Community Stories

Why we are happy when a watch stays in the OF family

larryganz
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
I agree totally. And if it’s a square deal without a “collector” story I’m fine. It’s like when I’m approached in the street by someone who wants to tell me their sob story before asking for money...I’ll give you the money, I don’t need the story.
I picked up a pretty rare pair of Tannoy Monitor Speakers from a local seller in original cabinets- he was an elderly man and knew they were valuable. I paid him a fair price along with a bunch of other gear he had. I played with them for a few months and decided they just weren’t for me (I already had too many vintage $$& speakers- they take up too much room), and advertised them on Audiogon for a fair price for local pick up only. I got calls from all over the country offering far more than my asking if I would ship- but no way was I gonna ship those things. A group of very nice Chinese men called me, came down from New York and paid me cash for then. I asked what their plans were for them (before any cash had exchanged hands) and they said they plan to send them to Asia where they can get 3x what they paid for them. I felt no ill will, was happy that they were being honest and that they were going to another collector (which is who the end user will be), and that they were doing the hard work of brokering them. I made a profit- no heartburn...because it was all above board. They came back a few weeks later and bought several other pieces from me.
And I will note- the only caveat I asked (because I did care) was that they didn’t scrap the cabinets which I had re-done with matching oil stain to perfection and they had the original cane grills (it’s common to pull the drivers and build new cabinets with better acoustic properties than the original boxes). They laughed and said the cabinets were part of the allure.

I can appreciate someone who is honest about their intentions. They also didn't try to talk you down and give a sob story about why you should charge them less, while planning to take advantage of you and sell for a big profit. They accepted your fair price.
 
JwRosenthal
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larryganz larryganz
I can appreciate someone who is honest about their intentions. They also didn't try to talk you down and give a sob story about why you should charge them less, while planning to take advantage of you and sell for a big profit. They accepted your fair price.
Exactly! They came with the full cash amount and didn’t haggle- they scrutinized and listened to them, they knew what they were looking at and were very educated on the subject and only after deliberation (which I didn’t understand of course) did they offer payment. They knew the price was fair...I did throw in a set of custom cables and hand made external crossovers as a gift though- they were much appreciative.
A point of note- most of the US and UK high end audio was never available in Asia back in the day, so to the wealthy of age to remember the golden age of hi-fi, these things were unobtainable in their youth- and highly prized now.
 
neilbardsley
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If forum members are so keen to keen it in the family they should offer a reduced price to regular members??
 
STANDY
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neilbardsley neilbardsley
If forum members are so keen to keen it in the family they should offer a reduced price to regular members??

Most already do 👍
( and compared to dealers prices they definitely do )

The whole point of this is dealers using forums as hunting grounds for watches to profit on.
That’s why it’s nice for a fellow member to enjoy a watch sold here.

Economics is Economics so it’s going to happen and my intent of this thread was not to stop anything. Just to say it’s good to see another member enjoy a watch like the seller has.
 
ConElPueblo
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neilbardsley neilbardsley
If forum members are so keen to keen it in the family they should offer a reduced price to regular members??

Has the prices asked on the Private Sales forum offended you somehow?

Selling here - at least for me - isn't an exercise in profit-making.
 
JwRosenthal
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tyrantlizardrex tyrantlizardrex
When I've been very lucky, its been an exercise in breaking even. ::facepalm1::
Nothing wrong with that! My goal is always about just walking away from something whole and not losing anything if possible- profit is not my goal in my hobbies.
I feel sorry for the guy who buys from the dealer that bought that $2.5k watch here and flipped it for $5k...then when they eventually get the itch to move it on realize it’s worth....$2.5k.
 
bgrisso
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A fair amount of the watches I've sold here on OF get flipped for profit. It happens even more now with sites like watch recon that capture and recirculate adds from the private sales section. Sometimes if I post a FS add, I will very quickly get a flurry of DMs from new accounts with 0 posts, that were created just to respond to the add. Some of these may be dealers, some maybe noobs just getting started on their vintage watch collecting. It's hard to know, I don't lose sleep over it.

What I do lose sleep over is long time members here completely screwing other members over for money, taking advantage of people's goodwill and friendship, and completely violating the watch bro code. Like the $25K USD that I'm still out to @Dre, who screwed me over when I offered to help him fund his 1675. I'm surprised to see people like that are not banned from the forum, and actually still appearing on the most likes list......
 
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STANDY
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bgrisso bgrisso
A fair amount of the watches I've sold here on OF get flipped for profit. It happens even more now with sites like watch recon that capture and recirculate adds from the private sales section. Sometimes if I post a FS add, I will very quickly get a flurry of DMs from new accounts with 0 posts, that were created just to respond to the add. Some of these may be dealers, some maybe noobs just getting started on their vintage watch collecting. It's hard to know, I don't lose sleep over it.

What I do lose sleep over is long time members here completely screwing other members over for money, taking advantage of people's goodwill and friendship, and completely violating the watch bro code. Like the $25K USD that I'm still out to @Dre, who screwed me over when I offered to help him fund his 1675. I'm surprised to see people like that are not banned from the forum, and actually still appearing on the most likes list......

Can you please explain, maybe in a thread of its own.

you lent him $25K ?
 
