panerai153

No doubt if it get's confiscated, you will get a letter. May take a couple of weeks, but the letter will show up.

I'm not sure about items coming through the mail and being seized. I doubt that they are going to keep up with you over one watch. I do think that when you fly, if they find "stuff" that isn't allowed when coming through customs, they note it in their computer. Several years ago, my wife was coming back from Europe through JFK, and had some home cured pork products that were not sealed in a package from some known company. Of course the Dept of Agriculture has dogs that are trained to sniff out plant and animal products. She got busted by a Beagle!! They confiscated the Pork, plus a lecture. Long story short, for the next two years, she got checked every time she went through customs. She didn't have anything at all that remotely resembled banned substances, but it was a real PINA for her, and always made her have to run like crazy to get her connecting flight. After those checks, for the past 3-4 years, she hasn't gotten a second look. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I it's hard to believe that she would have been checked 4 or 5 times unless her name was flagged. If it were me, I believe I would stick to M2M sales for a while. Possibly if you order another, after a break to let things cool off, maybe use a different address for the next shipment. Just don't know, it's such a crap shoot with customs, and I don't think that anyone except those who happen to work in customs know the whole story.

I live in the South, I get stuff clearing through NY, San Francisco, and a couple years ago through Anchorage. When I send packages overseas, no matter where they are heading, they go out of Miami. Strangely, nothing ever enters through Miami. As was said above, I believe that where the package originates is more important than where it lands. Chicago may be the "bad boy" right now, but that could shift at any moment to any or every customs facility. The customs service is well aware that most of the counterfeit trade is centered around Guangzhou, so it would stand to reason that parcels from there would get more scrutiny. Now that we are in the post Christmas lull, less freight is coming through customs, which probably allows closer looks at things that they deem suspicious. If it weren't for the sheer volume of freight, plus more emphasis on intercepting dangerous goods like drugs, weapons and higher profile items, we would be looking at a lot more interceptions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Delicious!!!!

Looks nice. Like legend said reasonably healthy movement. It would be nice to see the amplitude a little higher, but I believe that is wishful thinking with the a7750 movements. I would take it like it is!!

Probably the luck of the draw, but I would say sending 4-5 in one package is a big risk. like kbh said, several folks on different forums have had watches seized going through Chicago. Who knows why they are cracking down there? This could be a temporary thing, or it could be a sign of what's to come everywhere. Hopefully, this is just a passing fad sort of thing, and they will move on to something else in a few weeks. What is pretty weird, is no matter where you live in the CONUS, there is no predictability as to what POE a package from China will come through. I suppose when they send packages from China, when they get to the airport sorting center, they are put on the first available flight, no matter what the final destination. So you may get one package that goes through San Francisco, the next one may be Chicago, the next Dallas, and so on. Depends on what flight your package gets on and where it's going. Just get it to the USA and let the USPS sort it out from there!!

Thanks for the heads up

OK, so now we know all we wanted to know and were afraid to ask about dentistry. Did you also mention, most dentists operate on a cash only (Cash/ credit debit cards) basis, Pretty handy as the money is directed into their bank account, instantly, they don't have to fill out a mile of paperwork, submit a bill to Medicare/Medicaid and hope that they didn't leave out a period or comma because the bill will be rejected with no explanation. They don't have a hospital affiliation, so they are not obligated to take call on a regular call rotation. I often wonder how it is to be free every weekend and not worry about being awakened in the middle of the night!! They are not part of medicare and medicaid, so they are not bound buy the thousands of pages of ever changing regulations that we suffer through. Pretty damn good when you look at the pluses as opposed to going to Medical school, spending years in residency, coming out owing something close to the national debt and facing a profession that is making less and less, with more BS paperwork, more time sitting in front of a computer filling out electronic medical records and less time actually taking care of patients. Way too late for me, but for you young guns looking at medicine, I would definitely look at the two D's Dentistry and Dermatology. When was the last time your dermatologist was awakened in the middle of the night to come in to see and ER patient!! I'll tell you same as the dentist, never!! AFA the 161K figure, I bet that's because most dentists don't work a full week. Every one of them around here takes at least one full day off each week. Some take every Friday off, what a great job, 4 day work week, every week except for the 4-6 weeks of vacation.

