MONTPELIER, VT – With craft beers growing in popularity, vintages that are difficult to find, expensive, or illegal to ship are selling for hundreds of dollars on a burgeoning black market, the Associated Press reports.

A Burlington, Vermont woman was charged recently with selling five cases of Heady Topper for $825 on Craigslist, a steep markup from the difficult-to-find beer that retails for $3 a can and $72 a case and recently earned the number one world ranking by Beer Advocate.

"It's a compliment in an odd way," said Jen Kimmich, owner of The Alchemist brewery in Waterbury, which produces Heady Topper. "But at the same time," she added, "we don't want to see the consumer being cheated by paying too much and getting a product that hasn't been taken care of properly.”

Beer aficionados often trade coveted craft beers that may only be sold in certain states or even countries.

"It's done because the rarity of these releases, the prestige of these releases is a huge driver," said Joe Tucker, executive director of the RateBeer website, who said a great deal of the trading is done illegally.

Selling alcohol online without a license is illegal in the U.S., yet hundreds of posts appeared last year on eBay offering hard-to-find craft beers at high prices, said Natalie Cilurzo, president of Russian River Brewing. She said she saw her company’s flagship Pliny the Elder selling for up to $50 online, a steep rise above its $5 retail price.

"It was out of control," she said. "People were running liquor stores on eBay without any accountability.”

She reported the violation to state regulators, who met with eBay. EBay said it was unaware of the practice but committed to ending it.

"We have a lot of consumers out there that really care about our brewery as well as many other breweries, and they're really kind of our ambassadors, if you will," Cilurzo said. "And they'll notify us if they see something strange online."