In the first part of this three-part series on selling your Rolex I discussed that first crucial step in selling: setting a price. Here in part two, I will be looking at something equally important in getting cash for your valuable Rolex?finding a buyer. As I mentioned in part one, the times are-a-changing in this information age and the internet can be an awesome tool for both buyers and sellers alike. After all, you’re reading this article on a watch dealer’s blog, so there is a symbiotic relationship at work even here between buyer and seller. The days are long gone when you were forced to sell your valuable watch in a local newspaper classified ad or at a local jewelry store or pawn shop. Thanks to the internet, the world is truly your oyster when you’re a seller. Is it a whole new ball game? You better believe it!
Sellers today as a rule are better educated than in years past about the worth of their goods?again, largely thanks to the internet?but that doesn’t mean they always know the best place to sell their item. Everybody has heard of Ebay, so of course it is a popular venue for selling Rolexes. In part one I recommended the site as a great source of pricing information and it certainly is still in a class by itself for that. However, Ebay may or may not be your best bet for selling a watch. Are you an experienced Ebay seller with a lot of great feedback to reassure buyers? Are you familiar with the procedures for buying and selling watches online, including foreign sales procedures, tax and import regulations, wire transfer of funds and so forth? Do you have good photography skills to enable you to post high quality photos of your watch? Good pics can make or break a watch auction. Nobody wants to drop two, four, ?six grand or more on an online watch auction that features blurry or otherwise poor quality photos of a watch. If your answer was “no” to any of my questions above, Ebay may not be your best choice.
What about Craig’s List? Although I would have no problem selling a couch or a lawn mower or something like that on the popular site, I would be very careful about meeting a stranger for a transaction involving large amounts of cash and a Rolex watch. That’s just from the seller’s point of view. As a buyer, I would be even more hesitant to do so. What recourse does either party have if something isn’t what it is supposed to be? At least when using Ebay and Paypal and with similar online-type transactions, there is some buyer and seller protection involved. Sometimes in life you get what you pay for?
After Ebay, another great source of customers for your watch would be the classifieds pages of the various watch forums. These are constantly prowled by watch-addicted collectors and hobbyists and are one of the most popular places to sell watches among the really knowledgeable watch hounds these days. Time Zone and Watch U Seek are probably two of the largest forums for watch sales out there and the Timekeeper Forum is a smaller personal favorite of mine, but there are many others. You don’t have to have feedback to post an ad, but your credibility will be evaluated according to the number?and quality?of your posts and how long you have been a member. A good watch with good photos that is priced fairly will usually sell without too much trouble. The watch forums are too big a marketplace to overlook. Check them out before deciding where you should sell.
What about a dealer? If you want to have a professional, pain-free transaction without worrying about scams or anything, a pro like Time & Gems or another trusted online shop is still your best bet. Just keep in mind they have to buy “right” in order to sell your watch for a profit, so don’t expect top dollar “retail value” for your watch. Don’t be afraid to haggle or ask for a better price, I’m just saying they can’t afford to give you top dollar and then make any money on the re-sell. Hassle-free peace of mind is worth something; you just have to decide how much.
Stay tuned for part three in this series, where we’ll be looking more closely at the pitfalls, including scams, you can encounter when selling your watch.
These articles are just great. Thanks for posting them. Craig Scheiner
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