are the prices reasonable?

[taxico]

although i spent many years outside of the country, i'm a true blue singaporean. i've completed my NS. i've said the pledge daily in pri and sec school. i've ROM'ed and gone to toa payoh to look at flats. i love this little island and am relocating home soon.

but i also love buying watches...

so i can't understand why prices of pre-owned watches in singapore do not seem to correspond with their international value (private user-to-private user sale).

if we considered the original purchase price, they don't even seem to correspond with the regular depreciation/appreciation scale!

why is this? (i'm basing my observations on 1) sg-roc 2) *** 3) ebay.com.sg) am i not seeing something?

since april this year, i come onto sg-roc's sales garage almost daily looking at sub prices. i've only noticed 3 watches that were well priced. all 3 took a while before it got sold. if it was on a foreign forum, it would have been snapped up.

i've not yet bought a watch locally and have resorted to usually buying on overseas forums and getting my singapore-based wife to pay the taxes/courier handling fee by CC. it works out to be always cheaper if not the same price, and i get to enjoy them during my regular trips home.

what's worse: when people offer their watches cheap (for perhaps no more reason than just because they want to sell it fast to someone else instead of a pawn shop/dealer), prospective buyers/onlookers tend to nitpick and think there's something wrong with it!

is this because us singaporeans prefer to put higher than normal prices to cope with buyers who like to "GIAM KAY"?

or is it because some dealers insist on selling their watches for what i believe are higher-than-average prices (maybe because they have serviced the watch?), and refuse to budge, so they advertise and advertise until someone comes along and unwittingly buys it.

(kind of like how the auntie at the canteen looks more and more attractive after a few weeks being stuck in an army camp without external female influence)

now everybody who owns the same watch thinks theirs should cost the same amount, because, look! that one sold for $xxxx! so the price becomes artificially inflated for everyone...

since when did non-RSC servicing increase a watch by so much??? i think this is quite ridiculous! the increase should correspond ROUGHLY to the servicing cost, and it's usually LOWER than its original cost!!!

i don't think dealers should be allowed to advertise in the garage because of this distortion factor.

i'm tired and might have not put the issue across as diplomatically as i could, but i thought this would make for interesting discussion.

ALL ATTACKS SHOULD NOT BE DIRECTED AT ME, BUT AT THE ISSUES I'VE RAISED: ie, an chwa ah-ni gwee eh?

[triton]

when you say international, do you mean globally or just certain countries? in asia countries such as china, HK, sg, msia to name a few symbolize rolex more as a status thing.

how many people will know the original purchase price? we can only 'guess' the price if we have ample market knowledege. so it is not easy to peg the appreciation/depreciation price to the original price

most people will choose to think there is something wrong when price is lower than others even though the real reason is to get rid of watch fast. however, how much cheaper? if it was say 300 cheaper, fair enough, but if 500 or more cheaper. i would be suspicious also unless it is like during economic crisis.

if im a seller, i would price it higher to lose less not because i think others will lower their price because the price i put would be a fair price. willing buyer, willing seller.

dealers = private dealers or those with brick and motar shops? those with shops have operating costs, so they will have to price it higher. as a private dealer, though they dont have a shop but they also take the effort to source and bring it in. so they should be rewarded for their effort. everyone is trying to earn a little extra, if you are doing a business, it is to make profits, if not why do a business?

when you mentioned about non-RSC servicing price gone up. i can think of rental price is always going up. if they dont up their servicing costs, how they going to pay rental? another possibility is that parts are getting harder to come by. so price also go up.

so i can't understand why prices of pre-owned watches in singapore do not seem to correspond with their international value (private user-to-private user sale).

if we considered the original purchase price, they don't even seem to correspond with the regular depreciation/appreciation scale!

since april this year, i come onto sg-roc's sales garage almost daily looking at sub prices. i've only noticed 3 watches that were well priced. all 3 took a while before it got sold. if it was on a foreign forum, it would have been snapped up.

what's worse: when people offer their watches cheap (for perhaps no more reason than just because they want to sell it fast to someone else instead of a pawn shop/dealer), prospective buyers/onlookers tend to nitpick and think there's something wrong with it!

