TJGladeRaider

Please V, let me give you a little advice - take it from one who has been married many times. I know this will sound crazy, and I don't mean to get all personal, but although I am sure your watch and your strap will be in impeccable taste, be sure that your wedding photographer get's in a few pics of the bride as well. ; ) Bill

I didn't look -- honest I didn't. My little Latin wifey has NOOOOO sense of humor . . . but I suppose I can vote. Bill

The logic doesn't work for me. First of all, these people don't pull raw materials out of their ears. What does a real ETA movement cost? What does a real sapphire crystal cost? Whot does a real 316 stainless case cost? What does a real stainless bracelet cost? Even buying in Guangzhou Watchworks quantities, these things are not nickles and dimes. The watch has to cost more than $100 to make . . . and the manufacturer doesn't sell it to our dealers at their cost. If, as you believe, people are out there buying these best current quality Rolex Subs for $25, why isn't some hungry Chinaman out there selling them for $100. Can you show me where anyone, anywhere, sells the same quality watch with these same components for $100? If it could be done, someone would be doing it. The bottom line is, I don't care what they are making. Suppose Joshua's favorite uncle owns Guangzhou Watchworks and outright gives him 100 watches a month - does that make his price on a real nice watch any less of a deal to me? It's all a question of philosophy I suppose, but I make a good living, and I begrudge no man a good living who is offering me as a good a product or service as I can find elsewhere at the same money. Bill

That's not usually the way it works with government press releases. For example, when you sieze 5 Kilos of coke, and tell the press what it's worth, do you think they use the wholesale value of 5 Ki's, or street price for 5000 grams? Bill

I'm not sure you are seeing both sides of this; I cannot identify with this sentiment at all. What do you pay for a fake Rolex? Plenty of really nice ones for $200+ and some of the very best $300+, how much profit could there be? For that money, these people risk expensive litigation at best, and jail at worst. Tell you what, put this in perspective, look in your phone book and call three lawyers advertising criminal defense. Tell them you got busted with 500 fake watches and you don't want to spend the next few years in jail -- see what kind of out of pockt retainer they want. Take that figure, divide it by what you think their profit margin ought to be, and see how many watches they would have to sell just to cover that potientiality. An indictment here, generally means $100K non-refundable retainer at a minimum. If you think you've found the key to the mint, set yourself up as a dealer and see. I think you'd find it to be a cut throat business with demanding clients and narrow profit margins. Just my .02 Bill

I think that's where he physically is, but he ships out of TW. Bill

EL is OK. Bill

I wouldn't think so. Let's suppose that you are from Tampa, Florida and, for whatever reason, I choose you to target specifically and manage to identify a login/password that you use. Maybe I target you specifically, or maybe I got it via blanket phish. FIRST, I probably want to try banks so I go to my list and ID the ten banks that most Tampa residents use, plus USAA if I thenk you may have been military, and/or Suncoast if I think you/wife are employees of state/fed government. I go to their sites and try to log in. Maybe I hit something, maybe I don't, but it only takes ten minutes. Next I try EBAY, pp, and whatever Forums. Again, maybe I hit something, or maybe not. Then I try AOL, Yahoo, etc. If nothing else, with your name, address, SSN and DOB, I may be able to get some cedit cards in your name. When you know how they do that, you cannot believe how easy it is. To answer your question, pp is probably as safe as anything there is - especially if you fund it with Amex because if pp won't help you, Amex probably will. Bill

I take it you are not reading the threads. Yes, there have been recent problems, the person actually responsible is a member so rather than educate the mutt, let's just say that if you use the same passwords as described, change them now. Bill

I have long been curious about that. Was there ever a Rolex that had this misspelling - that's sure hard to believe, but why on earth would company that goes to such great lengths toward perfection put a big, red, flashing neon "FAKE" sign on their product? Very confusing. Bill

