Rotary gold watches on ebay: bargain

Pembroke

Myyrrddyn wrote: »

I can buy some great imitation watches from Turkey they look, feel and weigh about the same as the real ones.
I have a real Rolex and when I saw a copy of it in Turkey I thought I would have a good luck, first taking mine off and hiding it in my pocket.
To be honest it was spot on, on the whole a damn good copy.
So beware what you buy on ebay jewelery wise as you could get stung especially if the seller is in Turkey.

At least with a rolex most are automatic and the majority of fakes have a quartz movement so are easy to spot. The Rotary the OP is asking about has a quartz as standard so will be even harder to tell real from fake.

Does it have hallmarks OP ? I read a website last night saying that their real Rotary's had hallmarks on them although whether they were re-marked in the UK or swiss hallmarks it didn't say.

Leif

I would never buy such an item from an overseas seller. These were bought from UK sellers with a history over many years of selling similar items e.g. Rotary watches. They are both hall marked, but that does not really mean much does it. The 9ct one has been examined by a watch repairer, with nothing said. Both came with the same style wooden Rotary box.

High end watches are routinely faked, as that is where the profit lies, and in the case of Rolex it can be quite hard to spot a fake without opening the back and most use cheap mechanical movements e.g. chinese . Cheap fakes are common, but they feel rather nasty.

In the case of headphones, fakes are commonplace. Just do a search on the name of a popular headphone, and add China to the search string, and you will find Chinese sites openly selling fakes. I am told that a substantial proportion of ebay headphones from UK sellers are fakes. I bought a headphone from a UK online store for £35 compared to the usual £90, not fake, really excellent sound, but the same model is faked. I would not use ebay to buy headphones.

Enfieldian

Rotary are not a particularly high end brand anyway so the RRPs are probably way OTT anyway.

Didn't H Samuel have a half price sale on them just before Christmas anyway?

Leif

Enfieldian wrote: »

Rotary are not a particularly high end brand anyway so the RRPs are probably way OTT anyway.

If you look at the scrap value of the gold, then add on the cost of a quartz movement, leather strap, and mineral glass, then yes the MRP is massively OTT. You can buy a similar 18ct Tissot which includes sapphire glass for £550. I suspect some of the watches on ebay are bought in job lots at auction for example when a small jewellers has been liquidated. I also know the 9ct gold watch I bought was the old model, and jewellers were probably flogging off old stock at cost price to ebay sellers. I bought my LCD monitor from a company that gets surplus items from Samsung at rock bottom prices. It was ex-demo, and several years later it still looks and works like new.

forgotmyname

Its all in the sales patter... Imply its worth a lot more than it really cost RRRP £1000 is meaningless
when the high street shops are selling them for £300.

Local TV and Cooker place buy appliances by the truckload, They sell them as ex display which is rubbish, They are
returns. Some are faulty which they repair or make good ones out of several bad ones.

If they are ex display where have they been on display? A truckload of them? Most shops sell their ex display stuff.

Got my double oven and a free hob for £100, Cant complain about that can you. And its still working 12 years later.
Front ring switch powers up but the LED can take a minute to light up, should i ask for a partial refund?

Not all bargains are what they seem, Checkout the argos, LIDL, ALDI sales.... How can it be on sale next week when its
the same price now and has been the same price for the past 2 months?

Leif

forgotmyname wrote: »

Not all bargains are what they seem, Checkout the argos, LIDL, ALDI sales.... How can it be on sale next week when its
the same price now and has been the same price for the past 2 months?

There are strict laws that define when something can be described as being on sale. Basically the item must have been available at some stores (one?) for the higher price for a set time (3 months maybe?). I suspect some shops purposefully send a few items to one branch and sell them at a silly price for a few months, so that they can subsequently have them at a realistic price in all stores, and be described as on sale.

Back to the watch, my 9ct one has steamed up, one week after H. Samuel returned it with a new battery. Took them 2 months. Did I say it took them 2 months to change a battery? And did I mention that it has steamed up? The Muppet Show might be no more, but I know what happened to the cast. :mad:

Enfieldian

Well OP, you appear to have answered your own post....

Buy the looks of your other thread, Rotary watches are not much cop anyway....

Leif

Enfieldian wrote: »

Well OP, you appear to have answered your own post....

Buy the looks of your other thread, Rotary watches are not much cop anyway....

I disagree. It looks like the cheaper one has been damaged by a poor service, although the fogging has now cleared.

bluejake

I think the cost of manufacture of fine watches bears little relationship to the cost they are sold at in high street jewellers. Jewellers need high mark ups to pay the rent and these goods are ostentatious goods which might take a while to sell. A £7,000 rolex costs nowhere near that to manufacture, the mark up by the time it reaches the high street must be eye watering.

Ebay can be a place to get a bargain but I think you need to buy from a recognised dealer or someone with lots of feedback for high value goods. Lots of dealers who have retail shops also sell on ebay so you can turn up at their shop to inspect the goods. I do treat RRPs with caution though and remember it is possible to negogiate discounts at high end watch shops as well. However, sellers who are not paying rent on prime locations in big cities can unsurprisingly offer large discounts if they can get hold of the stock.