RIP Chrono24

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Fleetlord

Just use watchrecon to reference prices.

Chrono24 is full of ghost listings.

That’s what I refer to as well

[SpeakWithMichael]

Originally Posted by Fleetlord

Just use watchrecon to reference prices.

Chrono24 is full of ghost listings.

Good info. Thanks!

[shaunylw]

Originally Posted by RJG

My experience with Chrono24 was fantastic. The watch was on hand, I negotiated a price, seller agreed, and the watch was in my parcel locker 24 hours later.

My purchase date was Monday July 27. The OP had posted his message yesterday July 31 so maybe my purchase just slid in under the wire before they changed sales policies?

There was no sales tax, no shipping fees, and package was insured.
How can that not be considered as just awesome? Who else does this ?

Every dealer that’s sells watches does this. No real dealer charges shipping or sales tax and they are all insured via parcel pro or one of the other various services.


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[rolehex]

My one experience with C24 had been good. I am in California and purchased a hard to find vintage Omaga from Germany. The seller and I had used the C24 Escrow service and it was a seamless purchase. Everybody seems to be charging taxes now.

[HarryLime]

Originally Posted by bearxj86

This is why watches and bitcoins are destined for one another :)

You're right about that.

[AbeJ]

I use Chrono24 for price reference, but hardly find it useful for that now!

[101031-28]

Bought a couple of 16660 off Chrono24, very pleasant experience. Sure glad I got them before the "temporary" sales tax was implemented!

[Wcdhtwn]

This sounds very much like: “volumes are down, we need to maximize the profit of each transaction”. Taxes, payment fees and refunds... whatever.

[kimobebe]

The latest update, chrono24 charge 8.25% sales tax on buyer side. I'm a seller at chrono24, I sell over 200K a month. With the buyer tax 3 month ago, sales are down 90%.

[BNA/LION]

RIP Chrono 24... I've never bought from them. I'm sure people who have are taking a second look before they do again.

[HarryLime]

is that in addition to the aforementioned buyers fee?

[WatchEater666]

A lot of eCommerce will be charging tax far more often. The WayFair nexus rulings really complicated things and has ensured that everyone will be paying taxes on products purchased out of state eventually.

[interestedwatcher]

What are the possible over heads for running a website? Other than the obvious.

[dmash]

Originally Posted by kimobebe

The latest update, chrono24 charge 8.25% sales tax on buyer side. I'm a seller at chrono24, I sell over 200K a month. With the buyer tax 3 month ago, sales are down 90%.

You exaggerating the 90% or is that accurate? That’s nutty if true.

I would understand though. I mean a $50k Patek buyer paying $54k instead isn’t crazy. But if somebody has saved years for a $10k Rolex and now being asked to pay almost $1k more? That’s significant, and I venture to say it’s a large volume of luxury watch buyers

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by interestedwatcher

What are the possible over heads for running a website? Other than the obvious.

That will not excuse the seller from charging sales tax. That would be still be illegal. And some states are very serious about collecting it. For example, you do not want to be on the bad side of New York. I have heard some real horror stories. They will serve and prosecute people from out of state .

If you are not afraid of losing all your profits as well as your initial capital, and maybe a little jail time, go for it.

[WatchEater666]

Originally Posted by interestedwatcher

What are the possible over heads for running a website? Other than the obvious.

Tons. Go look at eBay's financials.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by interestedwatcher

What are the possible over heads for running a website? Other than the obvious.

Quite a few I expect and thanks to you and all the others for supporting this one.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by WatchEater666

Tons. Go look at eBay's financials.

Ebay makes money from sales.

Some websites don’t and rely on members support.

[WatchEater666]

Originally Posted by Andad

Ebay makes money from sales.

Some websites don’t and rely on members support.

I was referring to using their financials to look at expenses given the poster was asking about what expenses are involved in running a site.

[Vivalas]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Never bought directly from C24, just see the dealer's name on the listing and buy direct (sometime for less too :) ).

