Got a call: "I have some watches I am looking to sell"

[Omega]

Hey guys,


Been hitting the swap meet pretty hard lately, since my garage sales have been slow, schools out for the summer, and there aren't to many people selling gold with prices so low. Anyways, been pretty successful buying watches and whatnot at the swap meet. 3 weeks ago, I met this guy who had about 500 watches for sale, for $1-3 a piece. I bought a few and sold them. 2 weeks ago, I ran into the same guy, looked through the watches, and found some more and bought them. I started talking to the guy who said he had 10,000 watches he was looking to sell. The guy said that he would bring everything the following week, so naturally I got excited and gave the guy one of my business cards saying I buy gold/silver/watches/etc. Last week I woke up extra early and went to the swap meet looking for this guy, and he was no where to be found for 3 hours. Despite him not being there, it turned out to be my best swap meet day this year so far!

Fast forward to yesterday I got a call from the guy saying he was under the weather, but was going to have a few watch buyers over to his house tomorrow to take a look at his watches. I got all the information and prepared. Turns out he lived an hour away from me, so I work up at 6AM and drove to his house this morning. I was the first buyer there and he told me I had an hour-hour and a half before other buyers showed up. I began looking though this hoard of watches. While I was looking, he mentioned that one of the other buyers was interested in buying them all, and was trying to come up with a price. He mentioned 6k and 7k a few times. He was trying to get $2 a watch, and he believed there to be 10-12k watches.

3 hours later I finished going through them and had my small pile of watches I felt were worth more than $15 a piece. We then started talking about selling the whole lot because the other buyer hadn't shown up yet. We weighted them out, and there was 400 pounds of watches. I estimated there to be 6-7.5k watches in the lot. Long story short I ended up buying them.
They fill 6 postal bins to the brim as the picture below shows. Not even all of them are pictured, I still have 2 backpacks full. I have quite a project ahead of me. Trying to figure out how I want to sell them.

What would you have paid/ what do you think I paid for the lot?
How much do you think I can expect to sell them for/ what is the best way for me to sell them?


Thanks Guys

 

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[kingskid1611]

looks like you will be busy for awhile.......Nice haul

 

[Beachkid23]

Holy crap. That should take a year or 5 to go through! I'd sell them by weight. Kind of like people sell vintage jewelry lots or costume jewelry. Are they vintage watches or newer fashion watches? Curious how much you paid, I'll guess $1000. Hopefully you don't have to put all new batteries in them. I would not, I would sell them as is. Although if you do come across an old men's Bulova Accutron I'm interested, even if it's parts.

 

[What Me Worry?]

I like your.......

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Dear Lord, cataloging, photographing and listing all of those is going to be a nightmare, but that is a good problem to have!

 

[Drmad7]

I've got about two of those bins worth of watches! That is a lot of work! I think you paid about $3000.00. You are a watch guy, so I know you saw some worthy watches. I would break them up into lots of 5-10. Men's Dress, Men's Casual, Women's Dress, Women's Casual. I would mix Casio with Bulova(not Accutrons, basic Bulovas), Fossil, Anne Klein, Relic. Those at 7 day auctions tend to sell for about $40-50 for lots of 5. It's the fastest way to sell midlevel watches. I've sold 50 watches in groups but they tend to end up around $100 or so. Those lots will only contain Geneva, low level Armitrons, Timex, with a Seiko, Fossil thrown in to make the lot more appealing. When I photograph them, I make sure the better looking watches are noticeable. Good Luck! I'm giving you advice that I need to get back to doing myself. You will make a ton of $$ just selling each watch for $19.99 each...but the work is tedious.

 

[JimDon]

I could sit down for days going thru the bins and would be happy as a clam!

 

[JimDon]

I would love to see the better watches you find.

 

[Omega]

I paid $1,260 for everything, and he threw in a Navajo turquoise ring and a Damascene bracelet/ earrings sterling Japanese set as well. So I figure I spent 1.2k on the watches. Going to sleep on it, but I'm leaning towards selling the watches that are in better condition as buy it now's in my eBay store. I'll defiantly be trying out the groups of 5/6 watches though, then just selling the junk and watches that are for parts by the pound.

Even if I could average $8-10 a piece for the ones worth selling individually, I would be ecstatic. After just selling jewelry, gold, watches, etc on eBay for the past 4 years as my only income, I picked up a job where I am getting 30-40 hours a week. I started 3 weeks ago and mainly got it to keep me from going crazy with all of my free time. I guess that wouldn't be an issue now . Will keep you all updated.

There was one watch that was seperate from the others. It is brand new. Came in a green box that resembles a rolex box. The watch is fully automatic, 35 jewels, moon phase, day, and date display. The brand is Devonshire. Has anyone heard of this brand or know anything about it? I was having issues researching it. Its a hefty watch that I think may be one of the better pieces.

 

[Omega]

UPDATE: Whatever the Devonshire watch is, it looks to be a counterfit. Open and inspected the movement and there are no markings whatsoever in there.

 

[Omega]

Just found this PIAGET watch from the 1940's-1950's! Winds up, ticks, and works (flawlessly I think)!

 

[jochart]

Jackpot! hopefully there's a bunch of gold ones

 

[trdhrdr007]

Might be worth pulling all the gold fill bands for resale in a bulk lot. Haven't checked in a while but they used to go for a fair amount on eBay.

 

[AlienLifeForm]

I hope you find one watch in there that will pay for the whole lot!

 

[GibH]

UPDATE: Whatever the Devonshire watch is, it looks to be a counterfit. Open and inspected the movement and there are no markings whatsoever in there.

It is probably Chinese, but not necessarily counterfeit. They are selling a lot of watches now under their own brands.

 

[JimDon]

Any updates on this old thread? What else did you find?

 

[Omega]

Any updates on this old thread? What else did you find?

Nothing else to special. I actually just got around to the lot again in May. I sorted everything into 4 piles, Chinese/other, japanese, swiss, and good brands. I plan to sell everything by the pound, and then sell the seikos, citizens, anne kliens, etc as lots. I did not make out as well as I had originally expected. Oh well, I live a learn and have come a longggg way in the past year sense I bought these. It's hard to imagine it has only been a year haha.

 

[JimDon]

Nothing else to special. I actually just got around to the lot again in May. I sorted everything into 4 piles, Chinese/other, japanese, swiss, and good brands. I plan to sell everything by the pound, and then sell the seikos, citizens, anne kliens, etc as lots. I did not make out as well as I had originally expected. Oh well, I live a learn and have come a longggg way in the past year sense I bought these. It's hard to imagine it has only been a year haha.

Bought a jar of watches from a thrift store. There were several nice quartz watches in there. Casio, Seiko, Lucien Picard etc. almost all did not run even after using my new quartz tester. I believe they sent all of their watches to a jeweler and they checked them out and gave the non runners back and they ended up in this jar. Did get a non running Accutron Railroad watch though which made the lot.