Reply With QuoteTop man Mike for notifying this.
The collection of watches assembled by the late Dick Rabel will be sold by Dick's wife across several upcoming auctions, the first being at Bishop & Miller Auctioneers in Suffolk on the 27th March.
"NoiseboyUK" was a well-respected and much-liked member of the TZ-UK community who willingly shared his passion and enthusiasm for watches here and across a number of horological forums.
Over the years, Dick amassed a focussed collection of around 100 vintage Omegas, Rolexes, and quirky oddball timepieces. He enjoyed swapping and trading with fellow collectors from around the world, and always returned with a pocketful of new watches from his frequent trips at home and abroad whilst working with pop groups and bands on tour.
The first sale at B&M will include a number of Dick's vintage Rolex & Tudor sports watches, stainless steel Cartier Tank Francaise Chronograph (lot 87), a pair of Willard Seikos (lots 135-136), and a Bulova Accutron Spaceview (lot 85).
There are some early gilt dial GMT-Masters (lots 147-149), "small crown James Bond" Submariner (lot 150), Turn-o-graph (lot 152), gilt dial Explorer (lot 145), maxi-dial 5513 (lot 151), and several Tudor Submariners (lots 140-144) including Dick's much-prized "snowflakes" (lots 141 & 143).
Please take a look at the sale, and note the date if anything takes your fancy!
https://bishopandmiller.atgportals.n...tegoryCode=WAT
Mike Wood
(*I have no personal interest or involvement in the sale, other than wishing to see Dick's watches find new appreciative owners!)
Top man Mike for notifying this.
Thanks Mike
I shall enjoy taking a perusal
I hope the sales do well for the family.
I've always been surprised at the high commission charges via auction houses so would be interesting to know if the net proceeds for readily available watches exceeds what might be expected from a private sale.
Just the 30% on top of the hammer price.
There’s some quality items ,that commission is a killer ,hopefully the sale prices ain’t too bad ,but then that won’t help the family.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you for posting the link.
I can't see mention of delivery, if the bidder is not able to travel to the auction.
That additional 30% is quite a chunk on top of the bid price. You'd have to be aware to not get carried away with bidding.
I was looking for one of his 1665s but I guess they will be in future auctions.
25% plus VAT if you’re there in person. If not there’s another 5% plus VAT on top for bidding online.
£13k hammer price means paying £16.9k assuming you don’t bid online. £15k hammer gets you up to £19.5k. Quite brutal
I was just thinking about him last week. Lovely man.
In fairness to Bishop & Miller Auctioneers, they are looking after Dick's widow and have accepted the watches with a much reduced seller's fee, so more of the sale proceeds will go back to Dick's family.
And whereas we'd like to avoid paying a hefty buyer's premium, the watches are all entered at estimates way below the "trade values" Dick had placed on them in his collection spread-sheet, so even with the dreaded auction up-lift on the hammer prices, many of the watches will still be reasonable value.
At the time of Dick's passing, he didn't have any Sea-Dwellers 1665s in his collection, so you'll have to look elsewhere Wileeeeeey!! ;-)
MW
IMO the buyer premium is still just a seller fee really, as it'll directly determine how much people bid (any bid placed in the sellers mind is the amount they're willing to pay less 30% to cover the fee). Still comes out of the sellers pocket in the end. I suspect auction houses do it this way to try and subtly disguise the price of their service; I guess it's more palatable to tell sellers they have to give up 20% (incl VAT) and then tell buyers they have to pay an extra 30%, than just come clean with sellers that if they want to use the auction service then they'll be having half.
I can understand it for one-offs and obscure art pieces that are difficult to find a market for, but I don't really understand why it would be a good route for collectable big-brand wristwatches. That said, I accept I'm not particularly well informed about the subject. Note - not intended as a dig at this particular auction house, just a general thought.
Last edited by M1011; 20th March 2024 at 14:16.
I thought with the buyer paying 25% the seller wouldn’t pay a fee. Bit surprising.
I should have bought Dicks 1665 when he gave me the chance but I dithered. Been back to his WhatsApp pictures a good few times.
Spoke to him on the phone once or twice and he was a real gent. Extremely nice guy.
I just looked at the few photos I had if Dick from an “Issued in London” meet, he posted a photo afterwards, putting what he brought back, along “with the rest” in safety deposit boxes. Not a box, boxes.
He made 99% of us supposed collectors look very much like amateurs.
