When I started in this hobby we had a saying "Don't spend what you can't afford to lose"
I think that explains just how much this hobby has changed.
For example no dealer owns a rep factory we are all 3rd parties, the benefits we have extended to our customers do not come from the factories, they still maintain the same ideology they had 10 years ago so often when something goes wrong and the dealer makes sure the customer doesn't lose money it is the dealers money that they get.
Now many may think that's fair because if they return an item to a local store they expect a refund but the local store is not selling illegal items and that is where the problem lays, many customers on these boards now believe buying replica's should be a normal shopping experience, yet the buy from these forums because they know the pitfalls of buying from the unknown.
It has been suggested that without the buyers on these forums the sellers would be doing something else, what about this then...Without the sellers on these forums buyers would still be getting scammed or paying $1500 for a $300 watch.
Ken