The rush of the bid😈🤑

🧐by the way, what did you get and what did you pay? Let’s have a look?

I do on occasion… just purchased a 66mm zenith deck pocket watch actually…

I just received this one this week from an e-bay purchase. I’ll be posting this on WRUW tomorrow.

Thanks for your take. I def want to avoid the asshats. Posted below a bit about it

The piece in question was this Boron. I couldn’t find anything online with some quick searche and the seller was clearing out an estate and doesn’t know a lick about watches (could just verify it was working still). I was really drawn in to this unknown quantity and only ended up paying $16 so was worth the plunge and for the adrenaline of beating opposing last second bidders 😂

Overall excited to have a watch from a brand I can’t even find online and an older piece to poke around the insides of and not be devastated if I muck it up

Woah that sounds so cool you simply must show us when it arrives

I have bought and sold watches on eBay. You have to keep in mind that many bidders get focused on winning and little else. When I find something I like, I look into the going prices for similar items and decide my truly maximum bid, keeping the sales tax and shipping costs, if any, in mind before I bid. There's no war. No struggle. No drama. If someone outbids, I let it go. There will be another similar piece, sometimes a better one, soon.

That’s a cool looking Halograph! I’m getting oddly vintage and futuristic vibes at the same time

. She’s going to clean up really nice with a little bit of polish. I would recommend gel gloss Aerosol. I use it on all my watches. You will not believe the excellent results. Especially with something like this, it’s a candidate. Home Depot used to sell it. I don’t think they carry it anymore but Lowe’s does. It’ll be the best six to $10 you’ve ever spent on your watches.

Sounds like a pretty wise approach. I know it’s prob best to just have a max bid for you and stick to it but I’ve folded to fomo in the past…

Thanks for the tip I’ll check it out!

Never ever buy from India, home of the most sketchy watch sellers on eBay. Pakistan, Egypt and the Philippines can also be problematic in my experience.

I collect an obscure Swiss brand that never had distribution in the U.S. so eBay has been my go to source for them. I've bought dozens of vintage watches of many types over the last three years as well as hard to source OEM straps. During that time I've returned three watches at the sellers expense that arrived not working properly and accepted a partial refund on three others.

I prefer buying from U.S. sellers but I've also had good luck buying from Canada, Australia and Japan. Shipping charges can be prohibitive and are often negotiable though tracking should always be mandatory. The exchange rate with Australia is very favorable and the Japanese tend to have a wide variety of well cared for watches with reasonable shipping. Looking at a seller's other items can reveal if watches are their specialty or if they just happen to have one.

Research sellers and their feedback, ask plenty of questions and request more pictures if desired.

Sellers that don't automatically include critical info like case size, movement type or working condition are often a PIA and will claim not being a "watch expert" to mask undesirable info.

Look for auctions ending on odd days and times and also use slight misspellings in the search bar. (Ex. Sieko vs Seiko)

Lastly consider searching WC for older posts that contain some valuable eBay tips and strategies.

Happy Hunting!

. Get the aerosol like picture, not the paste or liquid. Sprayed on lightly the whole watch. Rub it in with your fingers a little bit and polish with a soft microfiber cloth. It’s basically a really light Carnubba wax. Use a soft old toothbrush to get it out of the nooks and crannies, and then polish again with the microfiber. I use it on sunglasses watches anything that’s hard and nonporous. It has excellent results on. Trust me on this I’ve turned on several friends of this, and they’ve always thanked me afterwards.

Interesting thanks for the perspective (and acknowledgment of the rush). Looking forward to hearing about it!

Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply- very helpful!

Yes I have bought 16 watches on eBay in the past couple of years. I only look for Casio/G Shocks, Seiko, and Orient. I look for sellers with good feedback and I never buy from out of the country(US for me). 3 of my Seiko 5's and 3 of my Orient's came from eBay and I won them for a good price. I have bought 4 non working watches, I knew they didn't work when I bought them. I was able to get 3 of the 4 working with minimal work and expense. The Seiko solar chronograph is going to need a movement unfortunately but I will fix it at some point since I really like it and it is discontinued.

My advice besides making sure the seller has good feedback is set your limit for what you are willing to pay and don't go over it. It is easy to get sucked in with the bidding especially at the last minute of the auction but set your price and hold.

I’ll post better photos once I receive the watch and get it cleaned up a bit.

. The the Seiko”sucko” solars are not worth fixing. I sent one off to the watchmaker when it died shortly after the warranty and they quoted me a price more than I paid for it to fix it.

Low entropy on the vintage vibes here. 😉

Never bought a watch from a shop. Ebay or Aliexpress. Ebay can be a bit hit or miss, I have about 20 Soviet era. These are mostly from Ukraine. Paid $13 and had a watch running within 15 seconds a day. At their age and the price range I work within, never know what to expect. Had full refunds on some that were faulty.

Yes, virtually my whole collection came from eBay, all used. Saved a fortune. Eg my Willard £500, Aqua Terra quartz £1300, Seamaster Mariner 1 £400, Seamaster 300 £3400 etc..

First (and sometimes hardest!) don’t get emotional during an auction. Enter your max bid price and forget it. If you do it early it discourages a lot of people as they make a few bids, but you automatically outbid them.

Know what you are getting! Look at all pictures and compare that to the description. If it’s not an exact match don’t bid or buy.

Be a stickler! I once had a seller list a piece as “mint” and showed some nice photos. Once I received it, it ran like crap on my timegrapher. I notified the seller and he refunded me after I sent it back.

Have a timegrapher! It is the best way to objectively measure the health of any watch you purchase. If the ad says it’s recently serviced and running properly, you can prove or disprove that.

eBay is a great place to find items you may never see otherwise. Good luck out there!

Thanks a bunch for your thoughtful reply! I was originally under the impression to bid at the last moment to not let on there is interest but that makes a lot of sense especially once you commit to the price that’s right for you 👍🍻 great advice too re: standing up for yourself and holding sellers accountable for claims or lack thereof

When I bid for a watch I wait until the last minute in the bid and bid my total $$ amount I will spend. Works every time. Don't play the 20.00 here 20.00 there stuff.

This is my only purchase on eBay. I felt I had to have this watch, so I watched 2-3 youtube videos on bidding strategy, including waiting until 30 seconds before the end of bidding and putting the max bid in. That last 30 seconds was crazy with the bids coming in but it worked.