Watch collecting.com - initial thoughts?

[Gio G]

It seems the Collecting Cars.com platform has done pretty well, I suspect the free listing for sellers and fees paid by the buyer has allot to do with this. Also the adverts seem to be well written and of a high standard.

They are now trying to replicate this success into the watch market and try to disrupt the current players. I believe they will charge buyers 6% of the final buy price or a minimum £600 fee. Listening to a podcast this could be great news for buyers, not so sure for resellers..

Any thoughts out there whether this platform would be successful?

G

[Uncle John]

RE the fees, £600 is a bit steep for a low value watch. Not quite the same for the cars as most are quite pricey....

[Jamescrs]

The £600 min fee seems very high for a lot of watches I think it will put off a lot of buyers personally.

[Gio G]

Yes, agree the minimum fee does not work for watches below a certain value.. I suspect maybe it works above the £3k price point.

G

[n3il123]

Gio G said:

Yes, agree the minimum fee does not work for watches below a certain value.. I suspect maybe it works above the £3k price point.

G

Even at £3k that is still 20% for the privilege of buying a watch.

[jonamv8]

I’d say it looks like they are aiming at the 5k plus market then! `Which is fair enough

[Bedlamater]

They’re trying to compete or be an alternative to the old skool auction houses where you’ll more than likely pay between 20-35% fees on top of the hammer price, so £600 is roughly what you’d pay when the hammer goes down on a £2500 watch at auction. Of course the hammer price will 9 times out of 10 be less than retail.

Ensuring authenticity is going to the their real challenge.

Best of luck to them.