Choosing an AD

[epistrophy]

I am new to watch collecting and plan on buying several watches including PM pieces in the next few years. For good or bad, I am very susceptible to trends, and do find “hot” references more desirable. I am a hoarder and do not see myself selling any of these watches.

My sense is that there are two types of ADs:

1. ADs that sell to grey dealers: These ADs will try to get grey market value from every desirable reference they have by making it available to a customer only after said customer has covered the difference between retail and market value by purchasing jewelry or other less desirable watches. For every hot reference this collector buys, he will have to purchase other “non-hot” merchandise.

2. ADs that do not sell to grey dealers: These ADs are very careful about not loosing their status as AD, and avoid selling “hot” pieces to random customers for fear of selling them to flippers. They reserve the more desirable references for customers with an established purchasing history. These customers get periodic calls from AD who offer said references as they become available. These ADs are more concerned about maintaining their status as AD than they are about squeezing the maximum profit out of every hot piece they sell.

In your experience, does the above sound like a reasonable interpretation of ADs, or do you think these are extremes and most AD practices fall somewhere between the two descriptions above?

There are at least three different ADs relatively close to where I live, and would prefer to build a relationship with an AD that does not sell to grey dealers. My main question is, how can you tell if an AD sells to grey dealers?

[biscotti]

It's rather doubtful that you can tell which AD sells to the greys. My advice would be to buy the PM piece first and establish a relationship, then mysteriously SS pieces will appear. Good luck if you're looking to purchase a SS piece first, likely won't happen.

[Monty22]

Agreed. No way to know whether they sell to Greys or not and PM is the place to start to establish a foothold.


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[clb521]

The only way to figure out which ADs sell to grey is to buy a grey market watch and see who the AD is.

Maybe every forum member can post the ADs name that is on the warranty card that was bought thru grey and we can build a database.

The problem is grey dealers are not buying 1 or 2 watches from one dealer at a time but 5 or 10 at a time and on a consistent basis. They are treated like a high end customer which doesn't give us regular customers a chance to buy the watch we want if its a hot model.

How many AD's would turn away a customer that buys 10 watches at once? From the looks of it not many.

[epistrophy]

Thanks for the replies. Do you think a corporate jewelry chain or a local jewelry store is more likely to sell to greys?

[mulgogy]

take a look at their rolex area. Does it look updated, or well maintained? If it looks like they take good care of the product and display. It might seem silly, but I always look at how watches are organized, if the glass is clean, are watches in the display upside down? loosely placed? Thats usually a good indication of how the value they brand and product and indirectly you, the customer.

[aparker973]

My NYC "VIP" friends would not appreciate me saying this, but if they get a call about a hot SS model from an AD they'll pick it up and sell it to a gray/diamond district seller if they don't want it. Rarely will they just turn it down.

Don't assume all grays have a cost basis at retail. Often times they do not. But for window dressing purposes it's important to have hot models even if the margin is thin on them.

So let's not be too judgmental about ADs. They're salespeople making a living. And it's good for salespeople to grow their customer base as well as keep existing customers happy. Of course, I'd hate bending the knee to them if I wanted a SS model (which, thankfully, I haven't lately). But I would hesitate to assume they are explicitly complicit in feeding directly to grays on a wide-scale basis. Sometimes it just funnels via their VIPs. VIP gets their premium, then the gray adds theirs. I know of grays/secondary sellers who have taken a loss on hot models to make a big transaction (say, with multiple pieces) work. Or, pay up for window dressing.

[vandyologist]

OP: Where in Texas are you?