Unicorn Auctions sells thousands of bottles of wine and spirits every week. With over 100,000 users, Unicorn knows more about real-time spirits consumer trends than any brand or distributor.
If you live in the United States and are even remotely interested in collectible wine and spirits, you’ve probably heard of Unicorn Auctions. In just over five years, the Chicago-based online auction house has become the go-to marketplace for hard-to-find bourbon, scotch, Japanese whisky, tequila, rum and wine (along with other bottles across the alcoholic beverage space). Unicorn runs online auctions every single week, with 4,000-5,000 bottles up for bid in any given auction.
Unicorn’s customer base of over 100,000 registered users has enabled the company to achieve impressive transaction figures in a short period. To date, Unicorn Auctions has realized $150 million in lifetime sales from 8 million bids on 150,000 bottles.
The business name suggests that most of the lots auctioned are high-end, vintage or luxury bottles, but high-value items only account for a small percentage of their total transactional volume. Year to date, 61,000 transactions on Unicorn were under $100—almost 50% of the bottles sold so far in 2025. Make no mistake. There’s truly something for everyone.
“Wine and spirits feels elusive, and it’s hard to learn. I wanted a platform that’s democratized,” said Unicorn CEO & Co-Founder Phil Mikhaylov. “You can buy epic bottles or daily drinkers every week.”
With over half a decade of business and millions of bids under its belt, this flourishing hub of C2C resale feels like it has always been a part of America’s alcohol ecosystem, but the whole premise was barely feasible just 10 years ago. I spoke with the Unicorn team about what’s next for the platform.
The 21st century ushered in an alcohol e-commerce renaissance in the United States, and none of it would have been possible without a progressive laxing of alcohol shipping regulations. Shipping laws are complicated and vary by state, but the concept of purchasing spirits online and having them safely and legally delivered to your door was practically unheard of twenty years ago.
In 2005, the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Granholm v. Heald struck down state laws that discriminated against out-of-state wineries. This decision opened direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping for wine across the country. For most states, though, the shipment of spirits still remained highly regulated.
I can remember bidding in UK-based spirits auctions throughout the 2010s. The experience was always more expensive than I bargained for, even when I was bargain-hunting. Between the buyer’s premium, USD to GBP conversion and international delivery that was technically in a shipping grey area, my overseas auction activity was sparse.
Meanwhile, small victories throughout the 2010s chipped away at spirits e-commerce and vintage bottle sale regulations. For example, the State of Illinois’ 2015 Auction Liquor License legislation made it legal for Auction houses like Unicorn, which is based in Chicago, to auction spirits legally. A few years later, Kentucky’s 2018 passing of HB 100, better known as the Vintage Spirits Law, allowed licensed bars, restaurants, and liquor stores to purchase unopened vintage spirits from individuals for resale legally.
2020 marked the beginning of a new decade and the onset of a pandemic. As the uncertainty of the early COVID era settled in with seemingly no end in sight, many states issued emergency orders, resulting in the widespread temporary legalization of home delivery, curbside pickup, and to-go spirits/cocktails. Some states chose to continue home spirits delivery after the temporary orders expired, while others adopted home delivery exceptions from in-state licensed retailers or producers.
Parts of the country remain tightly regulated, but the situation is fluid, and several states are in the process of reexamining their policies when it comes to DTC spirits sales. Meanwhile, services like Big Thirst and LiquidData have developed networks of retail partners to create three-tier compliant e-commerce platforms that can ship to most states in the country.
In short, it has never been easier to get spirits shipped to your door…