| Author | Message | ||
     Jennifer New member Username: Jeffiner99 Post Number: 2 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
I know nothing about watches so let me start there. I do not mean to disparage someone who may have made an honest mistake. But I recently began buying things on ebay and have noticed - to even my untrained eye - a lot of fraud. Here is a an example of an auction that raised the huh???? hairs on the back of my neck. 180003526700 Nice watch. Seems too cheap to be true. But lots of close up pics - so it must be ok? Seller has good rep - also must be ok? However, notice the pics - the color of the watch face mysteriously changes from one pic to the next. Very unusual in my experience. Also, for all the great pics, the serial number is obscured. I emailed the seller and he says he has several for sale. Yet, aren't the pics supposed to be of the one you are bidding on? Anyway, does anyone know anything about that watch? It is so pretty. If it has a chance of being real... But then that is probably wishful thinking on my part. I wouldn't even care what color I got. Although I like the black one better. I am learning to distrust the "private" auctions. Also, I noticed in this guys comments that while all of the posts say what a beautiful watch they got, he has greyed out the auction so you have no way of knowing what was sold. Another red flag perhaps? Anyway, if this is real, any idea what it is worth? | ||
| GregB Unregistered guest Rating: |
Jennifer, The seller you reference is quite legit and the watches they sell are real. I've had dealings with them and their feedback accurately represents their honesty and committment to selling fine high-grade timepieces. While it's true that there are scammers in any successful marketplace, eBay included, if you simply use good common sense, you'll likely have very few problems. I've purchased thousands of watches on eBay over the last 5 years and can count the number of problems I've had on one hand, with fingers left over. When buying a fine watch on eBay (or any other marketplace), I always tell people to "buy the seller, not the watch". i.e.: 1) What do other customers say about them in feedback? 2) How much feedback do they have and how long have they been selling? 3) Do they sell this particular item regularly, or is most of their feedback for other items? In other words, are they a regular watch seller and do they know their product well? Can they be expected to have the experience to have authenticated it and be able to stand behind it? 4) What is their guarantee and return policy? A good seller will have the same satisfaction policies as a good brick & mortar store. 5) Look at the difference between their feedback score and the count of how many positives they have. The difference indicates how many repeat customers they have. Obviously, repeat customers is a good sign. Regarding "private" auctions, you'll see more and more sellers of luxury high-value items changing to private auctions to protect their bidders from bogus second chance offers from scammers. Scammers love to send very convincing e-mails to every one of a seller's underbidder offering to sell them the watch (which they obviously don't have) if they are wire transferred money. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, many people fall prey to these bogus offers and lose their money. I've had auctions where every one of my underbidders had 3 or more scam offers from different scammers, each one pretending to be me. Private auctions are the only way to protect the identity of the bidders so they don't receive these scam e-mails. In addition, I've had many of my purchasers saying that they don't want people being able to see their names associated with the high-priced items they buy... it makes them a possible theft/burglary target. get used to private auctions... they're here to stay and most serious luxury item sellers have already converted. Greg | ||
| Jennifer New member Username: Jeffiner99 Post Number: 4 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
Thanks much. He must have just gotten confused with the pics. Any idea what a watch like will end up going for? |
