Hi everyone (apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place),

I need to find out what a number of watches (around 20) are worth (including 2 Omegas, Rolex and a number of brands I'm not familiar with). What's the best way to do this? (I'm a complete novice when it comes to watches). Do I take them all down to a watch shop to get valued? Is there a website that I can go to to get prices? Or is there someone / company who I can pay to get this done?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

Best bet is to find past sales on ebay. Why do you want to know? Sale? Insurance? Just for interest?

Watch shops are unlikely to be the way to go. Vintage watches are a very specialty item, so unless you are somewhere that has a decent shop....

Also, bricks and mortar stores are usualy a LOT more expensive than ebay.

Why not post a few photos here, and we may be able to help.

 

Thanks, CanberraOmega. The watches are involved in an unfortunate divorce. Basically I need to make sure that my friend, who was gifted these watches by the (soon to be ex) father-in-law, is not being taken for a ride.

I'll try ebay, but I'm not sure how to search for the watches. I'm guessing that there'll be hundreds of listings.

Thanks for the tip about the shops.

 

agree, given the purpose.

 

I'd say ebay will produce the most accurate and faithful results.

If you know the model numbers just punch them in and you'll get the average selling price for the prior 6? (I believe it's 6) months.

Otherwise, it's all just guessing.

If you're going to use a jeweler, ask him for (2) prices:

1. what he'd pay you right now for each piece.

2. what price he'd ask for each watch when he goes to sell them.


If he's honest, there will be a 300% difference.

 

Id be careful with a jeweller. There's often a huge difference in what they say theyre worth and what you could actually sell then for.
Frequently on eBay people try to sell jewellery for close to it's appraised value, which is often several times what the market will pay.

 

I agree that this particular case may require the use of qualified individuals for it to carry sufficient weight, however, the op needs to be very careful. One could get appraisals from a jewellers which would include a valid and official valuation. However, if these are to be used to determine how much the op's friend has to pay, they could be hugely over priced. Frequently people get insurance valuations or similar and then get surprised when a jeweller only offers 25-35% of the valuation to actually buy the items. This is what I'm getting at and like others have said, any appraisal should include the item value and what the jewler would actually offer to buy the items. The two will be very different and some jewellers may be hesitant to put both in writing.

 

are the watches vintage ones, or current/recent models? Valuation of recent models is certainly easier.

 

i am not so sure. A judge will take evidence as just that. He would have to have a very good reason not to accept a value of comparables from evidenced sales from ebay. In fact I would accept those values to reflect market values far better than an "appraisal".

i agree a lawyer would have a go to try to discredit, but you can't really argue with comparable sales.

I also agree that if this is a contested divorce, then paperwork is important. If you are going down the eBay route, then three examples of each comparable printed out carries far more weight with me than any appraisal.

remember those that can value, trade. Those that can't, appraise.

Finally, there is a very good reason why divorce is so expensive.










its worth it.

 

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

There are convincing arguments on both sides and it sounds like the prudent thing to do is to take a belt and braces approach and use both ebay and an appraiser.

Here is what I plan to do in broad strokes (please let me know if you have any specific tips / thoughts on how to do any of these - I'm really starting from a zero base here):
1. Find a reputable jeweller (gatorcpa)
2. Tell the appraiser how the appraisal is likely to be used (gatorcpa)
3. Ask for a written appraisal. (gatorcpa)
4. Ask for a bid from the jeweller for the watches for immediate sale to get an understanding of the potential discrepancy in appraisal and real-world prices (citizenrich, davidt3449)
5. Using the information from the appraiser regarding the brand and model, go to ebay to find multiple examples of each (canberraomega, spacefruit)

Are there any other potential sources of pricing to be aware of? Just in case the (soon to be) ex decides to contest.

 

I think it's a combination of both.

 

Appraisals are a minefield. as soon as the question deviates from "how much would you pay?" The the value returned is almost meaningless.

for example, asking for an offer from a jeweller, for a disparate collection of watches, will return a (low) figure the jeweller can make money on, and plenty of room to cover himself on the items he is not sure of. If you ask him for a replacement value, he will quote the (high) retail prices. Neither of these figures is what an ordinary person would consider "the value".

what we need is the value between a willing buyer, and a willing seller. The people who really know the answers to this are out there dealing watches. The people who don't, are giving appraisals.

i speak here as a trader (not watches but close), often asked to produced valuations, something I avoid as frankly my knowledge is worth far more than the £300-500 I can charge for a valuation.

as you can tell, I am a little over involved with this subject!

to the op, I wish you the best of luck. The way forward is to work out do you want a high valuation or a low one. Then go to wherever/whoever will go in that direction. As has been said, the lawyers will try to change it anyway, so you better start in your favour.