Have also done this for eBay as well.

I imagine a lot of people have done this.

[Taylorgold]

Originally Posted by superdog

ha. yeah. saw this.

no way they survive this.

I just hope they do survive it.

[easterbunny]

What I don't get is that within their promo bullet points they claim no additional fees. How deep into the checkout do I need to venture to see this charge?

[gentb]

For sure they will change it when it turns out to be a bad decision.

[breitlings]

Originally Posted by interestedwatcher

What are the possible over heads for running a website? Other than the obvious.

Ecomm website like chrono24 some custom search done well. Fairly lean. In house coding etc. no less than 120k per year. And that would be with some sweat equity.

Security and hosting another 10-50k easy. If they are running like a company not a startup you could multiply those numbers easily by a factor of 4-15.

CS, marketing, accounting etc not included.

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by gentb

For sure they will change it when it turns out to be a bad decision.

I can guarantee you this will not happen.
They are a facilitator in the deal, not the dealer themselves. They cannot hide the sales tax in the price of the watch. Yet they have to remit the sales tax to the different taxing authorities.

As of now they charge seven and a half percent commission with it $300 cap.

If they were to stop charging sales tags they would at best break even on watches under $3,000 and lose money on every watch over $4,000 that is sold on their site.

What will eventually happen is that all dealers and retail stores will start charging sales tax on items sold out of state.
Just wait until a few of the larger dealers get prosecuted for tax evasion.

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by WatchEater666

A lot of eCommerce will be charging tax far more often. The WayFair nexus rulings really complicated things and has ensured that everyone will be paying taxes on products purchased out of state eventually.

X2

No "real dealer" will be able to avoid charging sales tax in a few years.

One of the problems and root of the confusion at present is that there are over 11,000 different sales taxing districts in the United States.
And within those sales tax districts you may have to remit taxes to a state, a county, a town, and a school district.

eBay and Amazon may have the money to program all their taxing districts into the pricing but most small companies will not have that capability.
And as far as I know no one's peddling software with that information.
So, I am not surprised that chrono24 has already adjusted their sales tax. I assume they're just trying to hit the average that they have to pay themselves.

[Nikrnic]

7.5% Is more than my states 6% tax. The sales tax issue is confusing and doesn't seem to be set in stone. I still buy on many sites where tax is only collected on instate purchases and by choice for out of state, (just profit I'm sure) Sounds like C/24 is collecting as a 'temporary' (ya rght) Surcharge and not for tax purposes,, so just a way to up their own profit. Really doesn't matter to me. I'm done, bought a Sub from a private owner in August and a new VC directly from a dealer in NY who did not collect 1k in tax. This will be interesting to watch..

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[MILGAUSS88]

It's a matter of time.
The sales tax loophole has turned into a noose.
And it is tightening a little bit everyday.

[Blansky]

I hope they survive. They were a great resource for finding rare or sort of rare watches that you can't find in other places. Or not easily.

Go onto their site and look for a particular watch and there may be hardly any US listings but there are listing from Europe from ADs or from individuals. Then you decide if you want to buy.

I've bought one rather unique watch (damn should have bought the other rare one) from Germany, 2 vintage watches from Portugal, one watch from London, and a few from US.

In each case they did the customs paperwork and the process was flawless. It's not easy to track down watches outside of the US any other way.

I'd miss them if they disappear.

Also it's an alternative to companies like Watchbox who buy up everything used and charge more than others might. I get you get their guarantee etc but they also shrink the marketplace. If you look at the classifieds on site like ours and TZ they used to be far more individuals and now it seems a lot more Watchbox-like dealers.

[Tricolore66]

There should really be a fixed internet sales tax that is split between the jurisdiction of the buyer and seller. It would simplify things and possibly give our local brick and mortar retailers a more level playing field. I’d be shocked I’d Chrono24 is actually filing and paying sales taxes in each buyers state for each transaction. If they’re not I don’t believe they can legally refer to this as a tax at all.