Sounds like this may be something that every Fifty Fathoms owner should have as a spare or two.

I believe one factor here is the watches we are getting from the TD's are the top of the line rep watches. I'm not sure how many they sell, because the information is not public, but I'm sure they sell hundreds of times more "Canal Street" Quality reps. They can churn these out by the millions, no quality control, no feedback from "members" who are constantly pressing them for new models, better QC, and less mistakes, no worries about producing the latest and greatest models within hours of the genuine's release. no need to buy a 25K watch and destroy it in duplication, they can make the quartz models from photos!! If we were content to be satisfied with a first edition of a watch, and were willing to live with the mistakes, I'm sure the prices would be lower. However, we are constantly asking "When is the next version going to be released"? look at the AP Diver, released to the public in late 2010, early 2011 for instance, Not exactly sure when the first version rep was produced, but over just a few years we are up to version 7. Now I realize that these are not complete re designs, mainly "tweaks". True, but tweaks cost money and that is being passed on to us. Another factor is the economy of scale. Companies like Rolex that are slow between releases of new watches, and make evolutionary changes rather than revolutionary are the rep manufacturers friend, that coupled with the fact that it is a popular brand, known all over the world ensures that they will sell lots and lots of reps, especially the popular models. On the other hand you have companies like AP that seem to introduce a new model almost on a weekly basis. These are the rep manufacturers nightmare. Small company producing lots of models, certainly popular, but priced well beyond the means of the average guy. So the rep forum members are clamoring for every new AP that's introduced, and then when they get it, they are not happy and are looking for V2!! So the rep manufacturer faced with producing a watch that is one, very expensive in the genuine form, and thus may not appeal to folks who are uncomfortable wearing a rep of a 25K watch, and two a watch that is intricate with lots of parts, weird size straps and again lots of models. When they take all that into consideration and consider that these are not going to sell like a Rolex or Omega , the price has to be higher. If you calculate your final price from unit cost, it's pretty easy to see where a watch that is going to sell 5000 units will have less per unit cost over one that will only sell 500 units. This is not the cost of material to build the watch, movements, etc. But the design and production costs to get it up and running. The manufacturer is going to add the cost of the sacrificial gen to the mix, say 25K for an AP ROO plus the design setting up the CAD/CAM and actually the per unit cost of the components. If the dial manufacturer prices dials in lots of 500, say, they may decide that 500 is all that they can sell, whereas with a Rolex submariner, they may order 2000 dials. Because it's a bigger order, the manufacturer gets a better per dial cost. Economy of scale dictates that the more units of anything you produce, the less the cost per unit will be. Another thing that is probably being reflected in the higher prices are wages. It's common knowledge that wages are going up in China. I would imagine that the rep factories are competing with each other as well as electronics assemblers, phones, computers, TV's etc., for skilled workers. As wages increase, that increase is being passed on to the consumer, namely you and I. This is just my probably grossly oversimplified rationale for the pricing of rep watches. What we have to appreciate is the fact that there are 200-300 USD versions of almost all reps out there, the big problem is as we grow more sophisticated in our tastes and demands, those will not do, simply because they don't meet the standards of most folks who are reasonably knowledgeable about watches.

Sure, there are a fair number of us who were on the old RWG and TRC before the "new" RWG came about. Like you, I bought watches back around 2000 from Eddie Lee, Whatever that guy's name who had all the "Crazy Sales" I went back and looked through my watch photos, it looks like the earliest photos I have of reps are from January 2004, however I know from those photos, they were not the first reps I bought. I can't remember when I started using PayPal as soon as it was available. I registered with Ebay in 1999, and I believe it started taking PayPal payments shortly thereafter. Never used cash through the mail, did use a credit card on a few early transactions and also used WU a few times, but I tried to use WU as little as possible because of it's high fees and lack of recourse if a deal goes bad.

