Could a bit of money be made? I have time and patience

[DickyC]

When I look at auction sites, both auction houses and eBay, I see some lovely watches with dreadful cheap straps. What do you reckon the chances would be of reuniting good watches with appropriate straps and coming out in front if they are sold?

As an example, a not-very-valuable-example, I inherited my uncle's Tissot which he had fitted with an expanding strap. It was horrible. Looking on eBay I quite quickly found a broken example of the same watch, bought it, salvaged the strap and restored the watch to original or close to original.

Without hoping to make a fortune, I have the time and the patience to do it, I just wondered if I would come out with more pocket money than I started with rather than just having the satisfaction of doing it.

Any thoughts?

[DickyC]

Or is there a thriving cottage industry doing this already?

[bonerp]

doubt there's much money to be made in watches unless you can source as traded watches or have free access to Daytona's and Sub's!

[bristolbaron]

You might find the odd bargain that makes it worthwhile, but generally I’d say you’re at break even/potential loss point.

If you were doing something watch related I’d go with a battery and reseal service. Relatively inexpensive to set up and good returns.

[DickyC]

bonerp said:

doubt there's much money to be made in watches unless you can source as traded watches or have free access to Daytona's and Sub's!

Wouldn't that be nice?

This has come up because my wife has laid claim to my Longine dress watch I hoped would go to one of my sons. The compromise is me finding a similar watch for her. A local auction house has a very similar watch - an Omega but that's okay - with a low estimate and a nasty strap.

Maybe I'll go after it as an exercise.

[mickyh7]

Because of Car Boot Sales mixed with Google and Ebay, it is very difficult to find original parts cheap anymore.
I do a little of what you mention, I've done it for 20 odd years now, and its becoming harder.
I've had people stood in freezing driving rain tell me how much their (very poor condition) items are selling for on Ebay !
Also, you can buy very good 'Dress Watches' for very little money these days. They all come boxed with a warranty.
Step up to Higher End watches Cheaper Omega's etc.and then the small watchmakers are there. And of course they can offer a warranty.
Good luck with it. It is quite good fun as a hobby but remarkably time consuming.

[anonymous-user]

I went through a phase of buying those 1990's TAG F1's with the plastic straps. There are often a few of them on eBay with broken straps and not working because they need a battery. Often people have found them in a drawer, taken a few really bad photos of them and sell them as 'not working', so they never fetch very much.

I started buying them, fitting new batteries and nice looking new straps, photographing them in one of those mini photo studio boxes with LED lights (cost £12 off Amazon) and selling them on with a good advert and good photos.

I made anywhere from £50-100ish profit from each one. So not megabucks but it was beer money, and I put the profits towards buying other watches.

Stopped doing it in the end, because quite frankly I couldn't be arsed anymore. I was finding the work involved in the whole process not worth the £50-100 everyone I sold one. There are easier ways to make money.

Having said that, if you really enjoy tinkering with watches and you enjoy buying and selling on Ebay, then why not?

Not my photo, but these were the model of TAG's I was buying:

[Ikemi]

I've thought about doing similar, but I don't think it's worth the time, to be honest ...

Essentially, you could easily wipe out a good percentage of your profits by accidentally purchasing a good replica, or a redial/re-lume if dealing with vintage pieces. Where do you plan to sell these watches? eBay? If so, take into account listing, final value and PP fees. Also take into account potential scammers that return replicas in place of the original you sold. It just seems like hard work.

Sorry, not trying to put you off! If you have the time, why not try with a few watches and a small outlay; see how you get on! I reckon you'd make more cash buying higher end watches from desperate people/trade ins and selling them on at a profit e.g WatchFinder. Again though, you really need to know your stuff. You don't want to end up with a replica - or worse still - selling someone a replica!

[Barchettaman]

The best/easiest way is to buy a Job lot, replace the batteries on the bust ones, and sell them on individually.

Again, it’s beer money, but I would put the (meagre) profits towards a nice watch after a few months.

