The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I have owned harley's, customs, sportbikes, classic cars, hotrods, high end art work and guns, etc. Each time I get involved in something I learn everything I can about it and that usaully leads to finding and joining forums like this. They are incredible valulable and I have meet 100's of great, knowledgable and helpful people. I ahve even met up with some, for a beer, while traveling for work.

But, with every site I have been involved with people help people out with prices. This site seems to refer everyone to question 2 on FAQ and nobody ever seems to say, "I think it's worth this, or it sounds like a fair deal, or I paid, or I was at my AD and saw......"

The advantage of that kind of help, in my opinion, is invaluable. If we are all enthusiats, we could help each other out. I'm a newbie trying to price a watch and yes while I can research the suggested sites and crusie e-bay I would be more interested in what people paid, had their watch appraised for or something they saw for sale in their local dealer. Online, is well, on-line. Is the picture real? Photoshopped? Even of the watch I am viewing, etc....

I just want to know why price suggestions are frowned upon ? I know many of you are not experts but enthusiasts with years of experience, I'm not going to hold anyone to anything.

Other than that, this site is great and I have learned lost in a few days. I also found Navitimer.net and that site is really, really helpful in determining years, etc...

Thanks and I'm happy I found all you and hope to be buying my first Breitling in a matter of days.

You are looking for a watch that was made almost 20 years ago. Very, very few people will be familiar with the current price so to answer your question they will research completed auctions on eBay and look at delaer asking prices on Chrono24. Those are the main markets for watches - they are small and easy to transport and the major secondary market is online, eBay, Chrono24 and the watch forums like this.

You aren't being referred to the FAQs because we don't want to help, you are being referred to the FAQs because:

1) It's easier than typing out the FAQ contents every time that someone asks and
2) Those are the sources of pricing information

If you ask about the resale price of a Steelfish or a Super Avenger you will get more responses of I paid this 2 months ago or there's one listed in the sales section for this, because those are current / near current models.

I appreciate the reply; First of all, I never thought folks were not trying to be helpful. But every site has thier own rules so I was just inquring as to proper protcoal here. I wouldn't want to get banned before I got started, lol...

Obviouslly I'm just learning and really know nothing about any of this. I sold a chopper a few weeks ago and decided to put together a small collection of watches and started with and Omega Seamaster Professional for everyday useage. The Breitling is next.

Anybody ever seen, hear or contemplate a Kelly Blue Book type website for high-end watches?

Maybe 5 condition levels' from not running, fair, good and excellent and unworn/mint with information gathered from all these sites.

It would easy to sell sponsorship to jewelers and AD's.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, I guess I'll have to just use my instincts on this peice-

There is no Kelly's equivalent for watches.

TimeZone has a grading system for used watches, but it's somewhat subjective - details are posted here - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16819

You are going to have to try a heck of a lot harder than that to get banned from here!

I think the main reason the old hands here don't attempt to make valuations is there are so many variables.

Age? Condition? Service history? Paperwork? Location? Reputation of seller? Scarcity? Demand?

Take location for example. A watch in the UK which is priced at £1000 would be "worth" $1500 in the USA if £1=$1.50 but if the exchange rate moves to £1=$1.80, the watch is "worth" $1800. Yet it's exactly the same watch. Currency fluctuations, along with import duty/tax/shipping/insurance mean that any attempt to value a watch in another country than your own is a nightmare.

Of course, the biggest varialbe of all is whether you're buying or selling. There tends to be rather a large difference in valuation!

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For more information on identifying Breitling replicas, please visit my web site
http://f4buz.com/watches/breitling/fakes/fakes.html

I love your last line !!

Of course, the biggest varialbe of all is whether you're buying or selling. There tends to be rather a large difference in valuation!

It's like the bid and ask on a stock, with a real wide spread, lol...

I think the difference is also that if you mine data from a place like ebay you get a much better representation of the fair market value of a piece. Someone telling you a single price point is anecdotal and therefore virtually useless. I like that we try to encourage folks to do more meaningful research here.

It's like the old adage says...

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.

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“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” - Albert Einstein

You know, that's my favorite quote of all-time !! I'm learning as much as I can, albeit slowly, lol....Prices do not seem to have any predictable rational. I have seen some stuff on e-bay that looked like a screaming deal without even as much as a bid and other stuff that had 20 bids that I did not think was all that greatly priced.

That's one reason I was trying to find out if dial colors, numbers or something else entirely affect value. Obviously, a steel bracelet is worth more than leather or exotic, but aside from that.......it still appears a mystery what a watch will bring
.