I recently looked at selling a watch to a dealer. I've previously bought from them.
It's swanky West End London based, so prices are a tad inflated. But it's a very nice buying experience and watches are nice.
Having only been on the buying side, I was shocked to be on the selling side.
I was offered 35% of what I think is the current market value. I realise that a service, warranty and shop overheads would need to be taken into account, but my watch was very clean.
I don't know if they simply weren't interested in my watch as they had sufficient stock, or if that was their attempt at starting a negotiation. I responded, thank you. Took my watch, put it back in its box and left.
I think he realised I was offended, as he started complementing the watch I was wearing.
I hope people don't actually sell watches to dealers for that amount, as I just don't think it fair!
Dealers are looking to make a profit and want to buy as cheap as they can
Unless you have a watch that was bought at a bargain and you just want to flip it quickly
don't bother trying to sell to a dealer/shop owner
You may be better off trying to sell it yourself on one of the Forums or Ebay
I have had some success trading with a dealer especially when looking to buy a nicer, more expensive
watch than I was trading. I don't mind then adding some cash to the deal to make it work
Good Luck
I recently sold my Sub-c to a dealer, got my sc asking price without problems.
You'd do better selling to the team at Las Vegas Pawn Stars. Dealers or traders offer a pittance. I've had a few watches from watches.co.uk. Always great service and watches as described condition wise. They dont move on price which we all know. I always assumed it was because they had big overheads & offered a reasonable buy in or trade price to people. Selling to them made me realise what their margins must be.
I will add that whilst we shout about traders selling stock on SC I wouldn't be surprised if a few traders covertly used SC to stock up.
I think it all depends on what you expect - the dealer has to retail the watch and add a guarantee so need to be realistic. I have sold to dealers and been happy with their offers but needs to be run of the mills stuff eg Rolex, IWC and not too complicated if is a high street dealer - if you have a WIS favourite such as a ploprof or X-33 then forget it as they will struggle to shift them so the offer would be much less than you can sell on here for.
Yeah, here's how it goes for the most part...
Hi, I'd like to sell my watch to you.
That's fine sir, is it marked? No it's just been serviced and polished by the manufacturer. Okay, we'll offer you £5000.
But that's £3000 less than I'd get privately?!
Yes sir, we're a business with extremely high overheads and large amounts of money tied up in stock.
Okay, I'll send the watch to you today as that's totally and completely fair.
.........
We've received your watch sir but there's lots of marks and scratches, plus the fairies have told us we should offer much less. Our eyesight is considerably better than yours so we'd like to offer you £1000 due to the scratches and large crack we can see in the crystal.
*****€|>|*\*]¥\€\€\€\'wmsksidofo8/8)//&
Okay please send us £13 to cover return postage and we'll get that back to you within a few days.
It depends solely on the watch you have to sell-
walk into a swanky West End dealer with a modern Breitling for example and the chances are you'll leave the premises
within 2 mins feeling humiliated..........
likewise, IWC and Audemars Piguet will garner pathetic offers (if any)......
I know someone who bought a new rose gold Royal Oak Offshore and a dealer offered him 20k+ less than he'd
paid for it only 2 months earlier.........
however, walk into a swanky West End dealer with a new stickered up Steel Rolex and in some cases you'd be offered more
than you'd get on SC....
I sold an 8 year old GMT master II to Herbert brown in 2012 for £3600 cash. Thought it was more than a fair deal.
I am a trader, (not in watches). It's not an easy thing to explain, but there is no way to correctly price an item you have no idea WHEN you are going to sell. Illiquid assets have no bottom price and are not an investment.
Originally Posted by paneristi372
....and only this week they have gone into administration !
Sometimes you will find a dealer who knows less than you, or not as much as he should, or is daft enough to "buy bad business." Can't blame anyone for taking advantage when it happens.
Haywood M
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 26th March 2014 at 22:54. Reason: Added spacing for clarity
Wow, I thought their buyin price was high. They have loads of stock, what going to happen to it all?
Someone will probably buy it.
Maybe the Brown family will buy it back.
Neither Albemarle & Bond nor Herbert Brown had ever managed to attract much Rolex business from the public, nor were they ever likely to do so. Their ill-fated former Chief Exec. Barry Stevenson wanted to start a joint venture with me a couple of years ago, but I felt I had no need to get into bed with them and much to lose from such an association.
It is most likely that the watches you have seen in the windows have come through the trade. I suspect they will either be taken back by the supplier(s) if they were on sale or return / appro, or they will be liquidated quickly by the administrators. Personally, I would suggest that any potential buyers do not take any of these watches at face value but satisfy themselves independently that they are entirely as presented. Verb. sap.
As for the four Brown brothers buying Herbert Brown back, I find this unlikely. Their company sold to A&B for circa £30 million about seven years ago. I believe three of the brothers accepted paper ( that is, they were substantially paid in Albemarle & Bond shares rather than cash ). Such shares as they held have in recent times diminished severely and are now worthless. Two of the brothers have relatively recently started pawnbroking businesses, "Browns Pawnbrokers" and "Brown & Gold Pawnbrokers." Without going into detail, I do not think this puts those brothers in a position where they would be able separately or together to bid realistically for Herbert Brown. One may also think that the HB brand has largely been tarnished by recent events, so one could look on it as potentially a sentimental purchase but not a wise commercial one. Of the other brothers, one appears successfully to have moved into exporting specialist oils and is perhaps too busy with that growing business.
There are much more likely bidders for A&B's / Herbert Brown's loan book, though the brands themselves may be allowed to disappear. Most bidders will look VERY closely at the loan-books to see that the reported figures are a true reflection of current value. I phrase that carefully.
The Money Shop is owned by Dollar Financial in the USA, so certainly has the financial fire-power and needs to do something here as its pay-day operations face massive difficulties from the restrictions placed upon them by the new regulator, the FCA. It has an appetite for pawnbroking, having bought London's Suttons & Robertsons and rolled that brand out across a number of other cities.
AIM-listed Harvey & Thompson could bid for the loan book, but they face their own difficulties ( see their recent, candid trading statement ) and I suspect this could be too large an undertaking for them to swallow at this time. As a shareholder and attorney for another who is a shareholder in H&T, I won't comment further.
Ramsdens are privately owned and I think would baulk at taking on something so big. Risking your own money, not other people's, sharpens the mind !
There are a number of other possible bidders for the loan business and I believe someone will buy it, at some discount from its reported value. However, if it is someone from outside the world of pawnbroking then they could be in for a bad fall; as recent history shows, this is a business where you can fail spectacularly if you don't know what you are doing.
With kind regards,
Haywood M
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 27th March 2014 at 02:54. Reason: typo corrected
EBay and chrono are asking prices. That's a big difference to liquid selling.
I thought the Brown Bothers took cash Haywood. Not shares. I yield to your knowledge. JW
Boo hoo. Of course it isn't.
Out of interest what was the watch you were selling? That would probably give the answer as to it's 'low ball' valuation
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