I think this is shady as hell. This AD close to me lists a “secondhand” BLRO for $19,800 USD. Anyone know how to report this to Rolex corporate?
Why not just publish the link? The brands monitor all the forums. They will see it. What they will do is another story. gatorcpa
Almost like....”we’re not sure when we sold it” “It may have been this year, it might not” Hopefully Rolex take a dim view of it
Fair point: https://www.radcliffejewelers.com/catalog/rolex-pre-owned/rol0118572/?brand=rolex-pre-owned I didn’t want to give them the free ad or violate any posting rules. I would think they would do something, there is almost no scenario I can see this being ok. This is why I went elsewhere for my explorer II.
This is an old trick used by dealers back in the days when Daytona's were going for way over list. Here's how it works. Rolex AD's are not allowed to sell any new watches for over retail. Doesnt matter what they trade for in the marketplace, if you have a Rolex dealership then nothing can sell for more then MSRP. HOWEVER.. Nothing stops them from selling the watch to a friend, or family member for retail and then buying it back. By doing this, they circumvent the MSRP and can sell a preowned watch for any price they want. Nothing Rolex can do about it really. They can say the customer bought it and didnt like it so they traded it in for another watch. Then they can sell the trade in for whatever the market bears. Shady YES, but not really a violation unless you can prove this is what they are doing which would be nearly impossible..
I wonder how Rolex could curb this behavior... hmmm I don't know.... Say, produce enough watches to meet demand? Naw... why would they do that.
As annoying as it what can you really report? That an AD is selling a pre-owned piece at market value? Like @Varnado mentioned I've also heard of ADs that "sell" new watches, then "buy" them back so they can mark up brand new pieces. It's probably not very easy to prove. If Rolex really was concerned about this they'd ramp up or reallocate production. Maybe make fewer of the unpopular models and more of the popular models.
Given Rolexes efforts to curb flipping, you would think there would be something they would say to the AD. Given the age of the watch it sure looks like the AD participating in flipping the watch for profit, or even worse!
This seems to be a pretty serious dealer. They must not be too concerned about pissing off Rolex. This business with the sports models is obnoxious.
Rolex doesn’t care. About any of this Does anyone think the corporate mothership hasn’t noticed that their entire A.D. network is out of stock? No one in Geneva sees watches being offered for 200% above retail all over the internet? This is all calculated every bit of it The question is why?
Too bad Rolex doesn't have the same mentality as Porsche when it comes to "flipping". Not that I care, but I'm sure there are others that do...
Agree 100%. The situation has gotten really ugly when a brick-and-mortar AD is willing to accept the terrible optics of this sale to make a few thousand dollars.
I can tell you that heads would role at my company with these service levels. Rolex is not PP, RR or Ferrari...They really cannot afford to keep doing this.
I think this is the thread in reference to that point- https://omegaforums.net/threads/you-think-people-have-issues-with-omega-les-and-flippers.82284/
Well, it became a thing when flippers scooped up 911R's and then selling them for wayyyy more than they paid. Porsche did not take kindly to that and they basically said they would stop selling limited production cars to these people (they apparently claim to know who the serial flippers are) and then they came out with the GT3 Touring, which, without getting into the details, is pretty similar to the 911R, thus, driving the value of the 911R way down. For example, the MSRP of the 911R was around $200k and they were being sold at up to $700k. (At one point it could have been more than a million but I can't find any evidence of that) Once Porsche stuck the M/T back in the GT3 and created the Touring package, prices have softened a bit to around $300k. So basically what Rolex would need to do would be not to sell to known watch flippers. Not sure how they would do that since there are many, many more SS Rolex's than there are limited production P-cars. Or, they could not just create an artificial shortage.... The difference between the 2 is that Porsche actually seems to care, where as Rolex seems to not. So tl;dr? Porsche decided to not sell to those who they think will flip a car. Also, they stated to customers looking to "invest" that they were not a "hedge fund", and they will build whatever they think there is a demand for. Basically they want their cars to sell for MSRP and be in the hands of the individuals who will actually drive, and enjoy them.
They just have to make enough to meet demand. If you can walk into any A.D. on earth and buy one that day flippers would not exist.
Rolex has a host of terms and conditions for its AD’s, I could easily see a provision of shall not sell a Rolex secondhand within its first year after original sale. This would help cut down on flippers as well as the overall fishiness.