Advice on selecting a trusted grey market dealer

[jb335]

Originally Posted by Daexter

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but do you guys know of any reputable dealer that's NorCal/Bay Area based?

I'm looking to trade my root beer + cash for a Pepsi and would prefer to do it in person.

HQ Milton

They specialize in vintage but do carry modern. In SF, Mission district.

[Oystersteel92]

I've purchased from Bernard Watch several times since the late 90's (astounding how time flies!) and always had a good experience including the return for full refund of a DJ that was gaining 16 seconds a day. Would trade with them any time.

www.bernardwatch.com

[amh]

Originally Posted by 1665fan

Exactly…..or buy on here for 3-4K more

Moda prices aren't that much better. You might save 1k on a given watch compared to other places.

Best to look at watchchart for your desired reference to determine a 'good' price. Example, 126710BLNR
https://watchcharts.com/watch_model/...0blnr/overview

The low price can be found here or Moda - and same with the high end. One can also find that exact range on Chrono24 or Ebay, no significant difference.

[hutch300]

DavidSW can get you sorted. I have worked with him and been very happy buying and selling.

[Rico_Brasole]

Originally Posted by Bstewart

The Timepiece Gentleman

Hahahhaha. This is classic.


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[joli160]

One of the boutique sellers only, zero risk

[Cauhauna]

Originally Posted by Daexter

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but do you guys know of any reputable dealer that's NorCal/Bay Area based?

I'm looking to trade my root beer + cash for a Pepsi and would prefer to do it in person.

I did a deal like this with SDWATCHES (justrolexes is his username)
He’s in San Diego

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by jb335

Moda is the dumping ground for dealers that have questionable watches to move. Total landmine.

If you want total piece of mind from grey, go DavidSW. High prices like Bobs but better customer service imo.


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Wrong. Bought few pieces there and everything turn out well. sold watches there and got paid fast after received that watch

even reputable dealer here like takuya sells watches there

and if you want extra protection, you can use their escrow service for a little fee.

[1William]

DavidSW is my go to dealer. Excellent service and never an issue. Might be slightly higher but no worries and excellent customer service. Don't get into just looking for the best deal, most of the legitimate watches from Trusted Sellers are somewhat close after negotiating. Money is always an issue but not the driving issue when it comes to watch buying for me. It has to be right. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

[Bstewart]

Originally Posted by Rico_Brasole

Hahahhaha. This is classic.


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I was hoping someone would get that!

[jb335]

Originally Posted by buknoy

Wrong. Bought few pieces there and everything turn out well. sold watches there and got paid fast after received that watch

even reputable dealer here like takuya sells watches there

and if you want extra protection, you can use their escrow service for a little fee.

That’s the thing about landmines, sometimes you make it through the field without losing a limb. Then again, how do you know your watch isn’t stolen?

I’m sure there are many good dealers there, I never said all dealers on there are shady. I said it was where dealers go to dump the merch that has issues or isn’t moving. i.e. missing papers, missing links, beat to hell, watch sourced from a shady guy that may or may have not stolen the watch etc.


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[amh]

Originally Posted by hutch300

DavidSW can get you sorted. I have worked with him and been very happy buying and selling.

I've dealt with DavidSW before, but only back "in the good old days." Today his prices are 10% higher than anywhere else. Is he willing to match competitors?

[BNA/LION]

Brian or Briboxer on TRF is an excellent choice to buy from, trade or sell watches to. Honest, Fair and has a great Reputation in the business. I've done deals with him and have become friends with him over the years. He's a good golfing buddy too. Reach out to him and let him know what you are looking.

Brian@boxertime.net

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by jb335

That’s the thing about landmines, sometimes you make it through the field without losing a limb. Then again, how do you know your watch isn’t stolen?

I’m sure there are many good dealers there, I never said all dealers on there are shady. I said it was where dealers go to dump the merch that has issues or isn’t moving. i.e. missing papers, missing links, beat to hell, watch sourced from a shady guy that may or may have not stolen the watch etc.


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Have you ever heard of people really wear there watch and just want to sell it after? And having missing papers mean its compromised watch. Some people just dont keep paperss. And most of all if you are a shady dealer you wouldnt last in this business.
And thats why the mods encourage buyer to do reference check.


