Thanks Jim and Tamrock. Still trying to decide what to do with the watch. Wife is not happy about me spending so much.
What do you think the value is as-is? Need to decide to service or not.
@Jim....I'm new to watches. Why do you think it is a redial and what makes it a bad one? The hands look different than other models I've seen, but they look old. Also, to my untrained eye, the face also looks original and not touched up.
I don't think this lady took the watch to any dealer. She said it was her ex-husbands and she sounded resentful to him. She also said she was selling the house and moving to Arizona to retire. She was 52. She may have been retiring on the ex-husbands money.
Overall, this may have been the strangest sale I have ever been to. When I first got there, only a few things were out and I picked out about 6 small sterling pieces two of which were cufflinks. She told me she wanted $125.....crazy. I bought two small things for $8 to be nice. Then she told me she had some really nice pieces, but wanted real money for them. I waited around and she brought out a 200g sterling necklace that she wanted $300 for. She said she paid $800 for it. At this point another regular shows up. Then the owner brings out a Towle sterling silverware set and some other small pieces of jewelry. The set was large (2600+ grams) and I offered $250. She took $300. At this point I am really confused?! While I am buying the silverware set, I see another one of the regulars holding two gold bracelets, one of which was the largest gold bracelet I've ever seen at a yard sale. There must have been at least $2000 worth of gold, maybe much more and the owner sold them both for $350?! (After the lady who bought them left, the owner tells me she is pretty sure the lady she sold them to stole from her during her yard sale last year) At this point she brings out the Rolex and I am really confused.
She said the watch was real, it belonged to her x-husband, she thinks it is worth at least $3K, but will sell for $1,500. It was Sunday and I went to a couple local ATMs but could only get $1,200. I went back hoping to get it for $1,200 and she tells me $1,500 is too cheap and she wants $1,800. I went home, scrounged up some more cash, and frantically did more research. Given how up I was on the silver, I decided to take a risk. I text her and tell her I am on my way back. She texts me back and tell me to hurry because someone else wanted it, she said it was sold for $1800, and the guy offered her $2,200 and was going to get the cash. As I write this I know it sounds like I was getting hustled, but I'm pretty street smart and good at reading people. I think this was just an eccentric rich lady who was starting a new chapter in life and having fun at a yard sale.
After I bought the watch, my dad and I hung out with her and her daughter and ate pizza. I was nervous about the purchase and said so. She said something to the affect that she was confident that I would be happy with the watch and that I already did real well with the silver.
In the end, I spent:
- $8 for some misc sterling
- $300 for 2600 grams of sterlings
- $1900 for the watch
- $130 for
these Tiffany earrings
)
I'd hang on to it. I quit selling off old watches as I believe the value of many is only going to increase.. Heck even some of the early 70's 80's LCD watches are bringing good prices from collectors these days.
That old spotting also leads me to believe that dial has never been messed with.
