How to stop the flipping scourge

[teck21]

It is a problem. Everybody knows that.

There’s no blame to be assigned for doing it because that’s just rational human behaviour, the chance for a quick buck.

But every watch that gets taken away from an AD purely for the sole purpose of selling again without adding value deprives another genuine customer of a chance of it from an AD, that is also surely not in doubt.

What is it you think Rolex and/or ADs can do, in conjunction or not, to ensure as few watches as possible go to these opportunistic scalpers?

As it stands, Rolex tries to ‘dissuade’ its ADs from funnelling directly to greys (via the threat of dealership revocation), and to individual flippers (via black listing of individuals).

This discussion is not about Rolex increasing supply to resolve the demand issues, or demand supply issues in general, such as whether demand is ‘real or fake’.

The market situation is what it is, littered with opportunities for scalpers to profit.

In this light, what else can, or should Rolex/ ADs do?

Curious as to people’s views.

Mine are straightforward. Make sure everybody pays ‘market’ price via relationship building/bundling (even though Rolex frowns on outright binding), but I understand that’s not a popular view, and it also has its drawbacks.

What solutions would some of you propose?

Edit:
For the purpose of this particular discussion, flipping refers to the buying of a popular reference at an AD with little or no intention of being the end user, but for monetary profit.


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