Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 is a collectable Scotch whisky from Balvenie aged 35 years. Based on 17 recorded auction lots across 15 months of trading data, the current median hammer price is £3,200, with the most recent sale at £2,500. Over the trading window, prices have ranged from £2,500 (low) to £3,800 (high). Accounting for lot-to-lot variation, a realistic valuation range for Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 is £2,300–£2,700 (±8% around the latest sale).
Year-on-year, Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 is down 16.7%, with a 6-month trend of -21.9% (down). wsky1 aggregates hammer prices from major public Scotch whisky auctions including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium (typically 24–28% additional at major houses). Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.
Balvenie is a whisky distillery. Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 is an age-stated bottling at 35 years old, distilled in 1981.
Single vintage
Distilled in a single year (1981), so the available batch is inherently finite.
Considerable age
A 35-year age statement reflects long maturation and the small surviving volume that implies — older stock is scarcer.
Named / limited release
Released as compendiumdcsseq3, a named edition rather than part of the standard core range.
These are scarcity and demand signals drawn from the bottle's own attributes — they describe the bottle, not a prediction of future price. Not investment advice.
Latest sale
£2,500
24-month median
£3,200
24-month high
£3,800
24-month low
£2,500
Estimated value · likely range
£2,300–£2,700 ±8%
Auction hammers swing lot to lot with condition, fill level and timing. Treat this band — not a single figure — as the bottle's value.
| Month | Median | Lots |
|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | £2,500 | 1 |
| April 2024 | £3,000 | 1 |
| November 2023 | £3,800 | 1 |
| August 2023 | £3,200 | 2 |
| August 2022 | £3,400 | 1 |
| October 2021 | £2,700 | 1 |
| July 2021 | £3,200 | 1 |
| April 2021 | £2,900 | 1 |
| September 2020 | £3,200 | 1 |
| June 2020 | £2,800 | 1 |
| February 2020 | £3,200 | 1 |
| August 2019 | £2,900 | 2 |
The latest hammer price for Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 at auction is £2,500. Across the most recent 24 months of auction data, the median hammer price is £3,200, with a high of £3,800 and a low of £2,500. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium. Data is aggregated from major auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams.
Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 is down 16.7% year-on-year based on monthly median hammer prices. Over the past 6 months it has moved down 21.9%. Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.
Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 regularly appears at major Scotch whisky auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions (Scotland), Whisky Auctioneer (Scotland), Just Whisky, Whisky Hammer, and Bonhams. The current median hammer price is £3,200 (excluding buyer's premium). At most major houses, buyer's premium adds 24–28% on top of hammer for the buyer; sellers typically receive the hammer price minus a sales commission of 5–15%.
Over the past 12 months Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 has moved down 16.7%, with a current median hammer price of £3,200. The bottle has been observed at auction across 17 recorded lots in our database. wsky1 provides hammer-price data for informational purposes only — not investment advice. Whisky is an illiquid alternative asset; secondary-market value depends heavily on bottle condition, fill level, label integrity, and timing.
wsky1 ingests public auction results from major auction houses (via direct scraping of Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, Bonhams, and Whisky Hammer, plus aggregated data from WhiskyHunter). For each bottle, we group hammer prices by year-month and compute the median price per month. The figures shown — latest £2,500, 24-month median £3,200 — are derived from this monthly-median methodology. All prices are hammer prices in GBP, excluding buyer's premium.
No. All prices on wsky1 are hammer prices only. Buyer's premium at major Scotch whisky auction houses currently runs at 24–28% on top of the hammer price. A bottle of Balvenie 1981 35 Year Old DCS Compendium Chapter 3 that hammers at £2,500 would cost the buyer approximately £3,150 all-in including buyer's premium.
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