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[buknoy]

Originally Posted by jb335

That’s the thing about landmines, sometimes you make it through the field without losing a limb. Then again, how do you know your watch isn’t stolen?

I’m sure there are many good dealers there, I never said all dealers on there are shady. I said it was where dealers go to dump the merch that has issues or isn’t moving. i.e. missing papers, missing links, beat to hell, watch sourced from a shady guy that may or may have not stolen the watch etc.


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Oh aand by the way, i sold my beat up batman to one of the dealer at moda. Does that mean the watch i sold is compromised since its beat up?


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[Onequik135i]

I got my 116710LN from OCwatch guy last year & was advertised as new which it pretty much was w factory stickers on clasp. Any of the greys mentioned above. I Also recommend recaro18 who isn’t as large as some of the others listed but delivers great service.

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by amh

I'm also fiendishly tracking Grey prices. They are headed back up, unfortunately But the Exp2 is now basically at MSRP, good time to buy.

DavidSW
https://davidsw.com/product-category/watch/rolex/

Takuya
https://www.takuyawatches.com/product-category/rolex/

OCWatch
https://www.ocwatchguy.com/

SDWatch
https://www.sdwatches.com/product-ca...-brands/rolex/

AIS
https://aiswatches.com/rolex/?sort=newest

Nashville
https://nashvillewatch.com/buy/?filter_brand=rolex

Exchange
https://www.watchexchangecompany.com...category=Rolex

Reads like a list of my open safari tabs


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[huncho]

Originally Posted by buknoy

Oh aand by the way, i sold my beat up batman to one of the dealer at moda. Does that mean the watch i sold is compromised since its beat up?


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people that use moda seem to get upset so quickly any time anything negative is said about it. no one is saying there aren't good watches there, the argument is that it requires much more work to weed out the good vs the bad and requires a lot more due diligence. do you really expect someone who's just getting into watches or hasn't gone grey before to navigate through it easily? the good thing about moda is the that it has cheaper prices but for the most part that's true for used watches in which case you need to be able to know what an overly polished watch looks like and be able to flag things you might not like. it's a trade off of paying a little bit more and going to a bigger grey and not having to worry about so many different things

i personally wouldn't recommend moda to friends who are new to the grey market. i can't even imagine telling someone to go join a facebook group and having to explain all the things to look out for, instead of just telling them to email someone like david and having their watch tomorrow

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by huncho

people that use moda seem to get upset so quickly any time anything bad is said about it. no one is saying there aren't good watches there, the argument is that it requires much more work to weed out the good vs the bad and requires a lot more due diligence. do you really expect someone who's just getting into watches or hasn't gone grey before to navigate through it easily? the good thing about moda is the that it has cheaper prices but for the most part that's true for used watches in which case you need to be able to know what an overly polished watch looks like and be able to flag things you might not like. it's a trade off of paying a little bit more and going to a bigger grey and not having to worry about so many different things

Im not upset. Its just people assume already that great dealers are here and the rest are selling compromised watch. And regardless of where you buy always do your due diligence before pulling the trigger.
And paying a little is nowhere to be found now. Davidsw price are so high its not even little compare to other dealer.


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[huncho]

Originally Posted by buknoy

Im not upset. Its just people assume already that great dealers are here and the rest are selling compromised watch. And regardless of where you buy always do your due diligence before pulling the trigger.


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no one denies that the sellers on here are using moda, like i said, the argument is that there's a lot of noise on moda versus the listings here. a wholesale group will always have watches that are in worse condition or harder to move because there will always be a buyer for them. the ones that sellers put up on client facing sites are usually cleaner or more presentable examples. a lot of the times they'll even polish what they buy off another dealer. moda is like the diamond district, it's hard to expect someone inexperienced to just dive in there. people will see lower prices and immediately jump on those watches when there's probably a reason they're lower, a reason that's likely not obvious to most casual buyers

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by huncho

people that use moda seem to get upset so quickly any time anything negative is said about it. no one is saying there aren't good watches there, the argument is that it requires much more work to weed out the good vs the bad and requires a lot more due diligence. do you really expect someone who's just getting into watches or hasn't gone grey before to navigate through it easily? the good thing about moda is the that it has cheaper prices but for the most part that's true for used watches in which case you need to be able to know what an overly polished watch looks like and be able to flag things you might not like. it's a trade off of paying a little bit more and going to a bigger grey and not having to worry about so many different things

i personally wouldn't recommend moda to friends who are new to the grey market. i can't even imagine telling someone to go join a facebook group and having to explain all the things to look out for, instead of just telling them to email someone like david and having their watch tomorrow

