Bob's forecasts the market collapse

[furious1]

tl;dr for a lot of you, sorry!

I apologize if I am breaking some forum rules, but I searched and found no threads on this topic. Mods please move or remove the post as you see fit.

I sent photos of my 16570 polar, serviced in LA last year, warranty until 2019, to Bob'. Their "sell" price is $3300. Ask price is $4595. I get an email right away, awesome customer service! $3300 is the offer. They market themselves as an exchange, so I'm happy that it works that way. There's an offer and an ask, you decide whether the margin is right for you.

So, then I get a call asking me to call them to finalize. I do, and the sales associate says well, really the offer is $1700. I was shocked of course. My 16570 polar doesn't have a bracelet but surely 40% of a Rolex isn't in the bracelet... right?

I told her that there was no way that Bobs was going to sell any 16570 for less than $3500, it would be detrimental to the market that they in part created. If all of our modern Rolex sports are worth basically nothing without the bracelet, it's time to sell sell sell sell.

This isn't the first time that I've encountered Bob's just not knowing what they are doing or being manipulative. A friend paid retail for a 1655 from Bobs in 2015, it looked great, everything seemed to be correct. A very knowledgable collector/dealer spotted it, thought the color of the steel case wasn't right. Sure enough, service case, later steel. On a five-figure watch with no disclosure from Bobs. They refunded his money after a lot of back and forth, after finally the expert had to vouch for it, and his word is word. What wasn't clear to my friend should have been to a retailer that offers a frictionless Rolex buying experience. Bobs sold this service case 1655 again for full a strong full retail 1655 price (or at least it was on their online site and then gone) a few days later. I realize this sounds a little weird about spotting the steel but I'm also guessing there are some of us on the east coast who have encountered and benefitted from the expertise of this Rolex guru.

My problem here is not that my 16570 got a low ask, I'm no stranger to 47th street in NYC. My problem is that Bob's goal is to bring "transparency" to the used Rolex market. See Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanad.../#26ac1a4f6e01

When they don't disclose service cases on five-figure Rolex, or completely misrepresent a "sell" price on a modest 16570, they are screwing every average Rolex collector over. They are saying, yep there is no floor. You may have well bought a Steinhardt.