I did a search and could not find a directly related thread. If there is one and I missed it, I’d be happy if someone added a link to it.

Many of us own multiple watches and while my collection pales compared to that of others, the total value continues to climb and isn’t insignificant.

My wife has no interest in the watches I have, other than a look of concern as to the amount of money I spend on them. She isn’t aware of what I own, what the value is and how she might sell them if I were to meet an untimely end.

Does anyone here have a pre-arranged seller lined up who would help your spouse / partner / significant other convert your collection to cash?

Have any of the sellers here been contacted before to sell everything in someone’s ‘estate’?

Are any of the sellers on here willing to make a precautionary pre-arrangement?

We often shake our heads when someone joins OF only to sell a few heirlooms, but my fear is my wife wouldn’t even go to that length and so she’d lose a huge sum of potential ‘value’. I would love to have a pre-arranged seller who would agree to help should she need it. Obviously no one would do it without taking a percentage of the proceeds, but it would be well worth the alternative of someone cashing in on a ‘barn find’ scenario and taking advantage of a naive spouse.

Througts?

 

I found a similar situation.

A widow sold a genuine Rolex president, 18k, for like 1500 USD.
I was monitoring this sale, and I thought it was too good to be true (no auction, only “buy now”). The buyer did the deal of the year obviously, but I felt very bad for this lady who did not know what she has “lost” in terms of money.

My GF knows well the value of what I have as I’m
Bombing her with my purchases (and she approves, for now ahah), but I know somebody else might not be in the same situation. I’ll follow the thread.

 

I keep a spreadsheet of watches, including what I paid for each, what I estimate it’s worth, whether it’s been serviced and when, what’s special about it and what’s still wrong.

I did a similar thing with my collection of bust half dollars.


(I carry this coin in my pants’ watchpocket.)

At least it’s a start. That way, she’s got my view of them.

 

I keep a spreadsheet on mine as well. My wife loves watches too so I can only hope that she’s going to know what to do when the time comes.

 

The same thought has crossed my mind. My wife knows that there’s a fair bit of value in my watches, but no idea of specifics. Obviously if you have a small collection of well known watches (Rolex, Omega, etc) then it would be fairly easy to get market value, but for those who have rare watches (or especially rare parts) it’s easy to imagine stuff being given away or even thrown out. I mean... how many partners would assign value to a box full of no.6 endlinks or similar.

Maybe you could just put a note with your watches giving your OF username and password, and some contacts who you trust that have broad and deep knowledge in the field of your collection. There are dealers on here who would probably help for commission.

 

I have a spreadsheet as well, and I’ve told my wife and daughter about OF, but I’ve also seen the response every “I’ve inherited ‘x’...” post!

Many things are simple for people interested and who take the time to figure it out (plumbing, electrical wiring, car repairs, etc) but many of us have no interest and so we pay professionals to take care of it for us.

Unfortunately, with watches, it would be easy for my wife to miss something (ie box and papers) and also easy to fall prey if someone talking down the value of every watch...

 

I’ve taken a photo of each watch, box, papers etc, and created a page for each watch in PowerPoint, with a brief description, purchase price, and latest estimated value. I’ve included the details of a number of watch buyers, dealers, including my watch guy.

I’ve also done something similar with other stuff eg my first edition sci-fi book collection.

If you don’t have PowerPoint, there is cheap catalogue software you can buy to do the same, and just keep a printed copy in a file where it can be accessed.

 

It seems like no matter what, keeping a running spreadsheet on your computer would be a good idea, and include things like box: yes/no, papers, etc. Would be invaluable in the case of a theft as well. Would be a good idea to keep an updated printout in a safe deposit box as well.

 

For those who have spreadsheets...would your partner find it if you got hit by a bus tomorrow ?

 

Nobody has mentioned the most important thing ... your DIBS list!

This thread is not only depressing, it's also stressing me out.

 

It's been on my procrastination list for a while. I only have 3 watches worth selling, but would prefer her selling it here directly than to pay eBay fees. I say "it" instead of them, because, I'd probably send (or want her to send) the Flightmaster to a childhood friend with whom I've lost contact who became an aircraft engineer; and I'd probably tell her to hold onto the SpMP to give to her next husband if she wants to, which leaves only the Grail. She knows "about" it, but not enough to sell it for maximum value. The email addresses of everybody who's made offers on it are already in my watch box, but I still need to write up the other info about it for her.

 

This is exactly the kind of situation I would hope to avoid.

