Craziest markup I've seen yet

[bob78h]

I was at a local mall today and noticed they had a couple of jewelry stores (non AD) that also sold pre-owned Rolex. This is a lower end mall (not a Westfield or anything) so I was quite surprised. Thought I'd take a quick look around, not expecting much.

One shop had a stainless steel Daytona 116520 from 2000. Having never seen a steel Daytona in the flesh I was quite excited to try it on. Then I asked the sales lady how much it was. Her response? "$69000, but we're doing 40% off today so it would be $41400". I almost thought she was joking at first but she said it very matter-of-factly.

I then asked if she knew that was over twice the market value and she told me she'd worked at Rolex for 6 years and I'd be lucky to even get on a list to buy a Daytona for $20k. At retail sure its unobtanium, but at $20k (for a non ceramic at that)? I know there is plenty of stock at grey dealers at that price.

How do these places stay in business asking 2x grey dealer prices? I understand charging a slight premium to cover showroom costs, but don't you also want to move inventory eventually? Are there really people who are so rich or ignorant that they'd drop that kind of cash on a watch without doing any market research or shopping around at all?

Anyway I guess my point is I'm used to seeing grey dealer premiums in this market but still found this shocking. They also had a 16613 (blue non ceramic Sub) for $15k and a 14060 for $9k. Still pretty overpriced but at least not as bad as that Daytona.