2004 .. some other views

I have a different perspective. I collected vintage watches (mainly Heuer) since late 80’s, but when you are only searching flea markets when you are on holiday but otherwise not much else then you don’t see too many good watches and don’t buy too many. I managed to buy around 10 Heuers and 20 oddities from the 70’s over ten years. Took me one year to (cough) double that.

I looked at ebay for vintage watches for the first time just over 18 months ago. That along with OtD is an incredible resource. Yeah I agree there is a lot of rubbish (I know, I bought some) but it is also impressive to see so many Heuers for sale – I can’t tell you how many flea markets I had to check out in Thailand or Mexico or Spain to find a few decent Heuers (I didn’t speak to dealers much). But yeah the search was the fun thing.

And then the prices ...as Jeff says, it is the market effect. It is wrong to talk about a “correct” price for a Heuer. There is the market price and that is the correct price. That doesn’t mean any auction is the correct price - I bought some at WAY over the market price when I HAD to have it. I bought one or two (OK one) on “buy it now” below the market price. It is the market price when you can buy it and sell it the next day on ebay for the same amount. Of course everyone can have a view if the market price will rise or fall... so if there are new buyers pumping up the price it is only the wrong price if you are sure they will disappear next year and you can buy back at the old low price.

Having said that, I should have been there when I could have picked up a pvd monaco for $800!

So is OtD a positive or a negative? Yeah, it has contributed to higher prices (it influenced me to search for more) but also saved me from buying rubbish. First ebay vintage Heuer I bought was a Camaro.. then found out dial was refinished.. haven’t made such an obvious mistake since digesting OtD. Also OtD sales forum looks very efficient. So encourages recycling without the ebay hassle.

So thanks Jeff, I learned a lot and it has been a lot of fun, even if pretty expensive fun. As “K” says as least they are assets. More fun than owning stocks and a lot less volatile. (That’s my story anyway and I am sticking to it).

So...

Predictions for 2010 ... ? Anyone want to bet (m&ms?) on the "market" price of a viceroy autavia (think that is the most “liquid” Heuer) in 2010?