JwRosenthal
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bgrisso bgrisso
A fair amount of the watches I've sold here on OF get flipped for profit. It happens even more now with sites like watch recon that capture and recirculate adds from the private sales section. Sometimes if I post a FS add, I will very quickly get a flurry of DMs from new accounts with 0 posts, that were created just to respond to the add. Some of these may be dealers, some maybe noobs just getting started on their vintage watch collecting. It's hard to know, I don't lose sleep over it.

What I do lose sleep over is long time members here completely screwing other members over for money, taking advantage of people's goodwill and friendship, and completely violating the watch bro code. Like the $25K USD that I'm still out to @Dre, who screwed me over when I offered to help him fund his 1675. I'm surprised to see people like that are not banned from the forum, and actually still appearing on the most likes list......
Sorry for your experience- truly tragic.
On the point you make in the first part of your post- this is the slippery slope with having an open forum and resources like watchrecon. There are many here who would like to see it stay in the “family”, but posting any watch for sale on an open forum is going to get a lot of eyes and that’s actually part of the point- to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Perhaps if there was a private sales area viewable only for people with over 200, that could help resolve the day traders- but then that adds yet another layer of complications.
 
Capt Cave Man
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It's horrible to read how some of you have been burned by flippers that have been sold in good faith to assumed collectors within OF, it's also a little alarming to read how many new members join to simply buy and sell on 🙁

I've only been here a few short months and still consider myself very green to the hobby. I've made one purchase here, it was only a bracelet but I was so impressed by the knowledge they had on my model.

I will never be a big seller but if I ever did sell anything, being pragmatic it would be nice to possibly make a few £ simply to cover some of the costs of ownership over x years. I very much doubt my pieces would suddenly jump in value to make any reasonable profit and my main reason is something pass down to remember me by or something they could sell if in hard times.

Unless new, the majority of my future pieces will be purchased within OF, partly due to fair prices... yes but also because of the trust, honesty and generally a bit of history on a number of pieces put up for sale... all that and that a watch is more likely to have been serviced 😁

In all areas of life their are those with more dignity and honesty than others, none of us are perfect but I must admit, to my experience to-date OF is a great community to be apart of, even if most of the time I'm lurking and reading up.

That's my pennies worth added to the thread.
 
UncleBuck
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Capt Cave Man Capt Cave Man
In all areas of life their are those with more dignity and honesty than others,
Truer words have not been spoken.

Patience gives the time for education and for those with special qualities to be revealed.

The evil ones are always in a hurry.
 
scapa
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A very interesting (and sobering) thread. I

I don't sell a lot of watches, but I have been burned in just this way at least twice, and it isn't a great feeling. I've always made a point of selling on at cost or below if it's within the enthusiast community -- others have done it for me, and it's a good feeling to pass it on, almost a practice of in-hobby mentoring. The idea that these boards are exploited by flippers is yet more proof of corruption of what seemed to me when I began as a sometimes pricy but winningly barmy pastime featuring the beautiful, fanciful, and complicated miniature worlds worn on one's wrists.

Sigh.
 
steelfish
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For me it feels like this is getting more common. In the last few days I’ve advertised a couple of straps on here. All responses were clearly dealers although I did manage to sell one. I’ve also got a couple of watches advertised elsewhere (nothing against OF, but didn’t want my first sale here to be a few k of watches). Again, nothing but dealers ignoring what I’ve written in the ads and just wanting to know how low I’ll go.

I’m just about at the point where I’d rather not sell anything at all now - either a trade or keep it in a drawer.

I do hope when the world gets back on its feet the forum hoovers get back in their box and stop circling like vultures. It’s starting to feel quite offensive. Just be honest with me, that’s all I’m asking.
 
chichi
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steelfish steelfish
For me it feels like this is getting more common. In the last few days I’ve advertised a couple of straps on here. All responses were clearly dealers although I did manage to sell one. I’ve also got a couple of watches advertised elsewhere (nothing against OF, but didn’t want my first sale here to be a few k of watches). Again, nothing but dealers ignoring what I’ve written in the ads and just wanting to know how low I’ll go.

I’m just about at the point where I’d rather not sell anything at all now - either a trade or keep it in a drawer.

I do hope when the world gets back on its feet the forum hoovers get back in their box and stop circling like vultures. It’s starting to feel quite offensive. Just be honest with me, that’s all I’m asking.

but if the guy is never going to do another transaction with you ... then how do you stop him?
 
Larry S
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ConElPueblo ConElPueblo
Agreed. @watchcollect, please PM me the buyer's name as well.

I've sold two watches here (that I know of) where the buyer was a reseller. After I found out, I added a line about not wanting to sell to people looking for a quick resell in my FS ads (though I often forget to include it...) and am more careful in "vetting" buyers.
Please advise me as well. Not interested in selling to a dealer.
 
steelfish
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chichi chichi
but if the guy is never going to do another transaction with you ... then how do you stop him?

Clearly I’m no expert, but the indicators I use are:

A) zero post count, yet been registered for a good while
B) offering way, way below market price for your piece
C) assigning grey dealer prices for pieces they have and they’re trying to work into a trade
D) combo of any/all of the above

I get as a buyer it’s great to score a piece a little bit below market price, after all we’re all human and love a bargain. But these flippers for profit guys need to offer way below market price so they get their profit. They’re not in it for the community, or the collecting - just pure profit. It takes the pieces out of the hands of the community who love the watch for what it is, not what it can make them.
Edited:
 
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