A Hole in the Process
Am I being too unreasonable?
I have a few pre-owned watch dealers I like dealing with because they are ethical and straightforward. However, in several cases over the last year or so, I have had several pieces snatched out from under me while I was negotiating for them. This not due to any duplicity of the sales associate, but rather to the fact that their internal systems do not appear to let the associates know when a piece is being discussed/negotiated with another associate nor do the systems effectively time stamp when someone expresses interest which would enable offering interested buyers right of refusal based on time priority.
We have been hearing a lot lately regarding criminality in the gray market, but I would suggest that the phenomenon described above might be a more benign reason to consider purchasing from ADs. I would also suggest there is room for e-commerce innovation in the pre-owned marketplace.
Semi-retired innovation consultant with a 25 year background in watch collecting. Compared to my experiences living in NYC and the SFBay Area, St Louis is a watch wasteland, so I am enjoying indulging...
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My local dealer enables you to put a 24 hour hold on a piece that prevents anyone from buying it both online and in the store.
If you have a relationship ship with these dealers I would speak with management to implement a system to be out into place for really interested buyers no to miss out on something they are in the process of negotiating with. That being said I can understand them wanting to unload the inventory if someone else is ready to pull to the trigger. However shouldn’t they be able to find you another piece of the same caliber of the Watch you wanted was sold?!
I can see this as something of a no win situation for these dealers. If a dealer tells you they are currently negotiating with someone else, would you may think it’s just a negotiation tactic on their part to get a higher price or quicker sale (or both). And if you’re not told, then there is the risk that they will drive away potential customers like you.
I do wonder how much of a problem this really is for them. How often do they have multiple interested parties attempting to negotiate on the same watch? If I were running a business and this only rarely happened, I don’t think I would want to spend the money to implement such a system.