Okay, I know on this board sometimes “cheapness” is paraded as some sort of value to be admired. The lines drawn between thrift and deceptive scrooge are sufficiently blurred that I tend not to join in those threads. I also think its a cultural thing that maybe gets lost in translation.
But here I now find myself at the other end of the scale facing a little bit of nonplussed astonishment at two quotes for something I want to buy.
The warranty on eBay is something called Sigmatime. Is that the company warranty? I would imagine for expensive watches that’s a big part of the price.
In general, there’s a big markup on high end items, and if there’s a grey market you can play games like this. Plus, most people aren’t very good at spotting fakes.
Godammit! I really really like Charriol style of watches. I like the rope bracelet and the additional loose bangle. I don’t mind paying top dollar becaues they are stylish and unique… but if the same watch can be bought on ebay $1000 cheaper… wtf?
I’ve noticed that on sites like Amazon, some rather mundane items are priced fantastically high. I suppose this might be to try to snag a foreign buyer who doesn’t quite grasp how much a dollar is in his currency? Let me see if I can find an example.
They could very well be. But assuming that it is 100% identical product with same warranties etc - you are taking your higher price directly off the manufacturer’s website.
To expand on Telemark’s commment - despite selling direct they presumably still move most of their merchandise through the retail channel, and who is going to want to be a reseller of watches where the manufacturer is on the web undercutting your retail price?
So the ‘list’ price and wholesale price is set to allow an upscale shop in a high-end location in e.g. Geneva to pay salaries, real estate, advertising, etc. etc. and still make a profit off hundreds of dollars of markup. If you are nice enough to pay retail price direct to the manufacturer, they’re very happy. If someone in an apartment in brooklyn wants to buy 1000 units at wholesale and sell them at $50 markup on ebay, they are still happy.
I bet your local Ford dealer can probably do you a deal on a new car at less than list price too…
Grumble Grumble fuckit! I just sent an email to Charriol in Geneva asking them to explain why I should buy from them direct when resellars are selling at 60% less. I will keep you guys informed
Here’s another: the body of the ad doesn’t even say the quantity (15 pounds total in the shipping instructions); It says the cost per ounce is .01.....!!! That would be about 16 cents per pound, right? Maybe the cost per gram, rounded off, is .01…(453 g to the pound).
Folgers Classic Roast Coffee Classic Roast Medium 33.9 Oz
by Folgers
Be the first to review this item
Price: $130.31 ($0.01 / oz) & FREE SHIPPING
and another, the price per standard can? $21…for coffee you can buy all day long for $10, $8 when on sale.
You could also try visiting watchuseek to see what those folks have to say about the brand and the ebay store. I’ve used that forum before to find out about various watch brands and sellers, they are extremely knowledgeable.
I’m kind of scratching my head on this one. Has the OP never encountered the spread of pricing in the so-called luxury item market?
Most luxury/upscale items are priced on an absolutely arbitrary basis, and because they tend to be slow sellers for resellers, the margins are immense. To preserve the image, authorized resellers are not allowed to sell below a floor value, which is why the gray market exists - the maker is just as happy to sell a thousand expensive watches that direction as in legit channels, especially as they can disavow any further obligation for repair or workmanship. It’s basically free money that supports the narrower, more profitable legitimate market.
I find it hilarious that watch aficionados piss on the notion of gray market - but then, most would just as happily pay twice as much for their acquisitions anyway.
We’ve had threads before on this type of very high price. It was caused by software that scans for prices for other similar items, then sets the price a little higher than what is found. Get two sites doing this, and the price just keeps rising for both of them.
I wouldn’t say they piss on the notion of grey market; it’s more like if you buy from the grey market they have a strong sense that you get what you pay for and should not expect a single thing from the watch company if something happens to go wrong. With watches, the grey market is dicier than maybe with other items, you are less likely to get something on par with what you would get from established channels. Some of it depends on how picky you are too; some watch people will get their panties in a knot about a spec of dust on the watch face, or something like slightly sloppy lumination; the average customer might not even notice those things though. YMMV.
Pretty sure what you’re seeing there is the result of an automatic pricing algorithm. The seller doesn’t really think anyone is going to pay $3,791.38 + $2,527.60 shipping for Folger’s coffee. I hope not, at least.
There are at least a dozen threads out there about this phenomenon. Here’s one.
Generally, it’s an out-of-control interaction between a couple automatic pricing algorithms. Seller A prices their product based on Seller B’s price and vice versa.
Most mid level watches are sold at a 100% mark up. When I worked at a Jewely store - this was the case. If we paid $300 for a watch it was sold for a MSRP of $599.
Now some watches - like Rolex - probably have less of a margin (or chain carried Rolex, but our store did not for some reason - so I didn’t have access to their prices) - but in general - most watches are this way.
Now no watch company that has a network of dealers is going to sell their watches for cheaper than MSRP - and some actually have practices that prevent heavy discounting - for example roles will kick you out if the catch you discounting much more than 10%.
So brands like Citizen - which I am more familiar with than the watch you posted - are commonly discounted by their resellers - they can easily charge say 20% or more over the cost of the watch - and still make a decent profit. It doesn’t take much to run an eBay business - and my guess would be they paid $1100 for the watch - so by selling it to you at $1365 - they are making an easy $265 gross which I don’t remember the eBay fees - but they will probably net a little over $100. Which takes probably 15 minutes work or less if you are doing lots of auctions.
If there is a critical mass of dealers - then you will almost always find someone willing to sell it for some small percentage over their cost.
Luxury Goods are often marked up more - some jewelry is 3x or more.
But they are often more tightly controlled - and sometimes have limits on what dealers can do.
Even though what you are looking at is probably a perfectly nice watch - it isn’t one of the traditional luxury watch brands - so I doubt they are.
The more commoditized (is that a word?) a market is - generally the lower the markup.
So a cold chain might be marked up 3x in some stores - you can go to a site like kitco - and for actual gold bullion - you can see their by and sell prices - so you KNOW what their spread is - and for a ~$1265 gold American Eagle - they are only making around $40.00.
Yeah - this seems to be the case, but I wonder how much of this is trying to kiss up to their advertisers.
I also think some of them try to act snooty - and want to keep the riffraff away from their brands - and seem to think their posting on the subject will keep people away and protect the value of their brand.
It seems like what they really want is to find an authorized dealer who will sell for close to what they can get grey market. I’ve looked at some very expensive watches - over $100k (I said looked at - not really going to buy). They half the time don’t have any problem telling me (without me even asking) that they will give me a discount - but I don’t know what that is.
On the other hand - some are limited by their stores as to what they can do. Sometimes you’ll even find sales associates that are pretty knowledgable about the forums and horology in general. In one store I actually met one of the writers for a vary famous watch blog who worked there part time.
In another - I found another guy who loved watches and was active in the forum. I told him that I wanted to get a certain Omega watch - and would like to buy it from him - but could get it for 25-30% off at a certain authorized dealer - he knew what dealer I was talking about, but said he couldn’t do more than 10%.
To me I look more at the difference of what I would have to pay for the watch vs what I could sell the watch for used on eBay - rather than absolute price discount percentages.