Got a text from a guy who owns one of those "We Buy Gold" shops. His place is near one of the stores I working in. Picked up a pair of items he had no interest in:





Paid just over a pittance. It's good to have a parts movement, and the Wittnauer will be cleaned up and flipped to cover the layout. Somebody will get a pretty nice watch for a bargain and a half, and I'll get a free caliber 550 which only needs a little surface rust knocked off. The gold guy was happy too since he got a few bucks for what he considers trash. I love deals that make everyone happy.

 

stiff has gathered a lot of different calibre werks from da melt, but he will to have to think about whether or not to do dis in da future. It aids or abets da "We buy gold" crew. When you pay da scrappers more than da couple of dollars you are giving dem fuel to burn (buy) watches with.

sm

 

Not necessarily Stiff. When they realize you'll pay cash and you tell them to call you before scrapping watches from a certain group of brands they'll try to make a few bucks over scrap value. Who would complain about getting a premium vintage piece for a few bucks over melt value? It's happened several times.

 

Da issue ist not with da watch purchase but da movement purchase. Da purchase of da movement from da melt - at any level beyond dat of token (perhaps 5 -10% of da market value) has da following effect:

Da scrapper:

1. profit ist optimized
2. is encouraged to bid higher prices for intact watches due to da secondary revenue stream from da werks sales
3. position relative to dat of da collectors and particular da reseller in bidding for watches, is strengthened

stiff could definitely use da "spares", but da "ultimate cost" of dis supply of movements is just too "high". Please consider dis.

Respectfully,

sm

 

Well, the damage was already done - the case was melted. No sense trashing a perfectly good movement that could be needed for parts to keep other watches from the scrap heap. Besides, have you seen what these 55x and 56x movements are selling for?

 

Dat's da essence of da issue. Self interest. People don't melt uhren because they are mad at dem.

sm

 

Hey Stiff....where are you from with that accent. You sound like a Louisiana baw.

 

Several years ago, I had a Rolex sent my way for authentication, and to weigh the hauté couturier, rose gold, exquisite late 1940s 18-karat gold case with matching bracelet. The owner was wanting to take it to a scrapper, but wanted some guidance. I showed it to my spouse, because I thought I might scoop it before it got to the scrapper. She didn't like it! Several weeks later, the owner asked me if I was interested in what was left of that masterpiece watch. For your appreciation.

 

A prayer and a moment of silence should be observed in the case of stories like this.