I am a new member here and kind of new to watch collecting. I knew enough to pay attention to a vintage Omega Seamaster 300 BT that showed up in a Goodwill auction. The watch seems to be late 60's...1969 I think. Here is a link to the auction item: https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/62572740

I bid, but lost the auction. The winner has backed out so I am being offered the opportunity to purchase the watch (no band) for $7,900 which was my last bid.

I am interested advice on two fronts -- anybody spot anything "fishy" about the watch I am missing? Second, what about the price? Is $7,900 about right or too high?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

Can you post pictures rather than just links?

The link will not open for me but also, pictures mean his post will be valuable in the future whereas a link will cease to work.

 

They couldn’t provide any more useless pictures?

 

Interesting that the appraisal doesn’t list a price. The watch obviously needs a whole bunch of work. Add a chunk to the price you are offering, and decide if you like the total. Lousy pictures to base your offer on, in my opinion. If you can remember what the bid was immediately prior to your bid, add $1.00 to that bid and try them with an offer of less than $ 7,900.00. Check the watches for sale on this MB, to see if the insight will help you decide what to pay.

 

So you bid up to $7900 without feeling confident about it ?

 

No pictures, no party

 

check first the feedback of the winning bidder (offeror), if available. he might be a dummy of the seller. put a low counter offer, if the watch looks ok. share some pictures too.

 

This thread is useless without pictures. Here are some of them scraped from the link above:

 

Vitezi, Thanks very much for pulling pictures from the Goodwill auction site. I should have done that step and am grateful to you for helping. To others who posted re: my use of a link rather than pictures -- understood and agreed. Yes Mayankyadav, I did bid without full confidence and later feared I got "caught up" in the auction. Honestly, I was relieved when I didn't win since I thought I might have gotten a bit over my head. I will heed advice here and use this a chance to learn from others. I am grateful for the expertise and interest of the group. I think Goodwill is working their way down the list of final bidders; I am not sure I have an option to present a lower offer now. I guess I could ask, but I think they will likely re-list the item for auction rather than negotiate an offer with me.

 

Where is this watch located? If it were me, I'd be in the car and going to see it in person. The watch is certainly original but I can't even see the second hand (which is as rare as rocking horse shit). The photos are too poor to be able to say what's right and wrong but it's definitely enough to get out and inspect it.

 

If, say, the winner bid 8.0 and you bid 7.9 but the next lowest bidder put in 7.2, you should be offered the watch at 7.3. The 8.0 bid was a spurious bid and is not relevant to present negotiations. The 7.2 (or whatever it was) is the last genuine bid you have to beat and the seller should recognise that, unless of course he was shilling his own auction and miscalculated.

ETA: I am not commenting on the value of the watch, which I'm not in a position to do, merely on the principle of second chances when the winning bid turns out to be spurious.

 

It’s a goodwill auction not EBay


You know the auctions they started after this happened
https://omegaforums.net/threads/oh-yeah-that-just-f-ing-happened.20611/

 

I didn't realise it was a separate platform. The link (I mean the one at top of page, not yours) won't open for me. So I take the point about the shilling but I presume (I don't know how goodwill auctions work) the same principle of next genuine bid should apply

 

I saw this one as it was running on GW. Was surprised how high it went (especially as a date model).

Usually if buyer backs out, they will run it again. Might be worth taking your chances.

 

Now that everyone on the internet knows

 

@Likeoldeatches you may want to edit the title of the thread to include "Seamaster 300 ref. 166.024" to attract the Seamaster 300 experts. From what I can see from the pics it looks real, or at least doesn't look to have the obvious tells of the most common fakes. I am no expert though, and I have no idea what the current market price is for these.