Went into a Rolex AD in Cabo - Possibly some insider information

[modabyboutique]

Im in Cabo for vacation right now and happened to see a Rolex sign. Walk in and this store has just about every high end watch in 1 place. I'm talking like Hublot, ton's of Panerai, Cartier, AP, and a lot of cheaper ones like Gucci/etc. But best of all, a pretty nice stock of Rolexes. Literally the biggest stock of Rolex I've ever seen at an AD in person. Seemed to have everything besides the BLRN, Hulk, SS daytona, and SS Subs.

I get to talking with the sales guy for like an hour and a half.

I asked about price increases, he said he wasn't really worried about them because 'yes they're coming, but might not be till end of the year and it wont be significant'.
-Now that just threw me off, because the local ad (in South Dakota) was freaking out saying shortage/AHHHH/:omg:/etc and prices are going to increase 10-22% probably around April.

Asked about the shortage and again he's like yeah they're limiting supply on Professional models or at least making them harder to get unless you have a relationship with your AD. But, it's more of how you get them not that they'll be harder to get.

Confirmed the sticker thing but thats common knowledge now

He also talked about how crazy Rolex market is in the states. (I'm like yeah I know man lol) I asked about pricing and he just told me that if it comes down to pricing he would beat any AD and its not even that big of a deal for them. He said if it's more of a discount than what he or his manager can do, they can call into to Rolex HQ in Cancun and get an 'override' provided I'm an ideal client for Rolex. Now I'm not sure if this was a sales tactic but this guy was 100% straight with me about everything else so I don't even think he was kidding.

I've been wanting to pick up a Everose Yachtmaster Oysterflex for few months now so I figured this was the best time to try. The lowest I found was 19.5 grey market for a new one. So I'm like ok, beat that. 2 minutes later he comes back with 19.1 and it still seemed like he had even more room to go.

My interest is now beyond peaked and I started thinking of ways to let my wife let me empty our bank account now. Then I asked about an SS daytona, thats when he started getting weird because he had no answers for me.

The jist of what he was hinting at leads me to believe it's not really a 'list' its more of an 'application'. They get a few of them and it all depends who's on the list. He told me you're probably not going to be able to walk in, put yourself on the list, and realistically get one. If you buy a non-professional model, your chances will be the highest. I told him if he can guarantee the next SS daytona for me I'll buy the Yachtmaster now. He couldn't do that so I picked out a datejust and the YM then told him the next daytona that comes in, I'm a buyer for all 3 or whatever combination is needed to make that happen.

He sounded pretty confident that it's going to happen so now I wait


Also, when you buy from them he said something about you automatically getting a 8.9% refund before any kind of discounts they can offer you. As long as you're not a resident of Mexico? (12k out the door for the SS Daytona woot woot)

Long story short, if you go to Mexico and in the market for a Rolex, it is definitely worth looking into because it's a whole different ball game down there.

[Portzed]

That's an interesting read on a murky and cold Saturday morning here in the UK. hope it all works out on the deal and enjoy your vacation

[Helmi]

Good information. Thanks for sharing. Please keep us posted with the developments and if you finally get the watch or not.

[bp1000]

Heard that before

Someone in the uk walked into an ad

Purchased a precious metal DD and a DJ and walked out with a ceramic Daytona

As I’ve said before. If you own a company you do have the right to choose who to sell to in a sense. But I personally think if this happens there is an element of discrimination.

On the flip side, ADs are screwing the market seller to greys and flip’ers

[Art 1]

To me it's bad form to ask a sales person to beat a price, have them do so then not make the purchase. I doubt you hear back from him.

[lhawli]

You won’t hear back from him. Same thing with me when I was in St-Martin. Promised me the world and then some. FTR, I did buy diamonds and some gold from him, but I didn’t care about his promises cause it was much cheaper than what I was able to get in the US or Canada.

I ended up getting both my BLNR and LVc much faster from my local AD at MSRP due to the good relationship and long history.

It’s been 3 years since I went to St-Martin and I still don’t expect to hear back from them.

PS. Never ask them to beat a price - tell him what’s the best price you can give me and walk away. Watch them fold soon after!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[JR16]

This sounds like many stories posted before here on TRF. An AD has a lot of Rolex watches except for of course the popular SS ones. There’s a “list” but with no relationship some ADs won’t let you on unless you buy XX number of watches from them or PM. And so on. Hope you do get a call if you really do want to buy 3 watches at once, but also skeptical you will hear from this AD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Jack T]

I have a great AD I’ve done business with for years. Near home, reliable, local business, treats me great. When on vacation, if I even look, that’s as much as I will do.