As usual sir, you have stated a real problem in a most eloquent manner. While I have not been plagued as frequently as yourself with these mysterious messages straight out of the blue. Usually prefaced by nothing more than " hi, I want the best Daytona possible, my budget is 200-250 USD, who has one"? Nary a please, thank you, or excuse me for your trouble. What is going on with the lack of civility, the total lack of social graces, and this sense of empowerment that some people have that leads them to impose on others almost at will. It's very hard for me to understand this attitude, having been brought up to show respect for others, no matter who they are. It is simple courtesy to introduce yourself, add a please and thank you in the conversation. Get's you a lot further with others, rather than having this attitude of entitlement. It's not my duty or obligation to address anyone's questions, especially when they come across with this attitude. I like most folks here are very eager to help newcomers. We were all noobs once, but while we are glad to help, we deserve and demand a modicum of courtesy and respect.

Fortunes made and lost on days like this, depending on which side of the trade you are on!! What I don't understand, and I'm certainly no financial expert, why did they suddenly announce this, rather than easing it in steps? possibly it would have allowed Swiss firms some opportunity to adjust.As it is, they got blindsided by their own government.

The Swiss Central bank just dropped a bomb on the Swiss industries that depend on exports for the bulk of their revenue. I bet their are a lot of angry watch execs right now. Maybe they should move their production to China? I bet the rep factories would be glad to help them out!!

Thank you kind sir. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mymanmatt built one for me a year or two back. I would suggest that you budget for a gen dial as well,the gen just can't be duplicated. Mine has gen dial ,crystal,insert, crown /tube aftermarket 18k bezel. Gold wrapped bracelet with plated gold end link sides. Gen spec case made it a pretty straightforward build. ETA 2824 w champagne DW overlay.

Good luck, and can't wait to see the finished product. I'm sure it will be outstanding .

Hi E, the JF/J12 factory (I believe they are one and the same, just names are used interchangeably) produce some very nice AP reps. Lots of posts and comparisons of the JF vs Noob on the AP forum. Really don't know much about their Rolex products, maybe you can post this over in the Rolex forum, someone there may know the answer.

looks very nice. So when does production start for the Z version? Lots of folks waiting eagerly for this, PayPal accounts loaded and ready!! Kudos to you for the perseverance to follow this project through to the end.

Interesting point about the 7% CC fee. I wonder if their margins are getting tighter and they are using this as some sort of ruse to get folks to use WU rather than CC's. Having said that, why not just tell folks up front, out CC fees are onerous and we can't afford to accept them anymore. I suppose that the fear of chargebacks is always present as well. Who knows,. someone buys a couple of watches, maybe he isn't too happy with them, tries to get a refund or a better deal, dealer refuses, buyer contacts his CC company and initiates a complaint, usually the CC company will stand by the customer, especially if he says he didn't get what he ordered, he never got the items, they were broken, he ordered a genuine watch and received a rep instead. Unfortunately, the world is filled with folks who are either out and out crooks, or they are the kind that are too impatient to let a problem resolve, but either way, they start something and the dealer over in China gets screwed. In most cases, if the CC company here thinks the deal smells, they will contact the buyer before they approve the transaction. I have had this happen several times, the CC Fraud department will call and ask if I know the recipient, have I done business with them before, etc. I believe that what they are doing is covering their butts in case the deal turns south, they can always say" Hey, we called you and you assured us that this was a legitimate transaction and you were familiar with the seller". Hopefully this will get worked out soon to everyone's satisfaction.

Too bad the best part of his gene pool ran down his mom's leg!! King Toad gives all amphibians a bad name. Too bad, the rest evolved, he stayed back in the primordial sludge. Not feeling too eloquent today, must be the weather!! Maybe I'll come up with something better later on today. Looks like the Gator chomp is coming!!!

Can't afford those expensive Rolex "Big Crowns" so I had to settle for the poor man's version Tudor 7924

I've got a better idea, before Ezio turns in his fast ride, why not fly over and park a Sidewinder missile up the toad kings ass. Now that would be a fitting send off for a troll!!!! I'm in at any price. I'd love to drop the 10 pound ban hammer right on his head.

Beautiful dog sir, and thank you for keeping all of us home folk safe and sound. Nice bird, too bad they don't let you keep it!!!

No idea about TTK, rumor was he had passed on to that great watch shop in the sky, but those rumors could never be substantiated. My guess is he is somewhere giving the folks around him un shirted hell, especially those that are stupid enough to cross swords with him, like our friend frog face AKA THE TOAD KING., would do!! Last I heard, Lani was OK, I check in on his Facebook page occasionally.. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk