NickO
1726
Bored at home, so here are some musings on the psychology of watch purchasing.....
A few months ago, a well-known dealer got in a watch that I was very keen on. He was asking $80K and I thought that was a very good price. I was prepared to give him his asking price, my one requirement was he gave me fair value on a trade-in which I knew was worth $20K. In other words, I would have done the deal for my watch plus $60K cash.
Unfortunately, the dealer decided to low-ball me on my trade in and only offered me $13K. However, at the same time and without me asking, he cut his asking price on his watch to $70K. So I could have done the deal on better terms, now it’s my watch plus $57K cash. However, I was honestly offended by the trade value, so I declined the trade. Three weeks later, I sold my watch for $22K to a fellow collector. Now I could have gone back and bought the watch for cash for $70K and been only $48K out of pocket, an even better deal still! However, I was still upset by the trade offer, so I declined and I haven’t visited that dealer since.
This was several months ago, and I don’t regret not buying the watch at all. But what is most interesting to me in this story is that I consider myself a very rational and logical individual. Now, I’m trying to determine if, in hindsight, I think my actions were rational or irrational 😀 please feel free to give me your honest assessment, LOL.
NickO
Bored at home, so here are some musings on the psychology of watch purchasing.....
A few months ago, a well-known dealer got in a watch that I was very keen on. He was asking $80K and I thought that was a very good price. I was prepared to give him his asking price, my one requirement was he gave me fair value on a trade-in which I knew...
I think you made the right call, for the simple reason this is a hobby, hence in my opinion *every* single aspect of a purchase should leave us satisfied...
Even when you could have financially been happy with the transaction, something else still didn’t feel right, in this specific case the greed of the other party. A sufficient reason, in my view, to pass and fully enjoy acquiring your next watch elsewhere😉...
The dealer needed to make a profit in order to support his costs.
I don’t think anyone should never appreciate the profit of a dealer . You could have offered your watch for the same price you had asked to the dealer for example to the fellow collectionneur That’s my 2 cents, and because I’m also a dealer in another fie...
Tyo presumably meant, but didn’t express it correctly, the dealer offered rather than you asking for.
Probably didn’t want to use the same word twice in the sentence to save repetition, obeying one of the numerous rules of English grammar.
Yes, you’re right!
People low-ball me in business all the time and I don’t take any of it personally - I just smile and continue to negotiate the deal. I think I just worked out what bothers me so much about this case: I didn’t mention in the original post, but I’d bought t...
Totally understand
Had I really wanted the watch, I would have probably returned with the cash after having sold the trade in privately and after the purchase, severed ties with the AD. The AD assessed your relationship differently than you which can sour both a deal and th...
For a any deal to work...
Inevitably both parties have to compromise, however in this case it sounds as if the dealer made a fundamental error and misjudged the situation. As a result he lost the deal and more importantly, he lost a future customer.
Never either or
We all have made or will make such choices. You argued that you belief yourself to be a rational person who takes logical decisions. That almost implies that you belief your decision not to pursue coz of your feelings towards the dealer, was not a rationa...
“A rational decision not to pursue based on an emotional interpretation”
I think that sums it up, perfectly! I had felt let down by someone I had rightly-or-wrongly considered a friend. Perhaps we weren’t friends at all and it was purely business the whole time. Either way, that was the emotional trigger that led to a rational...
Sometimes the "fed up factor" enters into it.
If it starts to feel like more trouble than it is worth, it's always your right to stop dealing with it. I have had watches that were so much trouble to get serviced that by the time I got them back in working order (in some cases after several round trip...
I would have reacted exactly the same way. Yes it business to personal- I understand the concept
But when I feel I have been taken advantage of or low balled, then the deal is now soured and cannot be done in good faith I once bought a watch from dealer- ref 3417. The market went nuts on this piece and after 2-3 years I wanted to trade this piece on ...
So, I have a different viewpoint.
I have bought. traded and sold many watches. More than I care to remember. My decision was always based on the spread. If they low balled me but low balled their selling price, it was the same as if they gave me my asking price , but wanted more on the sa...