The Timepiece Gentleman Situation Could Have Been Avoided. Dealers Don't Want You To Know This...

Consignment seems counterintuitive, however, it can sometimes be more worthwhile. Consigners have access to more customers than a random person posting for the first time. Also, provided they are above board, the consignment company will likely be able to get a higher price for your watch due to their connections and reputation. It's like selling a house...sure you can do it yourself, but it's usually better to go through a realtor.

But the realtor can't pick up your house and disappear with it. I thought it was odd that all of a sudden he went hard on consignment and was using text messages to sell watches at a slight discount. Then the text messages stopped immediately. Sounds great in theory, but how often do regular folks get duped and you don't hear about it? That's another point Fed makes.

Based on the many videos coming out from dealers about "Consignment" not being a bad proposition tells you that they know what has transpired will hurt their consignment business. I agree with you, if your not a salesperson and don't have the connections/resources to sell your product, sure it's sounds great...until this happens. And we don't know how often it happens.

These ponzi schemes will never stop because by nature most people are trusting. Humans are the only living organisms on the planet that don't follow their instincts. Plenty of good people get hurt in more ways than one when this happens.

The realtor thing was an analogy, not a simile.

Like as "proud as a peacok" ;)

I think the most fascinating part about the entire timepiece gentleman saga is just how poorly even very intelligent people assess transactional risk.

Whenever a large auction house like Sotheby's requires an item to be shipped to them in order to be sold, they generally agree to indemnify the owner should any loss or damage happen under their care. They have very large insurance burdens for this very reason.

It is unclear to me why most buyers did not seem demand some proof of ability to indemnify (proof of insurance for example) if they were to ship a $40k watch to the guy.

But then again, I'm clearly not the target audience here.

Agreed. One of his clients shipped him a 90k watch. And your right even intelligent people get taken advantage of...it's very unfortunate however discussions like this my help steer a few unsuspecting, good, hard working people away from con men.

This is turning the grey market upside down. You’ll prob see smaller dealers take a hit here.

or maybe it will do us a favour and the market will only work with less sketchy people.

This "trust your youtuber" theme seems to catch many people sleeping every few months. And those are the ones we heard about. Oisín, TPG, then TPG again, even read some weird stories about The Time Teller. Of course we never know the whole story. Then there's companies like the watchmaster shop disaster....then there are stories out there about fake watches (rarely) and fake boxes & papers from huge & trusted secondary market shops. It's like the industry is trying to commit suicide!

I'm not saying everyone is like that, but why trust people you don't know? I'm with Federico on this. Better lose some money by selling to a dealer than losing the whole amount.

I just assume that anyone dealing with Anthony Farrer in the last year or so is some sort of criminal. I can't explain whether it is stolen goods, money laundering, or what, but how anyone could trust this guy with a nickel is amazing. I'm a very trusting person, almost to a fault, but I can't think of anyone that waves red flags in front of your face harder than him.

You can't cheat an honest man. I doubt a single honest person has dealt with this man in years.

The whole episode is incredible really. Very dodgy indeed!! 😱

"Dodgy"...word of the day😉

I agree with everything he said.

Agree!

Theft is really getting out of hand though, just a few weeks ago someone stole my fathers daytona, fortunately he is ok, but gosh! I found a platform that was made to report stolen watches, it’s called JoinTrack.org I hope this helps a bit.

Glad he's OK! I think the pandemic perpetuated the whole wstch theft thing. I'm sure it was an issue before but I can't remember worrying about wearing a nice watch out on the town. Folks intently believe they really know someone online who they've never met before, sad. I have a positve story relative to honesty and watches that I will post once I get my watch back.

Thanks for posting that tracking information. Good to know. Have a good evening Nicolas.

Thank you for that message! Fortunately he is ok! But it’s worrying how the security situation is going in bcn and also around the world! About the platform: yes! It is very good honestly, looks legit and already registered there, looks good tbh. Warm regards!