Help me
Are there any dealers of vintage watches to be trusted I looked at vintage watch collections after a little research seems this guy is a fraud , same for vintage portfolio, old Maximilian doesn’t appear to be who he says .Then I looked at Fine auction club , more negative feedback is anyone in the business of being honest ,
Pleeease

 

There are some threads on this if you search...

 

I know it seems like you are asking a simple question, but speaking for myself, I'm not really comfortable posting names publicly. There are lots of honest dealers, and we could all start listing off the people with whom we've had good experiences, but that won't guarantee that you will have a good experience with those same dealers. And if someone posts that they had a bad experience with a particular dealer, will you avoid that dealer if he has an excellent and desirable watch?

No-one is perfect and even the most honest and knowledgeable dealers make mistakes or have gaps in their knowledge. That's why the "buy the seller" cliche bothers me. Yes, you want to buy from an honest person, but it's more important to develop your own expertise, and "buy the watch" (see Mayer vs. Maron).

 

https://omegaforums.net/threads/Ωf-unanimously-favorite-ebay-sellers-list.3612/ But heed @Dan S advice.

 

Most dealers are good as long as watch is good and the deal goes well. What identifies a great dealer is how they manage problems.

As previously mentioned the main advice is to know what you buy rather than trust the person who sells it. There’s not a dealer in the world that only has perfect no-issue watches.

 

its not helpful to generalise dealers as "bad" or "good" from single experiences. many watch stores grow or evolve over time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. even at high end London auctions houses watches that are questionable appear on regular basis and also there find their buyer. generally speaking, the market clears itself from dealers that do a poor job, on average, over time.

I would personally not buy from the dealers you mentioned as you can get better watches for less prices on the open market. But I also see no particular problem with the stock of watches at fine auction club for instance. most of the watches offered there are redials but there is definitely a market for these kind of polished and redialed watches. when following closed ebay auctions redialed watches in the below 1000 USD range sell for nearly the same price than original dialed watches. beside the doors of this forum and hardcore vintage collectors the general public does not care a lot about redials. they see it as a fresh paint job on an old-timer car.

 

Figure out what references/calibers you're interested in, learn all that you can about them, then pull "barn find" watches from auctions. Bypass dealers completely.

 

Find a private seller here.

Read all the previous posts, make sure his thread ratio is more info threads than sales, and see if his contributions to other people’s threads are dickish or not.

Even “private” sellers can be complete cocks.

There are a couple of dealer members here who I would recommend - it all depends what you are looking for.

A good dealer short cuts the journey to ownership and I understand that. It will cost you a premium. Noob tax it's known around here and there is no shame in that. Your time might be worth more than that premium.

However if you are like us, after a while you may find the hunt and the search more rewarding.

 

very informative ... thanks for all the information here

 

it's like everywhere

there are terrible dealers and awesome ones but the same counts for private sellers.
there is nothing wrong if u buy from a dealer. yes they live from the money they make on selling watches. on the other hand if u have a great dealer, the watch is serviced and comes with a warranty and later on the dealer might be willing to take it back if u like to upgrade ...

 

I think, for me anyway, "Buy the Seller"/"Trusted Seller" refers more to New/Pre-Owned watches where you can fully trust that the watch is legitimate, in good condition and with assurance that any problem will be rectified. You don't need more info than which model you like and what price you are willing to pay. Armed with that, going to a Trusted Seller is a safe transaction.

Vintage on the other hand, well, it would be ridiculous to buy *from anyone* without extensive researching of the piece you are looking to acquire. While "Buy the Seller" still applies, its only part of the equation.

 

There are good dealers out there, know their stuff and generally take their reputation seriously. There are also notorious re-dialers, over polishers, con artists, and those who don't stand behind their products...They run a business and you will pay a premium...