Reference Number Mismatch on Warranty Card

[creedence623]

Hi all. I've been a long time lurker, and recently added my first Rolex to my watch collection.

My search for a new watch took me through a number of the Boston area's grey dealers as well as ADs while I narrowed my choices down. I came across this 116613LB in one of the more predominant grey dealers in town which he was offering at a reasonably attractive price. To the best of my knowledge, everything looked good on it, but I couldn't get over a discrepancy with the warranty card out of my head. I eventually came to the conclusion that the ~$2,000 premium was worth the piece of mind with this purchase so I went and got one from the AD.

Having said that, this is still bugging me. The serial numbers match on the watch and the card, but the reference number on the card is 116613LN rather than LB. I'm hoping someone here can settle my suspicion that the dealer likely bought a box and paperwork, and paid to have a card fabricated which led to the reference number error. If that's the case, I get buying the box and booklets, but having a card fabricated feels a little uncomfortably shady from a business practice perspective for a ~$11,000 purchase.

Like I said, this was enough to scare me away from the purchase, but this is the first instance I've seen through my casual/moderate searching of a serial number match with a reference number discrepancy. The scary thing is, the card looked pretty legit outside of that issue.