is this because us singaporeans prefer to put higher than normal prices to cope with buyers who like to "GIAM KAY"?

or is it because some dealers insist on selling their watches for what i believe are higher-than-average prices (maybe because they have serviced the watch?), and refuse to budge, so they advertise and advertise until someone comes along and unwittingly buys it.

now everybody who owns the same watch thinks theirs should cost the same amount, because, look! that one sold for $xxxx! so the price becomes artificially inflated for everyone...

since when did non-RSC servicing increase a watch by so much??? i think this is quite ridiculous! the increase should correspond ROUGHLY to the servicing cost, and it's usually LOWER than its original cost!!!

i don't think dealers should be allowed to advertise in the garage because of this distortion factor.

i'm tired and might have not put the issue across as diplomatically as i could, but i thought this would make for interesting discussion.

ALL ATTACKS SHOULD NOT BE DIRECTED AT ME, BUT AT THE ISSUES I'VE RAISED: ie, an chwa ah-ni gwee eh?

[Ender]

although i spent many years outside of the country, i'm a true blue singaporean. i've completed my NS. i've said the pledge daily in pri and sec school. i've ROM'ed and gone to toa payoh to look at flats. i love this little island and am relocating home soon.
but i also love buying watches...
so i can't understand why prices of pre-owned watches in singapore do not seem to correspond with their international value (private user-to-private user sale).
if we considered the original purchase price, they don't even seem to correspond with the regular depreciation/appreciation scale!
why is this? (i'm basing my observations on 1) sg-roc 2) *** 3) ebay.com.sg) am i not seeing something?
since april this year, i come onto sg-roc's sales garage almost daily looking at sub prices. i've only noticed 3 watches that were well priced. all 3 took a while before it got sold. if it was on a foreign forum, it would have been snapped up.
i've not yet bought a watch locally and have resorted to usually buying on overseas forums and getting my singapore-based wife to pay the taxes/courier handling fee by CC. it works out to be always cheaper if not the same price, and i get to enjoy them during my regular trips home.
what's worse: when people offer their watches cheap (for perhaps no more reason than just because they want to sell it fast to someone else instead of a pawn shop/dealer), prospective buyers/onlookers tend to nitpick and think there's something wrong with it!
is this because us singaporeans prefer to put higher than normal prices to cope with buyers who like to "GIAM KAY"?
or is it because some dealers insist on selling their watches for what i believe are higher-than-average prices (maybe because they have serviced the watch?), and refuse to budge, so they advertise and advertise until someone comes along and unwittingly buys it.
(kind of like how the auntie at the canteen looks more and more attractive after a few weeks being stuck in an army camp without external female influence)
now everybody who owns the same watch thinks theirs should cost the same amount, because, look! that one sold for $xxxx! so the price becomes artificially inflated for everyone...
since when did non-RSC servicing increase a watch by so much??? i think this is quite ridiculous! the increase should correspond ROUGHLY to the servicing cost, and it's usually LOWER than its original cost!!!
i don't think dealers should be allowed to advertise in the garage because of this distortion factor.
i'm tired and might have not put the issue across as diplomatically as i could, but i thought this would make for interesting discussion.
ALL ATTACKS SHOULD NOT BE DIRECTED AT ME, BUT AT THE ISSUES I'VE RAISED: ie, an chwa ah-ni gwee eh?

When you consider 'overseas' prices, do factor in additional costs like exchange rate (not just the rate you get off the internet but the +0.4~0.5 imposed by your credit card companies), GST charges, paypal fees, shipping fees, insurance fees etc and also consider the risks you are taking e.g. seller turns out to be a scammer, watch stolen/damaged in transit etc. Photos can only show so much and cannot compare to having the actual watch in your hands for examination.

If you consider the above additional costs and decide that it is more worthwhile to get from a overseas buyer, go get it. As a buyer, you are free to buy from whoever you want.

Likewise, a seller is entitled to price his watch at the price he wants. Sellers, local or overseas, dealers or collectors, who price their watches unrealistically high will just have to run the risk that their watches will not move. If you find a seller's price too high, for whatever reasons, either you try to bargain it down to an acceptable level and deal or if not, you just walk. To be very blunt, no one can force you to buy at a price you find unacceptable.