The Breitling Watch Source Forums

This question occurred to me yesterday when I was out at a local arts and crafts festival that also had an antiques section. I always take my watch buying kit with me to this sort of thing (loupe, references, case openers, etc) just in case you stumble across a bargain.

I was amazed at some of the prices there, I know that the dealers have to make a profit but some of the prices were laughable - they had some modern pieces as well and one of those illustrates my point - a white dial Skyracer - no idea on date because the woman refuse to remove the strap so that I could see the date code, but it was on calf deployant - that's about $5,700 list in Canada, so assume an out of the door price of $4,000 plus taxes. Seller was asking $4,850 for it with no box or papers, I talked to her about it and couldn't get her lower than $4,600 - her position was that was less than half of the price in the store, though that statement was more for the other people around her booth, clearly she knew that I wasn't buying it.

It made me think though, this woman had a lot of jewellery and watches there, and clearly she was making sales or she wouldn't be in the business - I wonder how many people will buy things like this without looking up the value. In a second hand / antique store, or at these fairs it's still harder to research pricing than things like eBay and I'm sure that there must be a bunch of these sales that happen for way more money than the items are worth.

I guess these days people can use smart phones to do some basic research, but I can't say that I saw anyone doing that yesterday for any of the antiques there.

Interesting, I have a mate who buys all different types of antiques to then sell on to dealers, from model steam engines to odd plates, he buys at way under the "market value" from people who either do not know what they are selling or do not know the current price for the goods they have.

Now to some he seems like a bit of a crook, but he is using his knowledge and eye for value to make a profit. Passing the pieces on for a good profit for himself, for the dealers to also add on their mark up to sell to us Joe public.

EBay well, while many people use it as a guide to market value, it is not really correct, the winning bid price its just a little bit over the price that two people wanted to pay for the same item on that particular day. Take the Alpha Industries Breitling Leather Jacket, you can see them go for anywhere from £150, I got mine for £199, then a couple of weeks later one sold for £700, after that people were trying to sell jackets with a starting price of £600.

Like the lady at the fair selling the Skyracer, its all in the price someone is prepared to pay on the day, be it a gold ring or a watch, with her mark up she's going to win every time.

So I guess the moral of the story is, buy with knowledge


Ian

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Navitimer World, Callistino.
Omega Speedmaster Moon, Hamilton 992B, Steinhart BS LEII #2, B&R 01-92 Heritage

Oh I agree, good luck to her if she can sell the piece, although I saw the same Bentley Motors with aftermarket diamond bezel this year that I saw last year. She must set her prices based on experience of what people will actually pay for similar items - she obviously has a lot less exposure than eBay.

That said, if anyone asked I would tell them that the price is way too high, but I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to call attention to her pricing.

I have been researching and learning more about antiques in general and sometimes its almost laughable as to what someone will pay for an item. I look at it like this.....If you watch someone buy an antique or a cool modern piece of art they may pay way more than they should, not because they are a collector but just because they want that one piece that particular day and they probably arent buying many more pieces in their lifetime so paying a bit more for "that" one piece doesnt really matter. Its the only logic I can come up with. As for as something like a modern watch that is still in production...Dumb people I say, just dumb people.

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SA-Baton White Dial/ProII
Tissot Le Locle

It's a good question Roff and one I'd be interested in learning more about - the Psychology of buyers. In my opinion I would think most watch buyers aren't that educated but as I have no empirical evidence for such a statement, it remains an opinion at best. The psychology of buyers may provide my best guestimate though e.g. buyers with a lot of money and that want to demonstrate their success but possess no class will likely go for a watch that is synonymous with the image of success e.g. a Rolex. Where my argument fails is that one could make the argument that they are educated as they have done their research. On the other hand, if an individual wants to 'join' the luxury watch ranks for the first time they may go for an automatic selection of say a Tag when their may be better options available for the money. These people I would say have not done any research at all.

Anyway enough of my philosophising. That's an interesting experience you had which I found informative. All power to people who look for good deals, even at the gullibility of others, for which they have no responsibility

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Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"