Where's the line between buying and leaving.

gatorcpa · Jun 10, 2016

Uniqez
I think for a newbie, like myself it would be a good practice to stay away from eBay and try to find someting locally, trough Craigslist or similar web sites.This way you will have chance to negotiate the price, check the condition and even try it on your wrist.

IMO, this may be the worst advice I've seen on this forum.

First, most items on eBay can now be returned to if they are not as described. Watches that were sold as "minty", "like-new" and "all original" that are not may be pushed back to their sellers. Maybe you lose a few bucks to shipping.

Second, Craigslist has zero recourse whatsoever. If you are a noobie and don't know what you are looking at, you could very easily buy a fake or frankenwatch and not even know it. Then you are really stuck.

The OP spent about $200 for a redialled and serviced Omega. Can't say too much without pictures, but that's not a bad result. However, some people wind up spending 10 times that on virtually the same condition of watch simply because they succumb to the "Ooooh, shiny" bug and have no clue what they are doing.

The keys here are research, research and more research. Buy the book before buying the watch.
gatorcpa

Uniqez · Jun 10, 2016

gatorcpa
IMO, this may be the worst advice I've seen on this forum.

First, most items on eBay can now be returned to if they are not as described. Watches that were sold as "minty", "like-new" and "all original" that are not may be pushed back to their sellers. Maybe you lose a few bucks to shipping.

Second, Craigslist has zero recourse whatsoever. If you are a noobie and don't know what you are looking at, you could very easily buy a fake or frankenwatch and not even know it. Then you are really stuck.

The OP spent about $200 for a redialled and serviced Omega. Can't say too much without pictures, but that's not a bad result. However, some people wind up spending 10 times that on virtually the same condition of watch simply because they succumb to the "Ooooh, shiny" bug and have no clue what they are doing.

The keys here are research, research and more research. Buy the book before buying the watch.
gatorcpa

Worked for me so far), this way I can see what I am paying money for and I can eliminate shipping issues, damage due to poor packaging,waiting for delivery...(I can go on and on) Also, negotiations parts work better face to face (at least for me) and you don't have to deal with returns, refunds etc.
It is as simple as do some research, ask more experience fellows here and by the time you meet with the seller, you would know what to look for and what questions to ask...
Like I said before, I am just newbie to the vintage watches world and I am trying to share my experience...

At the end of the day, OP should do whatever works for him.

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gatorcpa · Jun 10, 2016

Uniqez
Worked for me so far), this way I can see what I am paying money for and I can eliminate shipping issues, damage due to poor packaging,waiting for delivery.

You must either be very brave, or really know what you are doing. If so, that's great.

All I know that is around here, several local police departments will let you use their parking lots or lobbies as Craigslist meeting places because there have been so many robberies associated with transactions.

That's all I need to know about Craigslist.
gatorcpa

STANDY · Jun 10, 2016

Only 86 deaths linked to Graigslist last year, gotta be safe!

http://www.wafb.com/story/28761189/...murders-linked-to-popular-classifieds-website

OMGRLX · Jun 10, 2016

Just very quick two cents of mine: absolutely no Craigslist for vintage watches.
That's it. If you don't understand why, just stay away from vintage watches, then
You just might be better off that way.

Uniqez · Jun 11, 2016

OmegaBear
Just very quick two cents of mine: absolutely no Craigslist for vintage watches.
That's it. If you don't understand why, just stay away from vintage watches, then
You just might be better off that way.

Really don't understand why. Safety reason?I think majority of the people here are adults, so using common sense and life experience would help there (you are not going to buy a 10K speedmaster from the guy in Bronx at midnight).As some mates mentioned earlier, you can either meet near police station or AD to finalize the purchase.
Plus we are talking about budget vintage watches with prices starting as low as few hundred dollars. Belive it or not, for short period of time I've found few vintage watches guys in the area that I'm talking to on the daily basis.
Once again, this is an example of something that worked for me.
Of course when it got to the point where I was ready to buy a speedy,I've purchased it here from the trusted seller(used some money that I gained on my Craigslist found vintage watches).
At the end of the day you need to do whatever keeps you in your comfort zone.
P.S. I you don't mind, just give me some reasons why I shouldn't do it on the Craigslist please , maybe I'm really missing something and I need to stop doing it.

