Do you ‘good Samaritan’ Omegas?

A recent thread from a new member in the modern forum got me thinking about this. Don’t want to call anyone out so I’m starting a new thread here.

The person in question bid and won on a two-tone Seamaster diver that would probably cost several thousand on the preowned market—he paid $500 and was disappointed (in a humble not-obnoxious way) to learn after-the-fact from OF that it’s a very bad fake.

The question in my mind: would you feel a lot better if you found out it was real? Or would you be nagged by the fact that you might have just taken advantage of a seller’s ignorance?

This isn’t a holier-than-thou post. Back in the day I made several thousand dollars buying and selling used camera gear—someone who didn’t understand what they had would be selling a Canon L lens, say, for $300 that was worth $1700. Easy flip for me. (This was via Craigslist and eBay, and I’d sell on one of the Canon forums, usually.) Never felt a pang of remorse then, figuring it was their fault for not researching value.

And then one time I got into a back and forth with a seller (I think it was a nice full frame DSLR body) and found out it was a recently widowed woman just looking to sell off some of her husband’s stuff quickly. She didn’t have the emotional energy to do all the research so was basically making up prices. (I’d reached out to ask questions to make sure it was a functional camera body.)

Ugh the guilt. I ended up explaining to her what she had (there were a bunch of nice lenses too and lots of other gear) and helped her sell it. In the end she made probably $7,000 more than she would have on her own.

And I realized that actually felt pretty good too. I’m not a believer in karma, but maybe it’s something like that.

With watches, I don’t play hero and look through listings for undervaluations to try to save people or anything. But there have been a few times when I’ve incidentally come across something and reached out to a seller to make sure they know what they have. As often as not, they do and just want to make a quick and easy sale. (Which makes you wonder.) But on occasion they’ve been very grateful for the info and have relisted accordingly. And it’s almost always a spouse or a kid of someone who’s passed.

Just wondering if others have done this sort of thing.

I would not want to knowingly want to take advantage of someone else's lack of knowledge, so I would tell them. If they said ok and sold me the watch lower than it's true market value I would be happy to pay the price and keep the watch.
My goals are to live an honest life, treat others with respect and be able to sleep well at night. I don't always manage it, they are goals not absolutes.
( I admit it, every time someone on one of those stupid electric scooters comes within a hairs bredth of me on the pavement, I want to push them off)

but honest/dishonest isn’t the only approach to this question, right? It’s not dishonest to drive past someone whose car has broken down on a remote road when you’re a capable mechanic with a truckload of tools and plenty of time to spare, but it might be… morally questionable? Inhumane? Karmically risky? Poor citizenship? Insensitive?

I agree that it isn’t necessarily dishonest—neither is being a bad tipper or driving like a jerk, for that matter.

I think I would. Not a watch, but I was looking to replace my no longer supported Bacharach combustion analyzer. I found the next, current residential model in the high end package with all the options on eBay for $50 because it "didn't work." This is a $2000 kit. That was because it needed two sensors and I told the seller and he was insistent afterwards that he was okay with the price because "it's broken" and I bought it. New sensors and it's good to go.

Surely you don't mean never.

One could easily think up a case where it would be obviously wrong to take something offered at a given price. E.g. a widow offers to sell you her late husband's 2915-1 for $1000 and you know she can't cover funeral costs...

Yes its surprising what some people collect. I bought a couple of Japanese Chokin plates that came in a bulk lot, I had the buyer arrive to pick them up after the auction and confess to me that they had to buy every one they saw if it was different from what they already had and would pay whatever the amount was. A tidy profit was made!

This thread lacks picture, so there we go.

A few years ago, this watch was listed on a local platform at a low price.


My excitation goes to the roof. However, these platforms are pools with sharks. I messaged the seller and… the watch was already reserved by a watch dealer.

It wasn’t the first time this happened, so I said to him his price was too low.

Sent him a few past sales results for the same reference, showed him my OF WTB for this exact reference.

He probably felt like it was going to a good home, so I ended up with the watch, paying several hundreds more than initially listed.

Win-win. He made more for his father’s watch, it went to someone who takes care of it, rather than flipping it. It wasn’t a great deal, but it felt good and respectful.

I ended up helping him with information on other watches from this father. The “sad” thing is that the only watch he kept was an obvious redial. But that’s the one which had sentimental value.

That’s the kicker for me. If you are dealing in your own field and don’t know the value of what you are selling, that’s not my problem.

For a private sale from a family member or something, that’s very different.