Edited by Barchettaman on Monday 9th November 15:25

[DickyC]

Thanks everyone! Lots to consider. I think I'll have a little dabble with a watch I wouldn't mind myself. Then, if it all goes 'orribly wrong, I have a watch I like.

The eBay "sell a real one but have a fake returned for refund" warning is sobering.

/an innocent abroad

[anonymous-user]

DickyC said:

Thanks everyone! Lots to consider. I think I'll have a little dabble with a watch I wouldn't mind myself. Then, if it all goes 'orribly wrong, I have a watch I like.

The eBay "sell a real one but have a fake returned for refund" warning is sobering.

/an innocent abroad

Thats why I choose the old TAG F1's.

I always liked them when they came out in the 90's, so I thought if I ended up stuck with one then I wouldn't be worried. I would just keep it and wear it.

Also, the only fakes that existed of the colourful TAG F1's were the property dreadful £30 'Looky-Looky Man' specials from a beach in Tenerife in 1998... So it was likely that there aren't any fakes left of these, as they all fell apart within 30 minutes of the Looky-Looky man being out of sight.

[DickyC]

The bidding was bonkers on almost everything. Anyone would think there is a financial catastrophe and investors are putting their money into anything other than conventional investments. Gold and silver was going for at least double top estimate. Things calmed down a bit after two hours when we reached the worn and broken watches but the group of three watches that included the Omega with the wrong strap I wanted went for 25% over top estimate. I went 10% over but stopped there.

I won't give up just yet but I might use auctions that don't have Internet bidding.

[anonymous-user]

DickyC said:

The bidding was bonkers on almost everything. Anyone would think there is a financial catastrophe and investors are putting their money into anything other than conventional investments. Gold and silver was going for at least double top estimate. Things calmed down a bit after two hours when we reached the worn and broken watches but the group of three watches that included the Omega with the wrong strap I wanted went for 25% over top estimate. I went 10% over but stopped there.

I won't give up just yet but I might use auctions that don't have Internet bidding.

Have you tried trawling eBay?

Buying on eBay has always worked well for me with stuff like watches. Often people take terrible photos, describe things badly, and use poor or misleading titles because they don’t fully understand what they are selling.

All that is good news for someone trying to score a bargain, and puts off everyone who wants something half decent they can wear right away.

I will often search for watch brand names (Omega, TAG, Breitling etc) then filter by low price first and just work my way up through all the tat from £30 upwards or whatever. I’ve often come across some really nice watches for a lot less than they should be due to a bad description, bad photos and an incorrect or missing model name.

[DickyC]

Ooh, I like the sound of that and I'll give it a go.

Thanks.

I'll report back.

[nikaiyo2]

DickyC said:

The bidding was bonkers on almost everything. Anyone would think there is a financial catastrophe and investors are putting their money into anything other than conventional investments. Gold and silver was going for at least double top estimate. Things calmed down a bit after two hours when we reached the worn and broken watches but the group of three watches that included the Omega with the wrong strap I wanted went for 25% over top estimate. I went 10% over but stopped there.

I won't give up just yet but I might use auctions that don't have Internet bidding.

The auctions always have VERY conservative estimates.

A one local to me had an Omega SM300 estimate £1000 went for £6k!

I think the days of things slipping under the radar in local sales are well past with listing online etc. Short of finding obscure brands in mixed lots that might have value if marketed correctly.

[dartissimus]

Another useful trick in trawling Ebay (not that I've ever done it) is to search with a slightly wrong spelling.

Although I was once told that there is some sort of sniper type program that will do this for you.

Ebay is consistently disappointing, barely even worth using as a price checker.

[anonymous-user]

dartissimus said:

Another useful trick in trawling Ebay (not that I've ever done it) is to search with a slightly wrong spelling.

Although I was once told that there is some sort of sniper type program that will do this for you.

Ebay is consistently disappointing, barely even worth using as a price checker.

I used to regularly search ‘Porche’ on eBay and sometimes got lucky. One day it netted me some Fabspeed decat pipes for £200 when they should have been nearly £1000.