases must be worked out with the winery. Visitors can choose to sign up for a daily email update, or they can subscribe to an RSS Feed.

RadCru.com has been getting publicity in blogs and websites like Daily Candy. The site has 6,000 registered members, and Playter said transaction volume is ahead of projections.

http://www.radcru.com