Hello again to the world of Omega Experts. I last posted regarding a collection of vintage seamasters all circa 1961 to 1965 I purchased prior to fully educating myself on these watches. Thank you to all who posted, your information was very helpful. Since then I've been learning as much as I can about these watches and its become quite addicting and I'm finding it hard to part with them, however my wife has given me a strict max of two keepers. I spent quite a bit of time with a local watchmaker who was quite knowledgable about these watches. He has been very helpful in identifying and evaluating my collection. However before I found a TRUE watch enthusiast, who's hobby and passion seems to be rubbing off, i ran through several pawn stores and "jeweler's". I quickly learned that they rarely know anything, if they do they are reluctant to give up any information and if they do they have to go to a computer or pull out a book, and after that they all want to rip u off. Lesson learned. Fortunately i found my new friend "the watchmaker". Which leads me to the title of this thread. The watch pictured along with all the others seem to keep time over a 24 hr period. Most likely however they have not been serviced for several years. The watchmaker has given me a seemingly good price of around $150 each to service them. How vital is this especially if Im planning on flipping the majority of them. The two I plan to keep of course i plan on servicing. However the ones I plan on selling what do you recommend? Obviously it would make the watch an easier sell but how much value does a recent service ad? Pictured is one I plan to keep. It is circa 1962 ref# 14770-1 cal 562. I believe it is an original dial. Not original crystal or second hand. It has a 14k gold bezel, case looks gold in the pic but its stainless. It has an omega band not original to the watch. Id prefer a leather band. How much value does an omega band, even if not original ad? All my watches have omega bands but none original to the watch. I was considering replacing them all with leather bands and selling the bracelets . Good idea? Sorry for the long winded post. Still working on my forum etiquette. thank you and let me know what you think of this watch.
I wouldn't spend the money on service for the ones you want to flip and I would probably just leave the bracelets on. You are unlikely to recoup the service cost and you probably wouldn't get any more selling the bracelets separately, unless they are something special, which I don't recall any of them being based on your previous photos.
Sadly, if you spend money on an item before you sell it you usually won't see it back. The only thing it might do is make the watch easier to sell, especially if you include a picture of the service cost receipt. This is especially true with eBay, where you are going to lose around 15% of whatever your selling price is anyhow (insertion fees, final value fees, PayPal fees). So, if you spent $150 on a service, you would need to make an extra $172.50 back on the selling price just to break even.
I almost always have a watch serviced because I almost always want to wear it. However, it usually doesn't pay on watches under $1000 that you want to flip anyway.
Maybe think about listing here, we don't charge any fees (although you will likely still handle payment with paypal).
What?!? You mean none of the twelve watches I purchased are over $1000...lol I wish. But i do think I have a couple keepers none over or near $1000 yet. But the idea is to buy and sell and add increasingly more valuable and rare watches to my growing collection. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but can u tell me anything about the watch above. Watch maker valued it at between $500-$700. While that made me feel good, since im in it for $160, it seemed a little high, no?
I thought about listing here...I'm not gonna lie I'm kinda scared as to how the experts will react to my asking prices, since I'm still learning how to value these watches and slowly finding out how much they actually sell for. I don't want to get beat up to bad. I have a few I'm selling listed on ebay, probably listed a little to high but i fugured to err on the side of caution in the beginning. Im in no rush to get rid of them. Sold listings on these watches vary so much. I may come across a watch that looks similar to one of mine that sells for $300-$400, and then i may see a very similar watch that sells for $600-$700. still learning what to look for i guess. However I do plan on posting a watch on here to sell and see how it goes. Take it easy on me long time collectors.
Sometimes the only difference between a $300 and a $600 watch is the presentation (read - photography) and the reputation of the seller. The first item is within your control. The second one can only be earned through time and positive feedback (on eBay and elsewhere). Go to the sales section on this site and take a look at any listing posted by "MSNWatch", to see how to list a watch for sale properly. I'm in agreement with the others in that you will likely not recoup much if any of the reconditioning costs if you sell on eBay. That is unless you meet the two criteria I posted above, gatorcpa
interesting comment about your wife giving you a max of only two watches to keep! Would be easier just to flip the wife !
You can work on that limit. The trick is to find watches she likes.. I've pushed my keeper limit from three to four now by showing my wife a jumbo Seamaster waffle that I just had to have ;-)
