Always Ask. The Art of Scratching The Surface.

Voere mentioned the following in the 'Rolex Closes All Spare Parts Accounts' thread, & I would like to continue this conversation here.



I have been a collector for 35 years. A record dealer for 20, I grew up in antique stores, flea markets, op shops & the like. I love the thrill of the hunt. Seeing that story piqued my interest as all of my great finds have been a direct result of my three golden rules:

1. Play the Long Game. I actually enjoy turning over dusty cockroach-infested backrooms in the hunt for treasure, but each & every minute spent in someone else's garage, store or workplace is time best spent striking up a conversation, building rapport & establishing trust. Finding something the first time you walk in is uncommon, building trust so you are presented with treasure the 20th time is the trick.

2. Be Polite, Be Honest. Noone likes a dickhead, don't be one. Use your manners & be helpful when unearthing valuable items that are of no interest to you personally.
I have built a network of contacts throughout my region by being friendly, polite & I add value by hipping them to an item that might be underpriced. I am the go-to-guy in my area whenever a second-hand dealer, a charity store or a private collector has a question about an item they suspect holds value.
I answer calls, travel to their location & help to appraise anything at all. I have even listed items on eBay for local charities. Building goodwill like this makes it more likely you will get 1st dibs on a big-ticket item & it feels good to help people as well.

3. Always ask if there is more. In my experience attempting to find treasure 'cold' - walking in & seeing the gold sitting on the shelf waiting for you - happens very, very rarely. It is far more likely that discovering a mono Blue Note, a Stack of Dorè lithographs, or a grail watch results from simply asking "do you have any more?"

In 2002 on Queens Day National Holiday in Amsterdam, I was squatted on the pavement flipping through milk crates of mediocre records. I struck up a conversation with the seller & casually asked if he "had any more records?" That question netted me a complete collection of Rolling Stones records including a mono Beggars Banquet, two copies of Satanic Majesties with hologram cover & three copies of Brian Jones & the Pan Pipes of Joujouka.

In 2015 I stood in a small tin shed at my local rubbish tip chatting with the woman who ran the recycling centre, I asked if they ever had any watches, she produced a blue ice cream container full of cheap Chinese quartz junk & one 1954 cal471 Seamaster.

A month ago I was chatting with a second-hand dealer, asking after watches as usual, & he remarked on my Tissot Seastar Navigator "I have a watch like that one - with the buttons - its an Omega". The next day I bought a 145.022 71 for AUD$500

What are your great finds? what are your golden rules?

Good advice as I start to cast my net wider for watch finds. Thansk!

My best find was a first edition of a mystery writer's first book I found at a friends of the library book sale along with a couple old books on pharmacognosy. Got them all for a couple dollars. Sold the mystery book for a little over $500 on ebay. That was around 1998. You could do that then, but now they scan everything for pricing..

I sold the older books to an academician at the local university for a bit more. He was convinced that I had stolen them, but he bought them anyway. Seemed funny that he was questioning my morals while buying what he thought were stolen goods.

Great advice. It’s all true. Being polite and honest goes a long way. Respect the owner and their stuff. Always great to walk away with both parties happy. Jealous of your 145.022 find!

Through the years I have a few very good relationships with antique dealers, resellers and local charities.

At one local charity. I made friends with the manager. She is an older woman and a very straight shooter. A lot of resellers and antique store owners frequent that charity. I have always been honest with the woman. One time a valuable watch turned up.

Priced very fair the other dealers and resellers were drooling over the watch. The woman called me aside and asked me what I planned on doing with the watch. I told her wear it. She smiled at me and sold me the watch at a lower price than was on the price ticket.

I always made a point when I would go into that charity store, I wore that watch. Good will goes along way. The watch is a vintage Audemars Piquet. I have also picked up a couple other high end watches from her. One time I was talking with her. I asked her why do you not pick up this stuff. She told me Voere I have been running these stores over 30 years. She said I have the best of everything I need. She told me the goodies no longer interest her.

Last good find that comes to mind is this Gruen local flea market find $25 bucks. Still has the original case back sticker on the watch. The watch was wearing a funky twist o flex band. I installed the watch on a strap and she was good to go. There has been plenty of others but they are few and far between.

Watches turn up in places that you would not think of looking for a watch. Some of my best finds have been in places one would never look for a watch.

I have a friend who scored a vintage Speedy in a locked suitcase that he picked up for ten bucks at a garage sale. Bastard!

