High volume eBay international sellers

[Idontgram]

I’ve been flirting with getting a vintage King Seiko / Lord Marvel for a while and noticed that they are often available from Japanese eBay sellers who have a lot of throughput.
A lot of the watches they have supposedly sold look very similar too.

Similarly, a lot of Omega divers seem to be on sale from Japanese sellers at a good price and I nearly pulled the trigger on a 2254 a couple of times.

I’ve always shied away from bidding on watches over £1k from eBay dealers in other countries but at a few hundred quid it seems less risky. Also, presumably, with hundreds/ thousands of sales and >98% positive feedback, it should be safe, right? Or is there some scam I’m missing?


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[Padders]

The VAT?

[stefmcd]

The VAT?

Bingo!

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[Idontgram]

The VAT?

True, but even then, they seem to come out fairly cheap sometimes...


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[Wallasey Runner]

The Japanese listings in the main are very poor. They will often use the same images for several watches and the descriptions are non existent. I have bought from these guys and generally the service is good, but yes factor in 20% VAT on top.

I would only buy from them for a specific watch that you couldn't get elsewhere.

[Dynam0humm]

Many of these Japanese sellers don't actually have the watch. They copy the pictures from a Yahoo Japan listing, put it on Ebay with a large mark-up, then if you buy it on Ebay the 'seller' buys it from YJ and forwards it on pocketing the difference. It's worth searching for the same watch on YJ and then buy it for less using Jauce or similar if you find the exact same watch listed.

[justjudgeit]

I bought a 1968 King Seiko (ref 5626-7000) about 2 years ago from a seller called hiroki-japan . It's lovely - has options for day of the week in kanji and English and keeps great time (around +5 secs). The photos on the listing did match to the watch I was sent.

Not sure if the seller takes the photos from a yahoo Japan listing or not but for the price I paid (not much over £300 + vat and handling fee on arrival) I'm very happy with it.

Based on that I bought another watch from the same seller in December as a present for someone (a vintage Omega ladies cocktail style thing) and that also matched the photos on the listing and works fine.

Obviously entirely up to you, and I can't offer assurances etc but from my personal experience I've had luck with that seller twice and would buy from them again.

[Idontgram]

Thanks all, sounds like the usual mixed bag though interesting to hear no one has reported any personal negative experiences.

I think I’ll proceed with caution...


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[JimSclavunos]

98 % might not be that good of a number, go to their feedback page and check out "Negative" within the last 12 months. Sometimes it adds up to a big "Avoid!" sign.

[Alasdairmc]

Many of these Japanese sellers don't actually have the watch. They copy the pictures from a Yahoo Japan listing, put it on Ebay with a large mark-up, then if you buy it on Ebay the 'seller' buys it from YJ and forwards it on pocketing the difference. It's worth searching for the same watch on YJ and then buy it for less using Jauce or similar if you find the exact same watch listed.

I worked with a guy who made a lot of money writing software to automate this using Amazon and eBay. List on eBay, then buy someone else’s Amazon listing and ship direct to the winning bidder. Could the same sort of thing be in play here?