NOTICE - if you use the same password here, on pp, or anywhere else that you used on the old RWG board, or TRC board change them all to something unique and individually different. In other words, if you were JoeBlow and your PW was 12345ABC, and that is the sign on access here, to pp, or even to your bank account at some obscure bank, you must change that password. You need to do that now. Bill

You have an e-mail Edge. Bill

I have a question about this that I cannot answer as I am relatively new here. Do you, Edge, have the watches that were advertised? If so, is this something that is generally known. If not, where did the information come from? It should be obvious to all of you that this problem is internal. It is highly unlikely that some hacker from the Net would know to push watches that most people never heard of, and wouldn't know what the significance was if they did. Could someone provide me the e-mail addresses of the administrators of this board and TRC? I assume we have an administrator assisted by moderators situation so I would like to e-mail the adminstrators directly with a suggestion. Bill

I don't know if failing GMT function relates to general failure of the movement or not. I have had trouble with this system - from now on, I am looking for GMTs with true GMT movements. I have a source who says he's sending me a Rolex GMT with the Swiss 2893 movement -- should be on its way, so Ill post pics when I get it. Bill

I think everyone should consider the possibility that this is deliberate and organized. I am wondering if anyone else - of the dealers who take pp - has received phishing e-mails intended to induce you to reveal your pp password? Have any of the dealers who take pp been the victim of complaints to pp? Having the account hacked can be part of an effort to shut it down. The dealer with no pp account is seriously disadvantaged. There are hackers who specialize in this who advertise that they will destroy competition by hacking their account for a fee. Like econoomic assasins for hire, they are paid by third parties to hack accounts and destroy the person's business. NEVER reply to anything pp sends you. If pp has a message for you, you will find it on your pp account when you log in. Open a NEW browser window and type www.pp.com and go to your account - never, ever click a link in anything anyone sends you. Be cautious; there's no end of ugly garbage out there. Bill

Maybe it's an obsolete notion, but principle is important to me. I am not blessed with a lot of patience, I will not abide abuse, and I'll be damned if I would ever send a dollar of my money to any company that threatened me - fortune 500 or not. On the other hand, I am not here for business - I have a business and I deal with adversarial [censored] all day. I'd rather not deal with it here, but I can and will if it comes to it. I like watches, I am intrigued by the dynamics between reps and gens and I personally like some of the people/personalities I have met here. I have learned a lot and I appreciate the time that people like Palpatine, Ubiquitous, Ziggy, Joshua, By-Tor . . . and too many others to recount. Time is money and I value theirs - that and the fact that they know I am a detective, but don't treat me like they think I'm a "narc." I'm used to that, I accept it and deal with it, but I enjoy this better. I also have five children, and only a parent with a lot of children could possibly understand what I mean when I tell you that straps are completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Health, happiness, security, the Honor Roll . . . reps, straps, and forums are nothing more than curious diversion to mature people. This is us: www.MrMoms.org I don't really understand your position (or lack of one), but to me, pride is important, principle is important, health and good fortune are all important. Just one man's opinion. Bill

I have a good friend who is a car dealer (lots of friends in low places) and he often observes, "There's an ass fits every seat." A lot of truth to that Bill

OK, and in rose gold, this beautiful thing costs . . .? Bill

I wish they would put the 2893 in them. I realize that this is a MUCHHHHH more expensive movement, but it would make for a much better watch. Bill

You have a PM Bill

Did they? Didn't they? Hmmmmmmm Bill

Probably because NSA already has everybody's name. along with their phone rcords, credit card purchases, and e-mail communications. There's probably nothing about others that you know but they don't - as far as that goes, they probably know more about you than you do. Bill

If I tried to tell you, I'd get it wrong. Joshua tells me that there is a new gmt coming I should wait for - that's really all I know. Bill

I like them for the weight - I prefer a lighter watch if the weight contributes nothing useful. Bill

Yes, CJ's were followed by the YJ models that were followed by the TJ models - going to be something all new for 2007. Bill