For me, the desire to pre-plan is 2 fold:

1. Collecting watches is something I enjoy, and I justify putting money into it because I could sell in the future if necessary. My wife has no interest in my hobby, but she 'tolerates it'. If I were suddenly gone, with all of the many affairs she'd have to put in order (house, cars, insurance, bills, etc..) on top she'd be stuck with my many watches and I can only imagine how frustrating that would be for her. We sometimes like to think our loved ones should cherish our nice watches the way we do, but the truth is they hold zero interest for her. By pre-arranging something, I would like to have not only the spreadsheet with photos and details, but also a contact she could send everything to and they would take care of arranging and selling everything for her (for a pre-agreed %)

2. I know if I were to make the choice to sell my collection, I have a decent idea what I could get for each watch and how to list it to maximize my value (with B&P, receipts, service records, etc). Knowing my wife and her lack of interest and knowledge, she might take my watch box to a jeweler and somewhat 'pawn' the collection off for pennies on the dollar. This would render all my assurances of 'they hold value and can be liquidated for much of what I paid" useless.

FWIW, lest anyone imagine a secret treasure trove of rare units I've somehow kept quiet about so far on OF, my collection is very modest and would only be worth about $20k. However, like many here, I seem to convince myself to add to each year and so I could imagine it growing to be several multiples of that in the next few decades...

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one on OF with a spouse who wouldn't like the hassle of selling off a collection...

I have told my wife and daughter to go to Omega Forums and mention gostang9. It sounds so simple to me as I log in daily, but I'm sure it would be the furthest thing from their minds should something happen to me. We also tend to be a bit of a skeptical bunch... I know my wife certainly wouldn't stick around for 200 posts to convince anyone she was 'for real'...

As for finding a dealer with an agreed commission, I imagine that would the likely scenario.

 

Powerpoint is a good idea, I will definitely work on that.

 

Lots to think about here.

I don't keep a speadsheet, but even if I did I wouldn't be good about updating it.

To add to the above comments, I think maintaince should also be documented. I spend a lot each year on maintaince, and this would add value should my watches ever be sold.

I also have too many parts laying around. End links, bracelets, tritium hand sets, etc. I suspect in total worth as much as a couple of Speedmasters.

Not even sure where to begin, I have parts in one place, boxes in another, and no way for anyone to know what is what (most here could figure it out).

Plus I have two watches away for service. My Ed White and 18k speedy skeleton. And it always seems that one is away for service. No way she would know about it.

 

That's a realistic concern.

I do all of the banking and account admin for our family. I keep a big Spreadsheet with a list of our assets, bank accounts in multiple countries and institutions, savings and investment accounts, airline accounts, ebay/PP/TW, etc. It includes all the account numbers, related email addresses, passwords and security questions/answers/pins. I also update the value in each monthly to keep a rolling tally of our networth and investment status. As this file is contains everything in our lives, I have it very securely locked down and access carefully controlled. My wife and daughter know how to get it and the password to get into it (and when it changes... which is frequently).

 

I'm really surprised there isn't a service which is interested in pre-negotiating the liquidation of such collections; it's sad to have to saddle loved ones with a risky and complicated unwinding in an area they know nothing about, even if you record useful information and give them a head start. One possibility would be if a trusted dealer or similar would be willing to facilitate sales of watches in exchange for a percentage cut.

In the absence of that, here's what I would suggest you do if you want to be proactive: for each watch, write the eBay ad, including photos, the starting price and reserve you would suggest, and any additional bidding/payment rules. You can suggest places to pre-shop the watches, such as OF, but it's my guess that the prices that will be gotten from a well-informed, well-described eBay auction are better than people will get by going to a dealer, a bigger auction house, or someone else with a higher markup.

I think that if you do this well, you can reduce the headache for your estate executor to a couple of days of low-risk work (create a bunch of auctions, get a bunch of payments, ship a bunch of watches) while clearing a very large fraction of the highest available price.

 

Ha, guess that's the one benefit of a humble collection... no DIBS to keep track of.

Sorry for the depressing nature of the thread, but the likelihood of any of us going early won't increase as a result, so the reality is only it gets us thinking about something I think is rather important. I have no intention of leaving this planet for at least another 50 years, but I still want to prepare for any event regardless of how low the probability...

 

Do you have a local friend who might step in and help sort things out if needed? Our neighbor's son is very business savy and would no doubt help my wife sell my cars and garage tools, but I don't think he'd be any help with my watches. I think my wife would probably reach out to him anyhow, but he doesn't know anything about nor does he have any interest...

My collection is nothing like yours, I can't even imagine how I'd prepare for that, other than I'd want to have some kind of plan pre-arranged...

 

I'm interested to hear some dealers weigh in with what kind of fees and commission would be required to make such a liquidation effort worth the hassle for you...

I would assume the desired fee to sell any watch would be something like;

fee = x + y * z
- where 'x' is a fixed amount (to account for low value units where a % wouldn't justify the effort)
- 'y' is a % to be applied to selling price
- 'z' is the selling price

Am I wrong?