Looking through the Recommended Vintage/Modern Omega Watches On Ebay (not Inquiries) threads, thought of one issue that other forums had with these sort of threads. Maybe this is an issue here, or not (if not, ignore what I am about to say)

Issue is that most times active listings are posted that are not BIN, that may be harder to find (they are in wrong section, missing info, and so on). By posting these, it shows them to much wider audience that may have missed them otherwise. What this potentially does is it raises the final price more than it would have been. While it is good to share these auctions, there may be members that found these watches by themselves, and were hoping that it would go "under the radar" sort of a thing. In turn, their winning bid may be lower. By showcasing live auction, winning bid will surely have to be higher, as there are others now in the bidding.

One way around this is to say that unwritten rule is to post up only BIN eBay auctions. This way price is what it is, and no one will pay more because there are more people now that know about it. This is same "rule" that few other forums I visit have.

Like I said, maybe not an issue here, in which case, never mind, and carry on as before

PS: No, this didnt happen to me haha

 

I think it would be a bit silly to restrict those threads to BINs only

Frankly, most collectors who would be in the running are constantly on the lookout for certain watches and would come across the listings whether they're posted on those threads or not. Let's be honest, very few open listings for desirable things sell for much below whatever today's market price is, regardless of whether they appear in those threads.

Plus there's always going to be plenty of bidding competition from outside of viewers of this forum.

Just my opinion of course

 

A LOT of non-members look at this forum. Some of them want to buy a decent watch but don't know enough about watches to tell a good one from a bad one. If a watch is highlighted on here as a good example by long-term members, that's a green light for them that it's ok. So I think the OP has a valid point, and I am sure prices have been bumped up in some cases. Whether all the time or just now and then, I have no idea.

I can't see a voluntary BINs only limit working. And in fact stalking the ebay thread was one thing that eventually got me to join. I can honestly say that I bought all my watches independently of that thread, but I did learn quite a lot from it. I've noticed that thethread has been a lot quieter than it used to be and I assumed that others have become wary of giving freebies to Joe Public.