So basically you are buying watches with shitty description hoping they turn out better, so you can describe them properly and sell them for a profit. Great 😁 I will follow this thread closely, which I predict will be running for some time.
You will need to polish your writing skills as a 50 percent profit will only leave you with under £6 for your next purchase.
This.
People can, and will, return stuff even if your description is perfectly accurate. I've had people return a caseback they had hoped would fit on a completely different watch, claiming I "sent wrong item". Ebay doesn't allow for sellers to argue anymore, you have to take it back or lose your good account standing.
On the positive note - This reminds me of the guy who started with a paperclip, and traded all the way up to a house. Garnered a lot of press back in the day. Granted - the press is what probably allowed some of those moves to happen, but maybe you'll have similar results on a small scale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip
50% profit means 50% on top of break-even, so in this case, I'd have about £17 to play with.
I’m guessing a lot of collectors do this in principal - but maybe with a little less purpose than you’re proposing.
I have a similar model that I use to improve my collection over time. It’s not aimed at profit but rather securing “nicer” watches and learning along the way. For the most part all you need to do is make sure to buy correctly and sell intelligently. My rule is that I won’t buy a watch that I don’t like (aka I’m not buying pieces to flip - I’m flipping pieces I wanted to wear to fund a different piece). However, since I bought correctly and the market has been going up, there is likely going to be a bit of profit somewhere along the line to add to the next piece.
Kind of reminds me of the “one red paperclip” trade up story.
I could lie down naked with them strategically placed one on my wrist and the other on my left nipple, and open an instagram account to display them. That way I'll be on a six figure salary within 12 weeks if I've understood that other thread correctly.
Yes, as I say, it's an experiment to see how far I can get and it's very much inspired by the paperclip experiment. I totally agree that it would be, in one sense, wiser to focus on watches I like so that if I feel it's better to hang on to one, and can enjoy it until it's time to flip, or not flip at all, but that's not really the purpose of this game. Also, starting with such a small capital outlay makes it way too restrictive if I were only to buy watches I would happily include in my collection, so I definitely want to get rid of these and if I can't, I can always make art with them. For example, I could lie down naked with them strategically placed one on my wrist and the other on my left nipple, and open an instagram account to display them. That way I'll be on a six figure salary within 12 weeks if I've understood that other thread correctly.
I would go to the thrift store and buy some old diver style watches for $5 each and sell them for $25 on eBay. Buying and selling on eBay alone doesn’t give you much upside, since you will be trying to sell back to the same market that passed up the chance to buy the watches originally. The value added by cleaning up the watches and describing them better will be very minimal, and eBay fees and taxes will eat up your profits. Also if you traffic in less desirable watches, they will take a long time to sell, and the turnaround time will reduce the efficiency of the flipping. It will become boring and cumbersome. Just my two cents.
I think this could be interesting to follow so good luck.
I would say though that I think you've kinda started a bit low and you may end up trudging through some crap to get to the more interesting watches. I would've probably started at around £250 for some basic Omegas that you could really enjoy off the bat.
Regardless, it sounds fun. Keep us posted!
