Tag Gulf Edition

Author
Discussion

$nake eye$

Original Poster:

411 posts

203 months

Saturday 19th April 2008
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

Nice watch.. but am i right to question its authenticity?

Wonder why it takes 4 weeks for delivary

Fisher

884 posts

207 months

Saturday 19th April 2008
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I only took a quick glance, but...

The date wheel should be in black, with the figures in white. The pushers are at the wrong angle, and stand proud of the crown, not anything like mine, so I'm assuming it's as fake can be.

He also has a Monaco 69 that's not even close.

Edited by Fisher on Saturday 19th April 23:17

fieldl

1,320 posts

232 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
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Got mine here and just compared it to the one in the auction.
Not a bad copy but a copy all the same. Date should be white on a black background and the inner dials are totally wrong. As also mentioned the two buttons are at the wrong angles. The colours of the stripes are also incorrect this could be the camera though and the strap looks crap.

$nake eye$

Original Poster:

411 posts

203 months

Sunday 20th April 2008
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Thanks for the detective work Lee,

Just got the following reply from him

Hi, it was a gift and I am currently suffering financial difficulties, and i was hoping that a low price would stimulate bidding. I work away for business so sometimes i am away for 2-3 weeks at a time. Thanks


PhantomPH

4,043 posts

226 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2008
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My real one for comparison :


James_N

2,969 posts

235 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2008
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Just a quick word if i may.

I was looking for one of these a while back, and turned to ebay, and ended up winning bidding on one at £1,500. I'd done my research (or so i thought) and this one looked pretty legit to me (again so i thought).

I was just about to pay for it, when i recieved this email off someone who had been watching the auction:

[quote]I'm glad I caught you in time. I had already warned the seller shortly after he listed the item (just in case he was an innocent middle-man), so he definitely knew he was selling a fake. I also reported it to eBay twice, but they are completely useless on this sort of thing - they send back a stock reply saying they will only cancel a listing if it can be proven with certainty that the item is fake. And what do they rely on for this decision? The SELLER's description and feedback! They had ample time to refer it to TAG for an opinion, but they just don't seem bothered.

Please don't feel obliged to send a reward - I'm glad to have helped. But if you insist, that's very kind of you ...my PayPal username is [edited]@clubtvr.co.uk . Beers are always welcome at this time of year!

For your future reference, the replica makers always build in differences, to escape lawsuits from the real companies. The fakes are sometimes crude (one "Monaco" even has a days-of-the-week counter!) but plenty of them are well made (see for example www.lowpricedreplicas.com ) and can fool the eye, particularly if the eBay seller takes a rather blurred or far-away photo. But if there's a reasonably clear photo of the dial, you'll normally be able to see the differences by comparing with a photo from the TAG website or www.onthedash.com. In particular, check the numerals on the subdials, the position of the date window, and the angle of the stopwatch pushers.
[/quote]

As hes off club TVR, he may well be a member on here, and if he is, his efforts were much appreciated, as he saved me being ripped off for £1,500.

Be careful of ebay!

Edited by James_N on Wednesday 23 April 23:27

tricky 100

954 posts

243 months

Thursday 24th April 2008
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Or he duped you into not buying it so as he could have it himself at a lower price .......especially as he was asking for a reward . Thats why Ebay now uses the bidder 1 ,bidder 2 system , so that contact cannot be made between bidders.

medieval

1,499 posts

212 months

Friday 25th April 2008
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I was caught on ebay a couple of years ago bidding for a Breitling for Bentley series watch - all advertised as genuine and 100% authentic etc and the seller had full positive feedback.

On winning and then receiving the watch having paid handsomely for it, I took the watch to my local authorised dealer for verification as I was not happy with the feel or look of the watch on closer inspection.

They confirmed it was a copy, a good one, but a copy nonetheless.

Seller would have nothing to do with it despite several emails, negative feedback and I then reported the issue to ebay who were somewhere between useless and no use at all.

A little bit of further homework and some clues he had left with the watch identified that he had bought it from a previous auction on ebay and I made contact with the original seller who advised that he had sold the watch as a fake and confirmed that in writing. Looking back through the vendors history revealed that he had left negative feedback for the original seller, thereby leaving a trail.

Long and short of it is that as I could prove via ebay and testimony that the seller knowingly mis represented the item, the police took an interest on reporting it and issued a caution after interviewing him. Money duly returned by the seller and the matter settled but it took some months and much cajoling.

Very much an issue of caveat emptor sadly.

PhantomPH

4,043 posts

226 months

Saturday 26th April 2008
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And here lies the exact reason I never ever EVER use Ebay. I would not buy a Mars Bar from there.

Rule of thumb for me is that for pretty much any 'major' purchase, I would rather pay a little more and know I can walk back in to a legit store at any time, than run the risk of something like the above.

For something like watches, you can generally get a good discount from any place in the Metrocentre (for example) and any difference is what you pay for the peace of mind.

Just MHO of course! smile

P~

Seany88

1,245 posts

221 months

Saturday 26th April 2008
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I've been trying to find a genuine Gulf with the white face for a couple of months now but haven't seen any for sale at all. Any ideas where they're all hiding?

anonymous-user

55 months

Saturday 26th April 2008
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I only buy watches on ebay when I can see lots of good photos of the watch from different angles including serial numbers.

If you do enough research about the watch you want and then research the seller I still think it's quite safe to buy from there.

As usual buy the seller not the watch. Lots of positive feedback and usually a history of selling watches. I'd tend not to buy from random people who don't seem to have sold many watches unless I can be 100% sure about the watch.

Some watches are much more often faked than others, obviously buying display back watches or watches from ebay shops where there are often photos of the movement with reference numbers helps.

The Tag is fake because,

1) The background of the date wheel is the wrong colour (white rather than black).
2)The second hand and stopwatch hands should be the same orange as the large orange vertical stripe on the face but are red instead.
3)In the description section the watch make is described as RADO with no other information.
4)At no point does he even actually describe it as genuine.

I love the way he has callipers not even actually measuring the case to 'add authenticity'.




Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 26th April 16:59