AD Selling out the back door? - Here’s pictures!

[SLWoodster]

Family been shopping Rolexes for awhile. I got into it a little less than a decade ago.

Prior to 2019ish, multiple dealers could ship. Sometimes the shipping was free, sometimes it was a bit of extra cost. Then it sounded like a Rolex policiy was being instituted around that time. so then some dealers stopped shipping or had local customer policies. Covid happened and for some dealers, it opened that shipping option back up. Then closed up real quick when the super high demand came back.

Even today, they can ship. Technically, all dealers can ship. If they can ship a diamond earring they can ship that watch.

Originally Posted by Ferrari-F430

I had a friend of mine forward this to me (random, he surfs youtube like crazy) and he found a guy in Las Vegas that has a brand new Rolex shipped to him from Bhindi and the guy claims he got it at MSRP. I have never known a Rolex dealer to ship brand new watches like this? Nothing against the guy that got it, I know nothing about him, perhaps he's just a lucky guy?

https://youtu.be/qJH7Z6ySiPY?si=JsPHVzpH2DYsHubX&t=85

[Zach69SS]

This happens and will continue to happen, Rolex does not care and neither does the AD. They are in business to make money and those pieces are theirs to sell to whomever they want. They have to pay rent, employees and make a profit with limited pieces to sell.

Op, if you are not treated as a customer find another AD that will. They are out there. Hard to find but exist. This hobby is not worth all this grief my friends in the end it’s just a watch. I have had some of the same experiences where I know something is up, but what can you do? Make a scene and call them out. Not me!

Recently when I was told that it would be a 10 year wait on the so called wait list? But there were plenty of used 2024 models in the case at market prices. Which was unbelievable at a Rolex AD.

In the past year I’ve heard and seen something’s that I would have never imagined at a Rolex AD. So like some of the others on here, I have looked at other brands and made purchases and enjoyed them with stores that appreciate my business. There will come a time when they will be calling us for a change.

Life is to short!

[Oat Willy]

not sure how it would even make sense to do this. Why sell it 'out the back door' when you could just sell it to someone on the list?

[johnsonsxusfrt]

Originally Posted by Oat Willy

not sure how it would even make sense to do this. Why sell it 'out the back door' when you could just sell it to someone on the list?

Premium bundle ;)

[train-time]

Originally Posted by Oat Willy

not sure how it would even make sense to do this. Why sell it 'out the back door' when you could just sell it to someone on the list?

Very simple answer, selling "out the back door" to a reseller allows the AD to participate in a "profit sharing" plan with the reseller for pieces that bring multiples of MSRP as opposed to giving the watch to someone on the list at retail.

[Calatrava r]

Even a small AD probably gets 20 watches per month on average. Overall, let's say the average retail price is $14,000 with TT and PM figured in. Retail mark-up is 30 percent or so. That comes to about 84,000 per month profit and $1,008,000 per year from selling Rolex at MSRP out the front door to real customers. For a bigger AD it can be a lot more.

Having Rolex in the store does the following:
1. It brings in foot traffic which would otherwise not exist of people who buy other stuff on the spur of the moment with mark-ups of 50 percent or more.
2. It brings in customers who specifically buy other stuff to create relationships to obtain Rolex watches.
3. It brings in customers who buy every gold studded Rolex they can no matter what the cost.

1 and 2 generate substantial collateral income to the store.

Aside from Rolex most watch brands do not sell briskly or even well. The cases are full of these brands which no one seems to want.

All this goes away if an AD loses Rolex. Yet so many people think ADs will just flagrantly violate Rolex policy to make a few more bucks on the few rarer delivered sports models and risk losing the whole brand and cash cow machine.

Not a smart business model IMO.

[Jasb]

Blows my mind, I posted on this forum about getting a sprite from an AD and trading it for a Pepsi and got roasted. People know that some ADs sell out the back door and sell to real flippers and yet stick up for the ADs. But then when it comes to not getting the watch you want the same folks say “use the trusted sellers”…..lol

[kieselguhr]

Especially with the namesake “Backdoor Bhindi” you’d wonder why anybody would continue pursuing futile efforts…

Move on, look for another AD. Quit chasing after “runaround Sue”

[Ferrari-F430]

Originally Posted by Oat Willy

not sure how it would even make sense to do this. Why sell it 'out the back door' when you could just sell it to someone on the list?