A prodigious collector of fine and interesting watches.
I always wondered if he was similarly keen on art/furniture etc.
I do know he liked a boat!
For information of members , Buyers premiums at auction houses can often be reduced by 5% or thereabouts by leaving a commission bid or having a telephone bid , auctioneers in my experience are more than happy to offer both these options .
Telephone line bids can be limited to items over a certain value for obvious resource reasons .
The online providers to auction houses often charge 5% plus vat for the online facility .
As for shipping / postage this is worth exploring with the individual auctioneers as some will at a reasonable charge rate others use agencies which can be expensive.
Hope this is not an “egg sucking “ posting , it is intended to be of use to the uninitiated in auction room purchases .
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Last edited by Norbert; 20th March 2024 at 21:32.
Did a trade with him a few years back and he was a complete gent. He seemed so calm about everything, need to release a few watches because I need £40k for a new engine on the boat was the back story to the Daytona that I eventually took off him. All a matter of fact rather than any gloating about what he had. I chatted to him several times on the phone and he sent me at the time some incredible images of individual groups of watches, such as his collection of Speedmasters and his Rolex GMTs, he wanted one of each reference.
I must confess that I wasn’t aware that he had passed and I am very sorry to hear that. I remember that the insurance company would only let him take so many watches out a time and trips to the bank vaults were a regular occurrence.
I remember the 1665 great white listed on here as probably the finest example I have ever seen, so no wonder it was snapped up quickly.
I remember he did tell me that he had a rather nice 1019 Black dial, so will watch the auction listings to see if that appears.
I hope the sale goes well for those who have survived him.
All I can say is 30% 'premium' on top of the hammer price is, frankly, predatory.
Especially sad considering the circumstances. I imagine any other sales route would be better for both buyer and seller.
It's quicker and safer to sell a large collection at a one time auction than sell them individually which could take years, the lower price is the cost of safety and convenience
Sent from my Pixel 6 using TZ-UK mobile app
Dick had an incredible collection and I’m fortunate to still own a couple of watches that came from him.
Hope this all goes well
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For the privilege of 30% fee and a sellers fee on top you get terrible photography and minimal details on the description, non targeted watch buyer audience, if it weren’t for this post I wouldn’t have given it a second glance as a dedicated WIS. Would have been much much better of if paid a semi pro photographer to take some decent pics, somebody with some knowledge to write up and then send the lot to watchcollecting or subdial. Particularly the collectible stuff.
Glad it's not just me who can't work out the logic in this. Seems like a lot of value to hand to the auctioneers for very little in return. 12% commission for consignment via Subdial from memory and they'd do all the work for her.Originally Posted by ac11111
Also unless you are highly experienced, buying a rare vintage watch from an auction house goes against everything I have learnt on here over the years. Buy from a trusted seller etc. For example I bought a Daytona from Dick with confidence, would I have bought that same watch if I had seen it listed on a random auction site with 30% fees, absolutely not.
I think of how many watches listed for auction gain attention on here for the wrong reasons, like that recent Milsub in Spain. Maybe if they promoted the sale as the collection of the late Dick Rabel, I don’t know. To a lot of people these are random watches appearing at an auction house and the risk factor has to be considered.
I agree selling them on the drip through consignment would take a lot longer, but they could be better marketed and may ultimately achieve better results.
Perhaps his widow and family don’t need the hassle right now and are happy to let someone else deal with everything.
And maybe getting the maximum value out of them
Isn’t that important. Better to be gone with a reasonable sum in the bank than hold out for more money with all the hassle that entails.
It might make sense at surface level to give them all to subdial, but subdial isn’t really the place to buy or sell a 4 digit rolex let alone some of the other stuff Dick had and they probably wouldn’t take the lot. An auction house will.
The trusted places to buy 4 digit stuff will have been friends of Dick who either don’t deal in consignment or don’t have it in them to bid a widow or overpay and lose money later.
That said the auction house could at least take half decent pictures for the money they’re charging.
I've had plenty of great experiences with Subdial, but agree that they sometimes lack the expertise on 4-digit Rolexes. In fact, just recently I've heard of someone who purchased a 4-digit Rolex there that turned out to be Frankenstein. They also turn away watches they cannot service (difficult to source vintage parts) & provide warranty inhouse etc. (having said that they are great for modern stuff)
Completely agree re. pictures... shocking
Last edited by tommyzzj; 26th March 2024 at 15:55.
Posting Permissions