What is your point ? Any dealer in vintage or antique goods have to make money. Buying at that price, service it (I presume it has been) market it and so forth will leave a margin that is not more than needed to keep the company going, pay wages and tax and invest further. Nice watch and both are fair prices in my view.
What is your point ? Any dealer in vintage or antique goods have to make money. Buying at that price, service it (I presume it has been) market it and so forth will leave a margin that is not more than needed to keep the company going, pay wages and tax and invest further. Nice watch and both are fair prices in my view.
This one really set me off, tbh. I wanted the watch, which is why I’m so irritated about the situation. Guy is asking more than €3k. Even post service, that’s a 3x markup.
Just out of interest if you wanted it so much why didn’t you bid higher?
Surely just about every product we buy is marked up... new and second hand watches are no different imho. Everyone has a different profession and gets paid for that or their job. Ladies cosmetics have 1000's of percent markup. Surely someone's knowledge, experience and risk in the watch space can also be rewarded. Many a time paid good money and ended up with a lemon or a David Copperfield vanishing trick. Most often they too have spent time losing money on deals as well. If they are selling a PUP or a lemon then call them out.. but making a living...
Surely just about every product we buy is marked up... new and second hand watches are no different imho. Everyone has a different profession and gets paid for that or their job. Ladies cosmetics have 1000's of percent markup. Surely someone's knowledge, experience and risk in the watch space can also be rewarded. Many a time paid good money and ended up with a lemon or a David Copperfield vanishing trick. Most often they too have spent time losing money on deals as well. If they are selling a PUP or a lemon then call them out.. but making a living...
His point is that the dealer markup is significant (i.e. 2.5 times).
However there are many collectors who are not professionals yet who ride on the secondary market rate set by dealers to cut through intermediaries— and who pour in significant ressources so they can flip watches, despite for a number of them having visibly comfortable lifestyles and income, and presumably not incurring any costs for their parallel activity.
Indeed. Everyone's a dealer now it seems, I caught more than one guy adding a hefty markup to a thing they bought at a dealer's shop, or more simply not wanting to lose one cent on something shiny they bought on impulse.
A "funny" example: the guy who came to me last month out of the blue, not knowing anything about watches and who asked if I had something for sale that would not lose or even gain value in a few years. 🤨🤦
(I may have replied, half jokingly, something like "go buy a gold rolex, or better yet a gold bar and a swatch if you need to tell the time, and even then you are not 100% sure to break even" 😁)
Today, there is a liberal use of wording to describe a watch, event or happening. MInt has a range of different meanings.... some watch dealers use it liberally. However, read the take on most events in this world and the msm is anything but truthful. Imho if a watch is NOT right then for sure one can be critical and comment.
On IG and elsewhere, I watch people blindly like something that is not original merely because someone who supposedly knows more than you is promoting it and a range of other professionals et al clap like seals. 97% of Tiffany dials are fake.. and one only needs to look at old Tiffany ads to see that most watches sold by Tiffany were not embellished with a logo. We have new watches that have never appeared in a catalogue over 40 years suddenly appearing and corroborated by dealer A and B.
To dissect where an original watch went to on a forum and what /she makes on it is imho less than professional. On many occasions it may have been listed far too low in the first place compared to the real market price. I wish I bought bitcoin at $1.. someone marked it up and spruiked it up to get it to the highs of the day.. good luck to the winners in that space. Everything is fluid. You don't think the guy selling the banana in the fruit shop is ripping you off.. at the market maybe 20cents and in shop $1. Shares rocket higher and often lower like most things. All people are different. Some can buy a maserati and can watch it lose money and are aok. Others are happy walking.
People may also at times forget that they have a job in a different space and that other people's needs may be different to their own. Everyone is on a hamster wheel. Yes the collecting market has changed. Maybe it will follow the antique market down - who knows. My guess given the money printing, bank liquidity, popularity, invisibility and transportability and industry growth then there is some support.. but who knows. The internet brought pros and cons. I regret some of the purchases I made and things I sold along the way. I made lots of mistakes (in watches et al and got cheated many times). I also regret a couple of marriages too.
My Pakistani mate said when money is lost nothing is lost, but when health is lost, all is lost! I guess if it doesn't effect your health.. then be happy.
