Wine Now Has a Home on eBay

The auction site is hoping to cash in on the wine boom

Wine now has a home on eBay, right alongside wildly overpriced Big Mac sauce and bedazzled Starbucks gift cards. Last week the auction site — which, despite a two-year slump, still brought in more than $8 billion in revenue last year — launched eBay Wine, a new section of its site (and mobile app) that allows members in 45 U.S. states to buy and sell everyday and rare wines.

eBay is no stranger to wine, however, as it's actually been sold on the auction site for years: "However, company executives would be the first to admit that eBay has done a poor job helping customers sift through its massive selection to find what they're looking for," CNET notes. The new eBay Wine provides a cleaner, more easily navigable layout to help users track down their desired bottles, whether it's a $27 2014 Juliet Sky Riesling or perhaps a 2004 Chateau Lafite Rothschild priced at a hefty $17,000.

eBay's new wine venture also involves a partnership with startup Drync, a mobile app that's been described as "like Shazam for wine," and part of that partnership involves bringing over retailers from Drync to sell on eBay. (Unlike, say, old Beanie Babies, not just anyone can sell wine on eBay: Wine sellers have to be properly licensed for alcohol sales and vetted by eBay before they can list their wares.)

It's no surprise that eBay wants to get a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to the wine industry, though some are pointing out the auction giant is rather late to the game: Millennials are increasingly choosing wine over beer, with American consumers dropping $32 billion on wine in 2015.

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