Maybe this has been a thread here before. But I've been selling and buying watches online for roughly 15 years. And some things just irk me about the process. I'm a collector, not a dealer. Many of the watches I purchase are from old school, local collectors, as it seems those are usually the best deals. I get tired of seeing these social media influencers, hyping up a watch, and selling it for maybe 2 or 3 times what I would normally pay, especially if I sold it to them. Maybe their photography is more professional, you know, the wrist shot with the suit, and hand in the pocket. Maybe they tagged Hodinkee, use terms like "Calatrava", "tropical", "ultra-rare"..... And some of these prices on eBay.
Keep is civil and clean, but I'd love to hear other's feedback about it as well. What annoys you about the buying/ selling process?

 

I know this is specific to eBay, but you might get a kick out of the annoyances found in this thread

https://omegaforums.net/threads/dear-ebay-sellers.75504/

 

Lol, thanks for the link. I've become so burnt out on selling, especially when you charge the lowest price you can find. And then there's these hipster dudes, and their professional looking posts, charging outrageous prices. I guess eBay, not so much with the professionalism. It is what it is, and you see past all the BS, when you've been dealing with it for so long.

 

From sellers: “Price upon request.” Why waste everyone’s time?

 

In my head that always carries the subtitle: "you can't afford it, and even if you could....get ready to overpay"

 

The one I hate that comes to mind quickly is the auction on eBay where the seller claims that a watch is ticking, but it hasn't been tested for accuracy. Maybe it is just me, but before I put a watch on eBay, I always spend a couple of days with it on my wrist. Maybe I did buy it just cuz it was cheap and I knew I could sell it on, or trade it, but I want to give the watch a chance to grow on me and to build a "quality" and fair auction and try and tell all the bad points I see and know about the watch as well as build up it's patina. I guess I just feel anyone can and should spend 24 hours with a watch and give us the truth, not put it all on the buyer, "hey take a chance, it might run more than 5 mins to a time and keep accurate time, you never know, bid early and often, I can't wait for the $". That is my pet peeve.

McK

 

Untested to me means it doesn't work, and will definitely need serviced. I don't normally bother with those, unless I desperately need the parts, and it's cheap enough.

 

Sounds like you have been watch trading for a while. Maybe you have more stories to share. I think the hardest part about selling today is that too many believe that only trusted secondary watch dealers are safe to buy from, rather than doing a purchase with a private seller. Somehow the online sellers with the large website or youtube videos are the ones buying low and selling high, and many buyers look at those sites before trying to make a deal and get to know a private seller. The private seller is often the original owner and knows the complete history of the watch. Some of these dealer postings don't even know the year of the watch let alone service history. My.02.

 

Buying from a private seller is not necessarily always the best deal but, as you say, you do get a vendor who knows something about the watch, has an interest in the watch, they bought it for a reason after all and is willing to impart that knowledge in the sales process. Tend to be the better pieces in the private sector as well, IMHO.
Apart from a few Ebay luck ins all my best condition watches have come from private sellers and my favourite sales transactions have been with fellow collectors.
Nothing against dealers, I have bought from them if the piece and the price is right and I will again, there is just something more satisfying about talking watches while selling or buying watches and those conversations, in my experience, are generally held in private.

 

There's a lot of sites, selling quality vintage pieces, at outrageous prices. As a vintage collector with a modest income, I'd go broke if I purchased whatever I wanted at retail prices like that. Just the other day, I was lusting over a completely NOS Seiko Advan, $2600 on this website for something I would expect to maybe pay $600 tops on the forums. Problem is, I doubt I'd ever find one on the forums.
Unfortunately, the NAWCC shows have been cancelled, due to Covid. And those were probably the best opportunities to find great deals.

 

...

 

What, you don't like fakes?

You and your weird ethics...

 

Right, I love how these eBay sellers post something with a completely outrageous price, and say make an offer. I doubt they'd accept a fair offer. It's not even close.

 

Sellers who have long pockets and short arms when it comes to shipping. Two recent incidents:

#1: Seller quoted shipping cost of exactly what DHL charges nationally for a tracked, insured parcel - looked like standard shipping procedure to me. When I asked for the tracking number, he provided one - of an untrackable, uninsured parcel that's 2€ cheaper. 2€. Boy, was I relieved when the parcel made it, especially since, if I'm informed correctly, it's the recipients risk and technically the seller never stated he'd ship insured. Because why would you do that with a 500€-watch.

#2: Seller quoted 45€ for EU-shipment - I then received a letter (padded envelope) with the watch in it and stamps for about 4€ on it. I don't mind people overcharging a little for shipping, they might have to purchase a box or padding material, whatever, but a premium of ~1000%? Come on.

 

Buyers and sellers who whine about buyers and sellers...

 

Not with you on that one. It gives at least an indication on the condition of the movement

 

I have tried to sell a few watches on Ebay UK and was bombarded by scammers, who claimed to have paid and that the Paypal payment should have gone to my spam email box.

 

Poor communication. My transactions both as buyer and seller are strongly correlated to how well we communicate, and in particular, how precisely we communicate so that bad assumptions don't creep in. What makes this challenging is that a whole lot of people struggle to communicate clearly in writing. A distant second pet-peeve, after communication, would be bad shipping. When I sell a watch, I work very hard to ship immediately upon receiving funds (by immediately, I mean within an hour or two), and always ship next day air as I know how badly the buyer wants to get the watch and that any delays are really annoying; seems that courtesy is rarely returned when I'm the buyer.