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Uniqez · Jun 11, 2016

STANDY
Only 86 deaths linked to Graigslist last year, gotta be safe!

http://www.wafb.com/story/28761189/...murders-linked-to-popular-classifieds-website

Only one case from my area)

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chipsotoole · Jun 11, 2016

Uniqez
I think for a newbie, like myself it would be a good practice to stay away from eBay and try to find someting locally, trough Craigslist or similar web sites.This way you will have chance to negotiate the price, check the condition and even try it on your wrist. Because, I have a mind set that tells me, if person got on the eBay to sell a watch, most likely it would not be underpriced whatsoever, if it is thought, I would say something probably wrong with it. Also pictures are not always give you an idea of what are you really buying.
This is what I have purchased to keep and wear every day.

These two were way underpriced - flipped them.

Very good advice about buying locally. I've found one junk shop here in Nuremberg where the guy just piles up all his old mechanicals in a tray at knee height in the front window. He doesn't seem to know much about watches, but 90% of them are working. He gave me the contact of his watch guy tucked away in a tiny hole in the wall shop in the north of the city. Of course there is no substitute for hands on viewing. Unfortunately Craigslist is a dead loss in Germany and their similar market sites like quoka.de are overpriced and pretty useless. Car boot sales can occasionally churn up something interesting, but you gotta go very early. Generally the prices here in Germany are way over the global average, which is why I decided to start flipping a bit for fun. as a newbie there are hits and misses, but when I hit the margin is great. When I miss it's usually small amounts. I make sure I don't put too much into any one item. The fact that most Germans don't speak French or Italian often means they miss out on deals/watches on eBay.fr or eBay.it (they don't always appear automatically in eBay.com- it seems to depend in how they are listed/phrased). EBay isn't a great medium for buying, but when people are offloading a job lot of mechanicals, there is often something there worth a small punt. I'm slowly getting over my noob retention sickness and offloading watches I thought I might keep, especially as I've now got 2 Omegas and a 1940's Jaeger ( recently inherited getting repaired hopefully.). Thanks to all for the advice so far.

voere · Jun 14, 2016

gatorcpa
You must either be very brave, or really know what you are doing. If so, that's great.

All I know that is around here, several local police departments will let you use their parking lots or lobbies as Craigslist meeting places because there have been so many robberies associated with transactions.

That's all I need to know about Craigslist.
gatorcpa

I purchased one watch off craigslist and it was a uncommon Omega at a fair price in very good condition. We met in a public place a local eatery during the early afternoon. I did not go alone I went with two friends and we were well armed. Not a good way to buy a watch. Sometimes one has to do what one has to do. After Thinking about it I would not do it again. Not worth getting into a shoot out over a watch. It was the rarity of the watch that enticed me. Never hurts to be well protected.

voere · Jun 14, 2016

Buying watch related items. Several years ago one of my friends is a big time clock collector. We met these sellers at a local flea market. He purchased a rare clock from the vendor. Later that week The vendor lured my friend to go into a very bad neighborhood to meet up to purchase a couple rare clocks.
I was listening to the conversation later I told my friend you are nuts or very stupid to walk into that type of scenario. I had a very bad vibe about that deal. I told him DO NOT go into that deal. Well the dumb A went and was mugged for little over 20k in cash Some people are very enticed by too good to be true deals.

cristos71 · Jun 14, 2016

voere
I purchased one watch off craigslist and it was a uncommon Omega at a fair price in very good condition. We met in a public place a local eatery during the early afternoon. I did not go alone I went with two friends and we were well armed. Not a good way to buy a watch. Sometimes one has to do what one has to do. After Thinking about it I would not do it again. Not worth getting into a shoot out over a watch. It was the rarity of the watch that enticed me. Never hurts to be well protected.

Jeez, remind me never to sell a watch face to face with you! Here in Europe when I go to buy or sell a watch I take a smile with me, it has never let me down yet. 😀

voere · Jun 14, 2016

cristos71
Jeez, remind me never to sell a watch face to face with you! Here in Europe when I go to buy or sell a watch I take a smile with me, it has never let me down yet. 😀

Normally I do the same as you and a smile does works well. However meeting an unknown person with who knows what motives they may have in mind. I was VERY lucky nothing went south. It turned out the man selling the Omega was a very nice gentleman. I would not buy another watch under those circumstances. Meeting up with unknown people when they know I will have a pocket full of cash is never a good idea.

Where's the line between buying and leaving.

gatorcpa

Uniqez

gatorcpa

STANDY

OMGRLX

Uniqez

Uniqez

chipsotoole

voere

voere

cristos71

voere

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