Prices not dropping?

[QuelleHeureEstIl]

Originally Posted by Ichiran

There will be no line in 3 months' time according to the gurus here. We can get any watch we want at MSRP or below then, including those lovely Pateks, just like the old days. Happy are those who save up for times like that. Bookmark your calendar

Net margin is thin (10%). So they need volume or big pieces.

Most of these new flippers and new greys made wrong personal and professional choices stacking fixed costs: nice car leasing, nice apartment, risky speculation, commercial rental, employees, etc.

The weakest ones will quickly have to make "hard decisions" (=sell under their break point).
The others have enough financial backing to survive (Richemont's Watchfinder) and can try to find a solution to keep a positive appearance.

Now we do not know what is happening behind the curtain.

Trust is important in this business. The greys and the flippers do not want to scare anyone and they know that bad news are contagious and toxic for the whole business.

Fun story: In the 2000's I was working for a big IT service company. Internally we knew that they were almost bankrupt. In parallel they were publishing job openings in the newspaper (it was an other time!) and on Internet. We understood that they were fake and only used A) to reassure the customers in case they heard a rumor B) as a selling argument for the sell teams.