A new model for buying / selling watches

You'll always be a n00b to me. 🤪 Remember, you (kinda) asked for it. 😗


Oooooooo, quite the counter argument!

I like this thread because I've been contemplating ideas in the same direction for some time as well - along the lines of, how can the watch collecting experience or platform be made more intuitive and/or enjoyable for collectors.

More than that though - I'm posting because I love this phrase. Haven't seen it around for awhile!!

I think what you are truly looking at is a Collectors Universe type company that not only grades/authenticates but then also acts as a clearing house. Since watches are meant to be worn, any watches that get cracked out (to use a PSA card grading term to mean you have freed the card from its plastic slab) would need to be sent back for authentication should the purchaser want to resell.

Not only that, but each transaction is slightly unique. Different watch, different conditions, and different customer. There's simply no way to homogenize the entire business into one gelatinized process.

I'll bite. Frankly I am truly interested in this.

The first thing I see is that Beepi is essentially a consignment business while "Opendoor for cars" is a buy and sell business. Need lots more capital in the buy and sell business for inventory. Beepi is basically making a marketplace. Inventory is free, you just need to get people to sign up their cars. Beepi scales easily, while "Opendoor for cars" will need to go through several logistical models as it gets bigger.

Also, half joking, used watch buyers are jerks. Free inspections, at the same level as car inspections will not work. You don't see car buyers returning cars after a month because it stopped and they were expecting that cars don't need oil changes, or wants to return a car because there was a scratch only visible under loupe

Lastly both you and I know that big revenue numbers have only the vaguest connection to actual profit.

I think buying the seller's watch outright and keeping inventory is the method where you can most reduce the cost of running business. But I get the feeling you don't want that. I get the feeling you want to either automate or contract out all the logistics. That's not necessarily a bad thing. If that's the case, you go consignment. Lets do back of the napkin stuff:

watch: $2500 Speedmaster

shipping to and from photographer: $60
professional photography: $100 (yes, commercial photography is dam expensive)
authentication service: $50 (authentication, identification, estimate value via photos)
merchant fees: 3% - $80

That's already 11.6% markup just factoring in direct incremental costs. Lets say fixed costs and profits gets you to 20% markup

Incidentally, 11-12% is right about Ebay + Paypal commission is. I don't think an authentication / identification / escrow service is a good enough value proposition for 12%-20% for most people.

If you start reducing costs, you're bringing things in-house. And if everything is in-house, you'd make a lot more money actually buying/selling watches than just providing for escrow.

+ let's not forget customs...

Every time a watch crossed a national border, allow for 10 - 30% of customs (et al) fees.

Al, stop adding specific realities to the OP's broad generalization. You'll throw his planet off it's axis.

oh no ... not again ... what have I done this time? 😗

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100302-chile-earthquake-earth-axis-shortened-day/

Don't worry Al, Galaxy Earth will survive.

[allegory rant]

Ah yes......Planet Millenia - where everyone is under 35 so they believe they're immortal and can solve problems with one all-encompasing stoke of the brush. Everything is black & white on Planet Millenia so you only need two brushes! I come from a world known only as B-twixtntween, a sub-planet located between Genexia and Boomeria. I live on the side facing Boomeria by choice because there's a better understanding of not only grey, but other colors in the broad spectrum. I watched the battle of words between Boomerians and Genexians for almost 2 decades, until one day their differences weren't so different anymore. Being from B-twixtntween, I could identify with both and was happy an accord fell in place.

One day, Millenials will stop and take a GOOD look around them and realize that Boomerians, Genexians, and even the people of B-twixtntween aren't doing things the wrong way. Nothing needs to be fixed about certain things, and nothing is simply black & white when it comes to individuals. Then maybe they'll direct their energy, intelligence and well-meaning ideology towards correcting things that actually need correcting, using their new found enlightenment of grey (and maybe even shades of color). Hopefully, they won't fall into the same traps that Boomerians and Genexians have, where NOTHING gets accomplished because of apathy.

Not long after their realization, Millenials will come to see that they DO live on the same planet as Boomerians, Genexians, and all other generations....... which is about the time they'll start rolling their collective eyes at the generation(s) behind them. It's been this way forever on Galax.......um, Planet Earth, and will continue to be so as long as there are parents and children.

[/allegory rant]

ps - @kidkimura: Can I call you kid? Hahahaha - just kidding! (bad pun intended 🤦 ) My diatribe isn't specifically directed at you so apologies that your thread provided the platform. Keep on throwing out new twists - one may actually work. Prove to us codgers that youth isn't wasted on the young.