While it’s true that big auction houses can significantly inflate the prices compared to private sales since when is market value decided by the return for the seller? Market value is what someone is willing to pay.
IMHO something's not right with these auctions. I would really like someone to explain to me why anyone would pay 2, or 3 times the normal selling price of a watch? As has been mentioned in this or another recent auction prices achieved thread it seems there is a huge amount of market manipulation going on, I really can't for the life of me think of another explanation that would make any sense. And I really hadn't seen it with Omega until just recently ( the last couple of years ). Now it seems that every time one of these big auction houses gets their hands on some Omega steel sports watches they are breaking records....now who are these buyers?- why aren't they here? Does anybody know anybody who is paying these prices? Surely even people with too much money wouldn't want to overpay for something by 2 or 3 times? Especially when that same something can be found for sale elsewhere 70% cheaper with just a couple clicks of the button... Strange times indeed
Who? As mentioned in other threads, there are many wealthy individuals, in certain countries, who are dealing with excess capital and government capital controls. India and China to name two big ones. Parking some wealth in a collector quality wristwatch is appealing in numerous ways. Why aren't they here? They couldn't care less
Agreed, and they may well have advisers/ wealth managers doing the job and taking commissions all along the food chain. And since they need to be able to account for whatever they’re doing they’re prepared to pay extra for a name that looks “safe” or reputable.
A good friend of mine is selling a great example for 8k$ on chronotrader, if somebody is looking for one at half the price of the Philips sale
I am still surprised to see the different pricing levels of the Rancheros. There is similarly nice original watches on EBAY or Chrono24, which are not sold for half the price. All quite weird
I am tracking this now for two years and I do believe to have a good feeling now where sellers are pushing prices by fake sales just to re-publish a few days later. Out of that research I am still confused that even on EBAY watches are sold for 8000€/USD/GBP and others are just going up to half of it being in similar shape.
I used to know this from the Seamaster Pro 300 from a few years ago, when I bought mine for 800 in pretty mint state and others passed for 1200. HOwever, there the spread was rather in the order of a few hundred and not in the order several thousand €. This is fully unsane. For today's delta between the final prices you can easily get a nice Speedmaster ;-)
