Watches from Japan

krogerfoot · Nov 25, 2022

RevZMan123
This is where I bought from and they are not happy with everyone using their photos but can't do much.

Closer0924 prices their watches very shrewdly, or at least I’d like to think so, having bought a number of watches from them. I don’t quite get what advantage there would be to hijacking their photos. Is it because they rotate their inventory between domestic auctions and eBay/Chrono24? The skimmers must be making a pretty slim profit after the 10% consumption tax and shipping costs.

Anyway, Closer0924’s photography style is kind of distinctive and easily recognizable. I feel like I could spot another seller using their photos in a heartbeat and get the pictured watch cheaper on Yahoo! Auctions. It still wouldn’t be a steal, exactly.

RevZMan123 · Nov 25, 2022

krogerfoot
Closer0924 prices their watches very shrewdly, or at least I’d like to think so, having bought a number of watches from them. I don’t quite get what advantage there would be to hijacking their photos. Is it because they rotate their inventory between domestic auctions and eBay/Chrono24? The skimmers must be making a pretty slim profit after the 10% consumption tax and shipping costs.

Anyway, Closer0924’s photography style is kind of distinctive and easily recognizable. I feel like I could spot another seller using their photos in a heartbeat and get the pictured watch cheaper on Yahoo! Auctions. It still wouldn’t be a steal, exactly.

Yeah, from the overview pictures it was clear they were directly hijacked photos. The fact that they were junk was not so easy to tell, until one got to the closeups, clearly just reposted low-res jpegs:

I think it was listed at $1200+ from the other seller. So way more than any "10% markup for business" and fees.

GuiltunderGlass · Nov 25, 2022

krogerfoot
I would love for someone to do some journalistic research using these insights as a springboard. I’ve lived in Japan for half my life now but my knowledge of the watch trade here is almost wholly incidental. I learn more from your articles than I’ve gleaned over the past 25 years on my own.

IME, extremely informed conspicuous consumers, the large, but now shrinking middle class, a nice watch being part of the ubiquitous salary man uniform, and a general proclivity for high end brands with a cultural tendency for taking care of things all come together to create a very strong market here. As to why they stay here, the language barrier absolutely plays a role, but its more nuanced than that. I'd argue that the combination of kaitori being around every corner along with a reticence (xenophobia it could be argued) toward dealing overseas has created the situation we have today. In part, these things also help to explain why eBay never took off here, but IIRC they kinda dropped the ball when entering the market as well.
Just my two cents.

Serge_tm · Nov 26, 2022

Got watch from Japanese seller through chrono24, no problems form seller side (there were some hiccups from chrono24 escrow and local FedEx) Could have it directly from seller for $300 less, but as it was my first buy deside to go through chrono24 (and chrono24 created some problems for me, though solved at the end)

Watches from Japan

krogerfoot

RevZMan123

GuiltunderGlass

Serge_tm

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