[bmrisko]

My bet is that you'll never get a call from him, especially since you provided him the same empty promises he seemingly provided you. Now if you had purchased the YM and DJ instead of walking out saying you'd be back to buy them, I can see this story ending differently. As of now, you're just a typical American trying to throw around his purchasing power without actually putting his money where his mouth is...

[jps3b]

I had the same experience there. I was quoted 28,546 for a YG 116618LB. Out the door. The buyer would have to submit an application to recover 9% but they were very nice and willing to negotiate

[drmizzou]

Good luck but as others stated, doubt you’ll be hearing back. Hope to be pleasantly surprised though....

[Craigdwh]

Originally Posted by lhawli

You won’t hear back from him. Same thing with me when I was in St-Martin. Promised me the world and then some. FTR, I did buy diamonds and some gold from him, but I didn’t care about his promises cause it was much cheaper than what I was able to get in the US or Canada.

I ended up getting both my BLNR and LVc much faster from my local AD at MSRP due to the good relationship and long history.

It’s been 3 years since I went to St-Martin and I still don’t expect to hear back from them.

PS. Never ask them to beat a price - tell him what’s the best price you can give me and walk away. Watch them fold soon after!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

This but do so with the preparation to buy, don't be a flake.

[lhawli]

Originally Posted by Craigdwh

This but do so with the preparation to buy, don't be a flake.

Intention is to buy, the tactic is called negotiation


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Rrpdc]

Similar promises at cancun AD for skydweller. Never heard bank. Headed there next week stein and will stop in.

[10XRolex]

Your experience is right on. If you obtained the relationship with the sales guy as you stated, he will call you. Follow up with him periodically as well. I'm talking from experience almost ten times over. Good luck.

[powerfunk]

Originally Posted by modabyboutique

He said if it's more of a discount than what he or his manager can do, they can call into to Rolex HQ in Cancun and get an 'override' provided I'm an ideal client for Rolex.

That sounds like a load of BS. They can sell you the watch for whatever discount they please. Rolex has no access to their sales receipts. And Rolex doesn't sit in some ivory tower and judge who's worthy of owning them. They make 2,000-3,000 watches per day. These aren't Patek minute repeaters here.

Edit: If it's in the store, the AD has already paid for it, and their cost is 62.5% of retail, period.

[doboy007]

8.9% is just part of the VAT you get back as a refund within 6 months or so according to other threads.

Also don’t forget the customs fee when brining it back to US.

[bdex75]

Originally Posted by powerfunk

That sounds like a load of BS. They can sell you the watch for whatever discount they please. Rolex has no access to their sales receipts. And Rolex doesn't sit in some ivory tower and judge who's worthy of owning them. They make 2,000-3,000 watches per day. These aren't Patek minute repeaters here.

Edit: If it's in the store, the AD has already paid for it, and their cost is 62.5% of retail, period.

This. He wouldn’t call Rolex, I assume he may call their parent store or corporate HQ for that AD but Rolex doesn’t care two shits about what they sell a watch for. They could sell a SS Daytona for $5000. As long as the stickers are off of it and the warranty card is filled out Rolex does not care.

So you told the AD salesperson that you had a watch located at a gray market dealer for 19.5k to beat it. He did, by $400 and you didn’t buy it??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[lhawli]

What is the % ADs buy Rolex watches for relative to the MSRP value they sell for? - isn’t it an average 60%?

So technically they can give you a 40% discount if they want to sell at nonprofit. Of course this wouldn’t even cover OH and handling / insurance costs.

Not sure Rolex has anything to do with the discounts being offered but they do influence this largely. Can anyone confirm this and calibrate my statement if wrong?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Etschell]

good thing my nexy professional watch will be solid gold or platinum. ill pay the price i want and get it when i want not the other way around.

[RHIII]

Interestingly enough we've all heard these kinds of stories. Good luck and I do really hope that it works out for you. Personally I don't look at these scenarios as 'deals' just shady retail practices-- retailers (some that we've heard these stories about) are merely using these hard to acquire references to get 'willing' customers to drop a bunch of $$ on other (perhaps lesser desired models) and they get the prized one - which has incidentally now cost 3x retail. No thanks. Relationships, rapport and patience.

