Jeff's "Get Lucky" post below just amazed me, that finds like that still pop up on EBAY, given all the eyeballs on everything these days. Sometimes it goes another way, as it did for me recently. Late one night I was browsing EBAY, and came across a lot of 10 watches, with these pictures focusing on the obvious one that caught my eye.

At first I was quick to dismiss it as a fake (as the seller proclaimed in his listing), but the more I looked at it and examined some unique characteristics about the dial, I thought it might be a late '50s/early '60s tropicalized real Rolex Sub. I bought the lot as a Buy It Now for $100 knowing other watches in the group were worth at least that, and went to bed. The next morning about an hour after I got on the computer, the seller canceled the sale. He'd been flooded with emails after I bought the lot telling him the watch was worth $5,000-$6,000 (way low estimates if it really it was what I hoped it would be). The circus that ensued was so silly. The buyer ignored all communication from me but I ultimately got him on the phone. He said he was taking it in for an appraisal and would offer it again to me first. A few days later, I called him again. He said the watch was pronounced a fake by the famous local jeweler in town: No reference numbers between the lugs. Rust in the movement (probably what tropicalized the dial).

Could he be lying and the watch is real? I'll never know. One footnote on EBAY's actions. Even after the buyer had canceled the auction, EBAY stepped in and cancelled it completely on their behalf (presumably because a fake Rolex was sold), wiping all record of the transaction from their system. Question becomes, if it wasn't fake (only described as such in his listing), would I have been out a real Rolex I rightly bought because they canceled the auction based on his description that it was a fake? How bizarre. As I said, sometimes we just have to laugh at ourselves about how crazy the search for the next real "find" can be.

Just a tale I thought you might find interesting.

Happy hunting! Bill