This may be a bit of a personal rant; in fact I'm sure it is. But I'm so flummoxed by something that happened today as to be astounded still, hours later.

As many here know, I have an affinity for vintage, Rolex, and so on. Today I came across a lovely little Air King, simple black dial on a bracelet, nothing crazy, but just a nice, neat rendition of the 14000 ref. It was in good if not spectacular shape, no box or papers, and so I asked what we could work out. The price was reasonable already, just the usual, "any wiggle room?", not expecting much, expecting to plunk down the old debit card and add one to the collection.

Instead this got me a virtual 'watch specialist' who insisted I wouldn't possibly be satisfied with the 34mm dimensions. I had already told them I've owned several 5500, 1002, and 114200 models. I finally had to show them a wrist shot to convince them. They quickly tried to change the subject, and I quickly said I'd be waiting (not making any) purchases.

WHO does that when someone is literally trying to hand you (a few) thousands of dollars of money?!?

 

Sounds like an attempt to up-sell. I'm not sure why that would make you decide not to buy the original watch.

 

This is fascinating. I've certainly encouraged a buyer to look elsewhere when their questions made clear they weren't going to be happy with the watch I was selling, but this just sounds like someone who believed you were a mark and was, at best, trying to force you to buy more. What a joke.

 

I made it pretty clear I expected them to stop hassling me and quote me a price. Talk at me after that and you can be Anne Hathaway selling me a mint original Ed White for ten bucks and I'm done with the deal.

 

I'm betting it was already sold, but they figured you were ready to spend, so keep you on the hook for something else. If they were just honest, it might have ended better.
I was annoyed on Ebay recently when I made an offer, and then before I heard reply, the listing ended with "listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing." It appears they have a brick and mortar store in Japan as well, and it had probably already been sold.

 

Going off on a tangent here, I'm a little confused about you asking for a price quote when they already had a price indicated for the watch. Shouldn't you have proposed a lower cost to start the 'negotiation'? Not sure why they would give you a new, lower price vs what they listed unless it was in the middle of negotiating.

Also agree with the post above that it may have already been sold, or was in the process, and they hoped to sell you something else.

 

Yeah, bait-and-switch does seem likely.

 

I have done things that might count as "talking someone out of buying my watch" but on the other hand, it's a matter of, "are you sure this is what you want?" I do not like unhappy buyers. Most end up at "oh I never thought of that, you're right, this isn't what I'm looking for."

 

When you have a happy buyer, you avoid a lot of potential Paypal issues in the future.

 

I’m thinking they promised it to someone else, maybe unbeknownst to the manager

 

I Don’t know, could be up sell or legitimately trying to prevent you from buying the item. I’ve only done this to buyers who give me a completely hard time about an item, such as asking 20,000 questions about an item with tons of pictures and asking for more discounts, 99% of the time they are the ones who always end up asking for a refund or a partial refund because when it’s in hand they find something wrong with it, that was not discussed before. Don’t know if you are like that at all BUT I’m just stating some of the stuff I have seen as Seller.

I am incredibly transparent with each item, the one time I overlooked something the buyer was like “Hey, the card glue was coming off the action figure” that’s now how it was described I was like oh snap I am so sorry for not totally inspecting the item when I bought it off the store lolol It’s the little stuff sometimes but I took a massive loss on it.

 

Man I feel your pain. I swore off eBay sales when I sold a SandY 490 "no returns". First there was something with the size. Then it was too hard to wind. When he said it didn't work? I said, send it back. If my watchmaker says it works or you damaged it on purpose, no refund (and no watch). He STFU.

 

Well, I might be wrong but I think maybe @STANDY was trying to talk us out of buying this one:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/fs-...ndition-australian-edition-28-000-obo.125027/

 

Multiple proprietors and shop staff have talked me out of even entering their establishments in the first place.

 

Fair priced and fair description. It’s for sale with a solid story with provenance
Snoopy like blue dial and all.

Yes I’m having fun a bit but I can ask any price I think fit like anyone else.

$34K newly released Snoopy watches on Chrono24 and you think I’m not trying to sell.

Open to offers still guys...

 

$34K? That’s a bargain. Vintage watch co have one for $39,800... Maybe you could do a straight swap

 

Nope, don’t like cartoon characters on my watch, pretty sure I would get laughed out of a pub where I live...
Maybe OK around @JimInOz s neck of the woods but not the Humpty Doo Hotel......

 

Yep. What. No. Wait.