$17375 compare to 13-14k is not little difference for subdate. at 17k you can buy cermit plus change


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[buknoy]

Originally Posted by huncho

no one denies that the sellers on here are using moda, like i said, the argument is that there's a lot of noise on moda versus the listings here. a wholesale group will always have watches that are in worse condition or harder to move because there will always be a buyer for them. the ones that sellers put up on client facing sites are usually cleaner or more presentable examples. a lot of the times they'll even polish what they buy off another dealer. moda is like the diamond district, it's hard to expect someone inexperienced to just dive in there. people will see lower prices and immediately jump on those watches when there's probably a reason they're lower, a reason that's likely not obvious to most casual buyers

Thats the good part about mokda. theres watches for everybody. a beat up to a fully stikered watch. you dont like the beat up watch? browse along im sure theres a mint or bnib. i get it people like neew or mint condition. but not every people can afford it. and at every purchase you buy the seller thats why you do reference check so that people will vouch for that seller or buyer.

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by buknoy

Thats the good part about mokda. theres watches for everybody. a beat up to a fully stikered watch. you dont like the beat up watch? browse along im sure theres a mint or bnib. i get it people like neew or mint condition. but not every people can afford it. and at every purchase you buy the seller thats why you do reference check so that people will vouch for that seller or buyer.

I definitely like the idea of buying a hairline scratched gold watch that's in honest condition with original factory finish at a discount because it's not retail ready.

I am a realist about what happens to high polish gold and prefer to not have a stick of butter polish job and pay a premium for this "mint" state.

[huncho]

Originally Posted by buknoy

$17375 compare to 13-14k is not little difference for subdate. at 17k you can buy cermit plus change


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17.4k for a sub date where?

here are some 126610s on here :

BNIB for 15k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893013
used for 14k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893133
another used for 13.7 https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=892597

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by huncho

17.4k for a sub date where?

here are some 126610s on here :

BNIB for 15k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893013
used for 14k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893133
another used for 13.7 https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=892597

davidsw
22k for a cermit where it only sells for 16k

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by huncho

17.4k for a sub date where?

here are some 126610s on here :

BNIB for 15k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893013
used for 14k https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=893133
another used for 13.7 https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=892597

He's saying David has it for 17,375. This is true. Super premium even more so than the other TS

$22,575 for LV sub. And I thought I overpaid at retail.

[huncho]

Originally Posted by EEpro

He's saying David has it for 17,375. This is true. Super premium even more so than the other TS

that's true, his prices are generally considerably higher but my point still stands lol. it took me 5 mins to find 3 subs with prices relative to what's apparently on moda. but again, my point isn't that moda doesn't have good watches, it's just that it's a place for more experienced people

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by huncho

that's true, his prices are generally considerably higher but my point still stands lol. it took me 5 mins to find 3 subs with prices relative to what's apparently on moda. but again, my point isn't that moda doesn't have good watches, it's just that it's a place for more experienced people

Indeed it is. Most people don't know how to do a wire transfer so that's gonna be an issue.

[buknoy]

Originally Posted by huncho

that's true, his prices are generally considerably higher but my point still stands lol. it took me 5 mins to find 3 subs with prices relative to what's apparently on moda. but again, my point isn't that moda doesn't have good watches, it's just that it's a place for more experienced people

bnib at 15k compare to 14k. 1k difference is nothing to sneeze at i could buy a new iphone pro for that difference. And that seller that sell 14k is very well known

[jb335]

Originally Posted by buknoy

Oh aand by the way, i sold my beat up batman to one of the dealer at moda. Does that mean the watch i sold is compromised since its beat up?


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Lol. Again, I’ll repeat myself once more. I am not saying every dealer or every watch is suspect, I am saying, in my opinion, as someone that watches many marketplaces and chat groups, Moda appears to have a higher percentage of watches that appear to have issues. Hence, in my opinion, it is a field of landmines. Or as I described Moda above, a dumping ground.

Glad you’re happy with Moda though. Hope you don’t get any surprises come service time.

I am going to leave it at this since I don’t care for internet back and forth. ; )


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