Hi guys, tonight I am considering buying the last watch in my collection for some time. My credit card has taken a beating these past months. I have narrowed it down to these two watches on ebay. My preference is for 1940 - 1950 Omegas, an atteactive original dial and as original as possible. I can’t afford more than £450. These auctions end at about 4am so will be staying up to snipe. Please dont bid against me! Please give me your opinions and I will let you know which I end up winning, if either. If you know of any other watch I am not aware of in that price range I am all ears too

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Omega-Two-Tone-Dial-Watch-/152879938478Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Very-Nice-...atic-Stainless-Steel-Wristwatch-/232652972714Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

My preference is the second one “Large Vintage 1950s Omega Bumper Automatic Stainless Steel Wristwatch”

Hope you get it!

 

These are pics of movement of the smaller watch from the seller.

 

+1 for the 2637.

 

Ended up making the highest bid with 10 secs to go and got a message from ebay saying my bid wasnt valid as I was a foreign buyer

 

Ouch. That blows hard.

I've found that having a forwarding service where you have items sent to a US address which then sends stuff to you is the way to go for buying when the international cost of shipping/eBay's Global Shipment Program just doesn't suit you. I've picked up some interesting pieces (and a lot more than what Australia eBay provides) this way.

Interestingly, many sellers which say they ship overseas will also exclude some locations. An Italian seller which I recently won a watch would accept my US forwarding service as an address, but not my Australian residential. Same for a Japanese seller. Some countries are also hard to deal with customs wise and what not, and I constantly consult Pitney Bowes for duties...

 

I assumed that if the Seller had set up the u

To be honest the message I got was automated from ebay and it was a bit vague. I got the impression that I couldnt buy it because it was a certain age and it would be leaving the country. This is the message I got. I was speaking to the seller via email beforehand and he was happy to ship to me.

 

eBay will block bids if the seller has indicated that they do not wish to ship internationally when they put the item up for sale. International bidders can still bid if they contact the seller and the seller adds them to the exclusion list.

Unfair, I know, as I have missed out on bidding on some items this way too.

 

That makes sense now! I was assuming it was some kind of law designed to prevent cultural artifacts of a certain age from leaving the US! Not that that watch would be considered a cultural artifact, but I might have been caught up in the automated system.

 

I believe that the OP has been caught by the International Shipping Programme restrictions; sometimes, in watches sales, the system blocks you out, although the seller is in fact interested in selling the watch abroad.

The reasons are unknown, or at least ebay will not tell, but I suspect they may have to do with tariffs applicable to watches over certain selling price. The fact that sometimes the system allows bidding from Europe may have to do with whether the sale is classified as a watch or not.

In any case, Pitney Bowes shipping programme sucks.

Big time.

(And I am afraid that it does not even pay the import taxes it should, because whenever I have received something bought through them, I have not received any paperwork related to the import of the watch).

 

Ouch, sorry to hear it.

So does it now go to the second highest bidder, or does it remain unsold?

Or did your max bid not register at all?

 

The max bid did not register at all so the second highest bidder won and got the watch for a real bargain!

 

I can discount the selling price theory because I got the same message again when I bid $10 for a watch part but the rest of what you say sounds very plausible.

 

I was contacted by a buyer who received the exact same message. I use the Global Shipping Program and will ship my watch overseas. I figured there was some kind of restriction. And I could not tell what country the buyer was from. I’ll have to contact him/her.

 

I was not clear in my message. Importing watches over a certain price in EU attracts custom duties, and I believe that is why the Global Shipping System just blocks every bid from abroad (from Europe?) that it detects as watch-related.

Before I decided that I wanted no business with the GSP, I was able to bid in some watch auctions. I am not sure, but maybe the items put on block weren't classified as watches.

In any case, asking ebay is of no help, as they just don't know what is the cause of the blocking, and they play the "customer does not want to sell abroad" card.

Then, why does the customer put his wares into the GSP?

The only solution is make sellers of watches aware that by using GSP they are effectively blocking bids from abroad/Europe, and let them decide whether they like it or not.