Just my .02

[AK797]

All standard stuff now, the price beating will only apply to TTs and PMs so nothing new. As for a price rise, no AD knows this but a few days in advance at best.

[Rrpdc]

Originally Posted by doboy007

8.9% is just part of the VAT you get back as a refund within 6 months or so according to other threads.

Also don’t forget the customs fee when brining it back to US.

+1. People always seem to forget the 3-4% you will pay back at us customs when you declare.

[DoctorA]

Biking a ticket to Mexico now lol

[tbonesteak]

Originally Posted by bp1000

Heard that before

Someone in the uk walked into an ad

Purchased a precious metal DD and a DJ and walked out with a ceramic Daytona

As I’ve said before. If you own a company you do have the right to choose who to sell to in a sense. But I personally think if this happens there is an element of discrimination.

On the flip side, ADs are screwing the market seller to greys and flip’ers

Discrimination? You can’t find a Daytona... If I randomly call an AD and ask him to put me on some BS list, while someone else walks in and buys $60k of PM watches, there is nothing but logical business decisions being made on who gets the AD’s Daytona. They aren’t getting a lot of them, so they leverage them to sell other watches. Makes complete sense.

[dcash0615]

Don’t hold your breath. I’ve been a long standing customer of Ultrajewels in Cabo. They have sourced me many watches over the past 10 years, including a few 116520’s when they were hard to get. No love on the 116500. Had to source it from another AD relationship. I hope it’s different for you.

Originally Posted by modabyboutique

Im in Cabo for vacation right now and happened to see a Rolex sign. Walk in and this store has just about every high end watch in 1 place. I'm talking like Hublot, ton's of Panerai, Cartier, AP, and a lot of cheaper ones like Gucci/etc. But best of all, a pretty nice stock of Rolexes. Literally the biggest stock of Rolex I've ever seen at an AD in person. Seemed to have everything besides the BLRN, Hulk, SS daytona, and SS Subs.

I get to talking with the sales guy for like an hour and a half.

I asked about price increases, he said he wasn't really worried about them because 'yes they're coming, but might not be till end of the year and it wont be significant'.
-Now that just threw me off, because the local ad (in South Dakota) was freaking out saying shortage/AHHHH/:omg:/etc and prices are going to increase 10-22% probably around April.

Asked about the shortage and again he's like yeah they're limiting supply on Professional models or at least making them harder to get unless you have a relationship with your AD. But, it's more of how you get them not that they'll be harder to get.

Confirmed the sticker thing but thats common knowledge now

He also talked about how crazy Rolex market is in the states. (I'm like yeah I know man lol) I asked about pricing and he just told me that if it comes down to pricing he would beat any AD and its not even that big of a deal for them. He said if it's more of a discount than what he or his manager can do, they can call into to Rolex HQ in Cancun and get an 'override' provided I'm an ideal client for Rolex. Now I'm not sure if this was a sales tactic but this guy was 100% straight with me about everything else so I don't even think he was kidding.

I've been wanting to pick up a Everose Yachtmaster Oysterflex for few months now so I figured this was the best time to try. The lowest I found was 19.5 grey market for a new one. So I'm like ok, beat that. 2 minutes later he comes back with 19.1 and it still seemed like he had even more room to go.

My interest is now beyond peaked and I started thinking of ways to let my wife let me empty our bank account now. Then I asked about an SS daytona, thats when he started getting weird because he had no answers for me.

The jist of what he was hinting at leads me to believe it's not really a 'list' its more of an 'application'. They get a few of them and it all depends who's on the list. He told me you're probably not going to be able to walk in, put yourself on the list, and realistically get one. If you buy a non-professional model, your chances will be the highest. I told him if he can guarantee the next SS daytona for me I'll buy the Yachtmaster now. He couldn't do that so I picked out a datejust and the YM then told him the next daytona that comes in, I'm a buyer for all 3 or whatever combination is needed to make that happen.

He sounded pretty confident that it's going to happen so now I wait


Also, when you buy from them he said something about you automatically getting a 8.9% refund before any kind of discounts they can offer you. As long as you're not a resident of Mexico? (12k out the door for the SS Daytona woot woot)

Long story short, if you go to Mexico and in the market for a Rolex, it is definitely worth looking into because it's a whole different ball game down there.