Effective Oct. 30, I will no longer put watches "on hold." This has been a difficult decision, and I realize that to some of you, this decision equates to "less friendly," "less personalized" service. I won't lie to you, or try to sugarcoat things. You are correct.
I have tried over the years to accommate my many friends and customers who collect watches on a tight budget, where buying one watch most often means selling another, or trading another, or scraping together money from various sources, or a combination of the three. In the "good old days," when people were patient and willing to wait a week, or two, or three, to consummate a "deal," this kind of time frame didn't matter much.
But the era of instant payment, instant communication, and instant gratification has changed all this. The practice of putting watches "on hold" has led to confusion, hurt feelings, and even a couple of severed friendships and business relationships. As you probably know, many of my watches listed for sale on my website are consignments. When a consignor sees a watch marked "SOLD," he is almost instantly phoning me or emailing me wanting to know when he will receive his money. In most instances, he needs the money "yesterday," because of another watch purchase that is straining his budget. A watch marked "ON HOLD" only makes that process worse, and strains my relationship with that consignor to the breaking point and, in some cases, beyond.
If you have watches that you want to trade with me, or sell outright, to fund the purchase of a watch from me, I will STILL WORK WITH YOU. Those of you who have dealt with me know that I more generous than most dealers, and can most always arrive at some type of agreement involving cash, trade, or both. I will continue to work with you. It's just that now we must SEPARATE these two transactions. BUY the watch first, so that I can pay my consignor. Then we will work out a deal on your trading pieces.
I realize this decision is not going to sit well with some of you for whatever reason -- you don't believe in credit cards, you hate Paypal, you don't like giving out information over the Internet, or whatever. No amount of reasoning on my part is going to change your mind on that, so I won't try. To you folks I simply offer my apologies, and wish you all the best in your collecting endeavors.
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