Long before watch collecting bit me on the a$$. On the weekends I would stop at local flea markets looking for old fishing gear. I collected bamboo fly rods and high-end fishing reels. Through the years I made many good friends with some of the vendors. One fellow comes to mind. Fine older gent he knew all the high-end gear.

After WWII he was a manager for a large sporting goods chain. He was also the buyer for hunting and fishing gear. Damn that guy would turn stuff up that was amazing. He had a collection of fishing reels that always made me drool. It took several years before we became friends.

One time I stopped at his booth we were talking high end reels. He told me I’ll go through my collection and bring some in next week. The following week I went to visit him. He had a couple brief cases loaded with high end reels. Ones that you only read about. He knew the value of what he had. That night I purchased two reels from him.

A couple weeks later I stopped at his booth. He had another brief case full of reels. The brief cases had dividers in them for the reels to fit perfectly in his case. I was checking out a sweet fly reel. His asking price was about less than half the actual value of the reel. Very fair to me. I told him damn you are killing me.

I told him I have a family to feed and I just can’t justify purchasing that reel. I told him these are a dead horse to me. I said I fish with them. He smiled at me and said how much can you justify paying for this reel. I told him $250 tops. He smiled and said make it $100 kiddo.

We became friends. From time to time when I would score a good haul on old rods and reels. I would stop by his booth and just give him the rods and reels I did not want These were in 5-gallon plastic buckets full of rods and reels as purchased. In my travels I would stop in at resale stores junk stores looking for this stuff. If I ran into a bucket full of rods and reel. I would make an offer on the bucket full of rods and reels.

Some of those old buckets of rods and reels were some real treasure. Turn of the century rods and reels. I would keep those and give my friend the remainder of the bucket. It’s all about turn about is fair play or one hand washes the other sort of thing.

Honesty really pays if you let him know the value of the watch and then he sold it to you for AUD500 anyway...

My Grandfather was a collector of fly fishing gear. He was a keen fly-fisherman, and some of my earliest memories are the beautiful reels that he kept in display cabinets all over his house. This was mid-70s & he was known for his collection even then. He sold it towards the end of his life but one of my treasured possessions is a small box with flys he had made himself for his Taupo fly trips.

I live in a tourist town on the Australia NSW far north coast. Our town is known for some of the best fishing & surfing in the country. Occasionally I happen upon reels & rods (no fly gear - mostly old Alvey reels, Mulloway lures & spinners). If you have a wishlist, send it through.

Mate, I still can't quite believe it. The seller is a guy I have known since we moved here almost 8 years ago. We were both record dealers in previous lives so regularly shoot the shit about the good old days, the state of the current market (bleak), & general two-old-guys-in-a-shop talk.

He always keeps an eye out for watches for me & I have fulfilled some of his long-time record wants over the years.

After he told me about the Omega, I took the market price in cash to his store. As soon as he handed the watch to me I told him I wanted it, I wasn't trying to rip him off, what I thought it was worth, & handed him the billfold.

He told me it was way too much money considering the watch was not working & refused the money. I had the feeling he was actually trying to gift me the watch. He knew that it needed a service & that I'll have to invest in it. It took a lot of persuasion to get him to take any money at all. $500 was the most he would take - he was firm on this.

He knows I intend to wear this watch, that it means a lot to me, & that I wasn't trying to get over on him. I am so happy that whenever I wear it I will know that it came from one record dealer to another, that our exchange was honest, & that he is stoked for me. Plus there are some very heavy records in that mans very near future.

Such great stories in here and I think it is a great way to remind me about the spirit of this hobby in the face of watches becoming more and more transactional to me.

When the watch bug bit me I was spending hours on forums and eBay just thumbing through listings. This included setting alarms over the weekend at 3am since that’s when Europe was active and posting potentially cheap BIN watches.

There were many times I found a relative bargain and passed it on to someone who I knew would actually wear it vs me just flipping it. And the best feeling is when you’ve got a small group of mates who know what you’re looking for and are an extra set of eyes to help you find that next watch and vice versa.

Community and how we contribute and give back is so much more gratifying than the short experience of buying and selling. The stories we share of our finds and the camaraderie we create are what really keep me in this hobby.

So I did it again. This one came from the same tip shop where I picked up the Seamaster in my avatar. I help them price bits & pieces, this week I dropped in & they gave me 'a broken watch' to say thanks for the help.



It is now on its way to Rob B. in Thailand for a service.

It's all about relationship building.