6538 case on the bay

[jerkstore]

See it here:

http://bit.ly/1dV7wAF

Gen or not?

What does it end up selling for?

[cc33]

It's gen, heavily polished, bevels are gone and the case back is not the right one. It's basically a heavily polished mid case. Value is right around 5000-6000$ imo but that's subjective!

[Tonyyammine]

This guy seems to hit the jackpot way too much. I been following him for a few yrs. this isn't his original name. He had in a 3 month period 3 different white dial submariners. I mean that's fishy but whatever. I had the nerve to speak about it at the vrf I got totally abused. Watever.

[denimhead]

Agreed A, 100% Gen. should be interesting to see where this goes in terms of value.

[theblueprince]

This guy seems to hit the jackpot way too much. I been following him for a few yrs. this isn't his original name. He had in a 3 month period 3 different white dial submariners. I mean that's fishy but whatever. I had the nerve to speak about it at the vrf I got totally abused. Watever.

 

Getting hold of multiple old watches like that and like this one is not that hard really. What most of the traders on VRM, TRF and all the other brand watch forums do is put ad's in local(ish) papers, magazines, periodicals, ads on local companies websites etc...something like "OLD ROLEX / OMEGA / WHATEVER WANTED!!! TOP PRICES PAID EVEN FOR YOUR BROKEN WATCH!!!" and you'd be surprised how many calls they get. That's how they get old never polished examples and safe queens as well as the usual old used but ok condition watches. Sometimes they turn up junkers like this. They also have deals with jewellers (cutting them into profits) to call them when a walk-in turns up with an interesting watch.

 

Their MO is to go see the people who call them and if the watch is dirty (scratched up plexi, ingrained dirt in case and bracelet etc but behind all that a good clean maybe even never polished example) and not been serviced for ever they will say something like "Oh, this was a nice watch but it needs a lot spending on it to make it good again, it's not been serviced, buyers like to see service history, needs a lot of new parts and money spending on it blah blah" and if it's been serviced regularly, bit over polished maybe, dial and hands replaced maybe they'll say "Oh, this is a nice watch but it's really lost a lot of it's value cause all the original parts have been replaced and the case is worn down". In both cases they'll use these tactics to get the seller to accept a low-ball offer. They get loads of pieces like this from old guys short of cash, widows selling their husbands old watch, children selling legitimate inheritance pieces and that sort of thing. It's easy to build up a collection of spares to this way from really rough pieces so the one's they get with replacement dial/hands say will suddenly get the correct period parts put back in. 

 

The vintage watch market, especially for Rolex is super-shady, even when so called trusted dealers have pieces with papers and original purchase receipts the watch will often have been fettled by them prior to sale and not be all original. 

 

Of course this is common knowledge amongst a growing number of sellers, buyers and collectors now but it's not talked about because no-one wants to upset the apple cart. It's still too easy for everyone to make good coin. Try bringing this up on VRF and see how long it lasts!