Family owned Rolex AD gets a Panda in, instead of selling it to a customer for $14K, they sell it out the back for, lets say, $23K. They pocket an extra $9,000 in pure profit, and if it's cash, they can keep it off the books. The Grey dealer sells it (126500) for $27K all day and pockets $4K in this example.

I do believe this does happen at some of the smaller shops.. maybe not on a lot of watches, but the big grey market marked-up ones.

[alex2812]

C'mon all those who are yet apologetic to AD "practices". The problem does exist and the problem isn't being solved despite all the necessary paperwork and frameworks between AD's and Rolex in place. Just saying, the ORJA clearly states that it's allowed to be selling stuff only over the counter and yet there's plenty of evidence that it's widely not the case. You can easily google the Official Rolex Jewelry Agreement and check.

Surely Rolex benefits short term from increased turnaround of "non-SS" and "non-sport" models, however in the years to come there's a possibility that if the hype goes away any time soon they are gonna be left with a huge stockpile of grey inventory which will ruin the demand for AD's/boutiques and consequently erode the prices / revenues topped up with market flooded with 32** sketchy movements.

That's probably not gonna happen any time soon or at all, but Rolex does understand the core of the problem otherwise they would've not been leaning towards slowly shifting distribution model from AD's to boutiques, selling "Certified preowned" etc.

I'm not a frequent poster, but I've experienced the AD's "service" in the recent years. Obviously even the discourse of "building a relationship" is a scam. Luxury is about playing the wicked game of course, but generally speaking it's a dealer who has to build a relationship not vice versa. Once I was not even recognized as a returning customer by one of the London AD's although I was wearing the very same watch that I bought from them directly and it was one database query away to check it. Just mental.

All in all it's not the case that I would not able to afford to pay some premium or even engage in "bending" for the ADs but I'm simply choosing to refrain from this. As many enthusiasts I'm just keeping an eye on what's happening and opting to reward with my money more customer focused companies.

[Calatrava r]

Originally Posted by alex2812

C'mon all those who are yet apologetic to AD "practices". The problem does exist and the problem isn't being solved despite all the necessary paperwork and frameworks between AD's and Rolex in place. Just saying, the ORJA clearly states that it's allowed to be selling stuff only over the counter and yet there's plenty of evidence that it's widely not the case. You can easily google the Official Rolex Jewelry Agreement and check.

Surely Rolex benefits short term from increased turnaround of "non-SS" and "non-sport" models, however in the years to come there's a possibility that if the hype goes away any time soon they are gonna be left with a huge stockpile of grey inventory which will ruin the demand for AD's/boutiques and consequently erode the prices / revenues topped up with market flooded with 32** sketchy movements.

That's probably not gonna happen any time soon or at all, but Rolex does understand the core of the problem otherwise they would've not been leaning towards slowly shifting distribution model from AD's to boutiques, selling "Certified preowned" etc.

I'm not a frequent poster, but I've experienced the AD's "service" in the recent years. Obviously even the discourse of "building a relationship" is a scam. Luxury is about playing the wicked game of course, but generally speaking it's a dealer who has to build a relationship not vice versa. Once I was not even recognized as a returning customer by one of the London AD's although I was wearing the very same watch that I bought from them directly and it was one database query away to check it. Just mental.

All in all it's not the case that I would not able to afford to pay some premium or even engage in "bending" for the ADs but I'm simply choosing to refrain from this. As many enthusiasts I'm just keeping an eye on what's happening and opting to reward with my money more customer focused companies.

If there is a downturn in the Rolex market and they just become no longer the hot thing to many folks, what will happen is many existing owners will try to protect their "investment" and sell to the used watch dealers. The first sellers will do somewhat okay if they see the downturn coming months in advance. Used watch dealers turn their inventory very quickly and as soon as they have less "visibility" on where prices are headed, they drastically reduce what they will pay for used watches. It is always a win/win situation for the used dealers as they buy at the current wholesale market and sell at the current retail market and when prices are down the added volume makes up for the per unit actual dollar profit shrink. As is the case in any market, lower prices mean more can afford the product.