You just can't rely on the dealer to tell you everything

[citanest]

Started looking into vintages since in the beginning of the year. The one thing I keep repeatedly hear is "buy the seller" and I cannot agree more. However, I find that most dealers, reputable ones (including the ones on rolexpassionmarket) or not so reputable ones (random ones from chrono24) do not have a lot of patience when it comes to answering all of your questions. Being new and inexperience in the world of vintage, my questions probably annoyed them a little. I also think that they probably get a lot of "how much" questions everyday.

After about 3 months of reading and research, I started narrowing down to what I want, I then paid close attention to the listings from only the reputable dealers. By then, I have learnt how to ask the right questions so I without wasting too much of their time. A good sample that is priced properly is usually sold within hours on social media. Unfortunately, it is a selling's market and the prices on good sample are constantly going up.

While these reputable dealers would send you great photos and guarantee authenticity of the watch, they may not tell you the full story unless you ask. (Just to be fair, sometimes they may not have the full history either). For example, a dealer would say "all originals" even when the crystal has been changed a service crystal. And when I asked about the crystal, they would say crystal was changed to ensure the watch is sealed properly. Sometimes, I noticed the wrong period bezel (not serviced ones) was installed but the again, this was not mentioned in the description. You would think that these reputable dealers would tel you everything but I think just leave it up to you to ask. Their job is to price it properly according to the shortcoming of the watch.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't get discourage at all. It is quite the opposite. Since all the work falls back onto me, I have do my homework before making an offer. I learnt a lot in the process and this hunting experience has been extremely satisfying.