The interests and passions of the well-off often confuse the folks stuck in a mostly or purely utilitarian lifestyle.
One could collect pretty seashells she sees at the seashore. One could collect pretty baubles they see at Tiffany’s. Or one could collect watches from Rolex or the brands that consider Rolex to be trailer trash.
Collecting is like that. They’re expressions of your interest in the breed. They are not devices to inform you of the current time. They do that, but that’s utterly not the point.
I really don’t. I’m terribly lazy, and the notion of keeping track of a bunch of stuff fills me with, well, dread seems too strong a word, so I’ll go with anxiety.
I collect comic books, toys of various kinds, obsolete computers and consoles, Cthulhu Mythos things, ocarinas (I cannot play one but I have a bunch), bats (the animal with wings, not the baseball equipment kind) and probably quite a few other things that I am forgetting. For some people, collecting things and displaying them is very enjoyable.
I don’t personally collect anything and don’t own anything expensive that’s not utilitarian like my tv or car. I’ve never owned anything but a cheapie watch and I stopped wearing one of those when I got a cell phone that showed the time in the late 90s. I don’t want to even have something like an expensive watch let alone wear one around.
But I get that other people are different than I am.
You got a lot of good insight into the collectors mindset from others before I jumped back in this thread, but to talk about flippers, that’s an all different thing. There is a group of buyers that either take advantage of their primo reputation with Rolex or leverage shady connections with Rolex dealers, who essentially will regularly buy everything they can get their hands on at MSRP. They then immediately turn around and sell those watches on the gray market. At the peak of the craze, they could double their money in a single day. Anyone with a lick of sense would want in on that, because who doesn’t love doubling their money for doing nothing?
I heard buying a Rolex as being described as being delivered a watch with a bag of cash on the side.
It’s the flippers that Rolex hates. Not collectors that buy and sell watches over time.
Ah, the whole “flipping” thing. Arbitraging themselves into a pile of wealth. Another support for my belief that the only ethically defensible way to get rich quick is by winning the lottery.
I am genuinely confused by this. I bought a KISS trash can for $1. I sold it for IIRC $125. I bought a Magic The Gathering card for $0.25. I sold it for $500. I do not see anything unethical about that.
Exactly. It’s jewelry, and it seems to be a kind of jewelry that men find particularly addicting in that it’s also intensely mechanical, with a shit load of fine detail that can be argued over incessantly. Escapement types, finishing techniques, dial engraving methods, which standards org applies better accuracy standards, metals used… it’s all a fever dream for those prone to monomania.
I stayed as far away as I could for a long time but eventually succumbed when my wife was going through cancer treatment. I spent many sleepless nights on YouTube looking at watch disassembly and repair videos. Deeply addicting stuff.
No, but I don’t see how that is relevant. I bought the KISS trashcan and many many other things specifically to resell for a profit. If I could have resold them immediately I would have. AFAIAC if people could buy a Rolex and immediately resell it for a great profit, that shows a failure on the part of Rolex. It does not show a moral failure on the part of the reseller.
Nobody seems to much love the flippers. They’re a pretty skeevy bunch. As much as I’d like to say that ethically I would choose not to participate, if you told me I could make 30 or 40k for a perfectly legal thing with no more effort than going to the mall and stuffing some boxes into a backpack, well, let’s just say I’ve never been tested like that.
I mean I can see the difference between a luxury item and Taylor Swift or Phish tickets. I think that ticket scalpers are complete scum with no redeeming value. Rolex flippers are just screwing the wealthy but I couldn’t bring myself to do it unless I was in desperate need.
I don’t hate ticket scalpers. I reserve my hatred for Ticketmaster. Scalpers are obtaining an item in high demand and reselling it for a profit. Ticketmaster is a near monopoly screwing over performers, venues and ticket buyers.
Well that was ignorant. I have no love for Ticketmaster but they are nowhere near a monopoly. AXS is nearly as big as they are. Off the top of my head there’s also Tixr, Eventbright and See Tickets. Lots of venues do their own ticketing. They are definitely assholes though.
Scalpers add no value. They are bloodsuckers and what they do is wholly immoral.
Gotta disagree on the Ticketmaster thing. Ticketmaster/Live Nation acts anti-competitively and unethically (imo) and in the end you have no control over who you buy your ticket from. And the artists often have no choice in where they sell their tickets as so many venues are either owned by, operated by, or contacted exclusively with Live Nation.