Fair point, although many people join communities like this at the beginning of their collecting journey and therefore are more likely to be takers than givers early on. Would you have them go through some kind of initiation period before asking for advice?

the Introductions thread is valuable in this respect but I don’t think many use it and hardly any established members read it and welcome new members. I have a sense that new members have to work pretty hard before they feel part of the community. Maybe that’s a good thing, I don’t know.

 

Oh Al, I love it when you talk tough big boy! Anyways I think this site for the most part is a very handy "on demand information source" for people just getting their feet wet with watches and see no problem with that. Everyone has to start somewhere in this hobby.

 

That's not what I meant. Of course it's an information source for people, and I willingly contribute to that aspect of this site. What I mean is people coming here and "demanding" that they be given information, with no intent to contribute themselves.

 

I know. I just couldn't resist boosting my post count with my wise-ass poke at you.

 

A person who joins here and is new to the hobby may experience it as a challenge reaching 200 posts in a year or two, but even so, that's fine.

One shouldn't be encouraged to join here with a primary or ulterior motive of selling watches. There are many other outlets for such purpose.

In the beginning, we should want read and learn. Beyond a handful of questions how much would the average newcomer have to offer to the old salts?

As I have learned a few things over time and I've gained relevant experience, I have been happy to contribute where something I may add to the discussion may be seen as helpful.

I could have gotten to the 200 much sooner had I posted in the WRUW thread more often myself, but I generally post there when I change watches and I tend to wear one watch for a couple weeks at a time.

Edit: This brings me up to 243.

 

I’m still working on my 200 posts, since 2013

 

I help all kinds of people with technical questions no matter how many posts they have. But those people are asking publicly, and the answers are there for others to see as well, and can be found via searches in the future, so it benefits the entire community (there's that word again) when that happens.

But how people ask is important. It is common that people who post a watch and say "tell me what you think of this" will get asked to tell us what they have found on their own first - I think that's completely fair. I just fix watches so that's my specialty, but the guys here who have the real expertise on watches from the collector standpoint have spent a lot of time gaining that expertise, and are under no obligation to share it.

The 200 post rule is about selling - would you not want to know at least a little bit about someone before potentially sending them thousands of dollars? Personally, I think that's a good thing, but this is only my view of course.

Cheers, Al

 

Wait till you see what I have to sell when I get there

 

Watch experts here may disagree with me, but if I were one I don't think I'd mind if someone came along and was honest about their motive. A place like this is safe for someone who inherits their uncle's vintage and wants to make sure they're not going to be ripped off by a dealer when trying to sell it, but who has no interest in watches otherwise. How would you respond if someone with no knowledge or interest in watches came along and said they are disposing of an estate and had been offered an amount for a watch that was 10% of the market value? Wouldn't you want to help that person to avoid being screwed? If that person then wanted to offer their watch for sale here having established what a fair price would be why wouldn't this community be willing to let them drop in, sell, and disappear? Dealers is another thing, and granted, it may not be easy to distinguish between the two, but I'm inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt if it means doing someone a kindness. At the very least it might mean fewer people going away thinking "those watch collectors are a bunch of miserable sods".

 

I didn’t say the concept was perfect

I just get tired of the veiled WTS/WTB threads and the dance we all do around them. Just come out with it!

 

We have seen this happen and there is a bit of hypocrisy around it. Someone posts their grandfather’s gold capped beaten SMDV with a desire to unload it and everyone tells them to go to eBay. But same scenario and it’s an Ed White and everyone drools with 5 pages of wanking and joking about their inbox filling up.

 

At least some of those are a bit creative. I see no up side with dump and run...it will all go south fast. It ain't really broke...

Have fun
kfw

 

Ok you got me. I want six hunnerd two thirty five for the redialed piece of junk Seitachie in my hunting report.

 

It’s a 2000 post limit for your Fred.

 

I agree, and on the whole I think it's reasonable to expect the member to say something more about the piece before just posting a question about value, for example, but that's not always easy. I often see images of watches that I like but there's no indication of model or calibre, and perhaps not much time in which to do research and make a decision. I'm learning (slowly) to spot good and poor quality cases, but there are hundreds of things that I don't spot - tiny details that make the difference between whether a watch is a good purchase or not. I've been looking at Seiko's for a while now, for example, but have no clue, from an image, whether I'm being offered a "Mumbai Special" or a pukka watch.
Sometimes I just want to be able to say "Hey, I've seen this, I like it, is there anything I'm not seeing that says I should avoid it?"

 

You say above “easy To distinguish between the two” . The 200 rule is protecting from the number 3 the scammer ( that could be hiding as number 1)

 

I'll remember that when I decide to unload the gold-filled SMDV that I paid stupid newbie tax for.

And that's my 500th post. Time for a beer.

 

Now the important question...what beer?