Auctions for wine corks sell in lots as small as 20 and as large as 500. The wine bottles usually sell for about 50 cents per bottle, but fancier bottles can fetch near $5.00 each (hint: Cobalt blue bottles!). Wine corks, however, generally sell for about 10 cents each.

What is cork made of? Cork consists of suberin cells in the shape of tiny pentagonal or hexagonal honeycombs, a complex fatty acid and filled with an air-like gas, which makes up 90% of its volume. It possesses an average density of around 200 kg/m3 and low thermal conductivity.

Cork capsulated stoppers are increasingly popular in fast-growing areas such as gin, rum, premium whiskies and vodkas, and craft beers | Top Series.

The year 1680 has been stated as when the Benedictine monk first used cork for sealing wine. Previously stoppers had generally been made of wood wrapped in hemp soaked in olive oil. Cork was probably first used to seal wine in the sixth century BC (BCE) in Toscana (Tuscany).