I have been giving a lot of thought to the potential of pairing down the collection lately. I am not taking the piss here and think that if I got totally ruthless I could get down to this..
HAHA, NOPE😉
You know that any attempt to reduce the collection will only create a vacuum that will suck other watches back in……. Actually you’ll probably end up with even more watches as once the start getting drawn into the vacuum there will be some momentum achieved and even when the vacuum had been filled watches will still be moving into you collection with the momentum!
This is about 4 years of active buying and selling, constant perusing of this fine forum and aggressive allocation of disposable income.
Some of the golden rules I learned here that I did my best to apply:
- Research first
- Buy what you really like
- Find the best example possible
- Buy the seller
- Condition, condition, condition
- One in one out (this one is hard!)
All of these are great runners, and got serviced if not. Luckily (and thanks to you guys) I stayed clear from dogs and basket cases, and the worst mistakes I made was letting go of nice watches too hastily/cheaply to fund new ones.
Found some of my grails and a few lifetime keepers already. I’d still like a nice gold dress watch and maybe a GMT. Ultimately would like to keep things at around a dozen, so I can enjoy and maintain all of them thoroughly.
For such a Rolex hater you sure do have a thing for Rolex. 😜
That one's the fruit of obsession and consolidation. Part of me decided that was my grail watch and I just had to have it. I followed as many dealers as possible, waiting for a nice one to come up. When it did, I couldn't afford it, but I made an offer anyway. The seller accepted a downpayment and gave me a few weeks to gather the rest of the funds. I sold 3 other watches and a bunch of collectible LP records that I hadn't played in years.
Pulling this off really changed things for me and made the hobby even more fun. Although for a moment I really thought that was the last watch I would ever buy... that part didn't work out.
