I sold this ROLEX SUBMARINER in 3 MINUTES!

David Harper's World of Antiques!
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3 Video Views·Nov 15, 2022
I've just sold this Rolex bi-metal Submariner in under three minutes.
Right, there you go.
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, let me explain how and why
I sold the watch in under three minutes, subject to the inspection you're about to see.
This is all slightly nerve-wracking actually,
because the deal's been done subject to you examining it.
Let me tell you very briefly how this deal came out.
So a client got in touch with me and he wanted to sell his Rolex bi-metal Submariner.
He didn't want to sell it himself because it's not what he does.
He's busy, he's got time issues, he's also got security issues.
He doesn't want people coming to his home to look at a £10,000 watch.
That's what it's worth.
So it was handed to me.
Within three minutes, I'd sold this 1999 Rolex Submariner.
Within a couple of seconds of it coming into my hands, I knew how I was going to sell it.
I had three options in which to sell it.
I'll tell you what they are now very quickly.
Tell me if you think I've made the right decision.
I'm pretty sure I have.
Option number one, sell the watch in auction.
Sometimes auctions are the best places to sell objects, but not this watch.
Remember, it's worth around £10,000, plus or minus a little bit.
Kind of has a fixed sort of price.
So put it into auction and a savvy buyer of a Rolex Submariner knows what it's worth, £10,000.
So they are only going to bid to about £8,000 hammer price,
because of course they've got 20% auction commission to pay on top of their bid.
So £8,000 plus 20% will take you to about £10,000, the watch's value.
Sort of OK, £8,000 back to me?
No, because I now have to contend with my fee.
I've got to make some money and the auction commission, which is about another 20% in total.
So bringing the price back received to my clients about £6,500.
It's not going to work and it's going to take too long.
He wants a quick sale.
This is going to take months to find the right watch auction.
So scrub that, move on to option number two.
And option number two is selling online.
I love selling online.
But with this watch, again worth £10,000, not worth it for the following reasons.
So you're going to put it on platforms like eBay, right?
Good and bad things happen on eBay.
Put it on eBay, you'll find a client for it.
These things are selling like hotcakes.
It's going to cost £1,000 in online commissions to sell the watch.
It's going to cost time, my time.
Dealing with people, questions, silly offers, crazy scammers.
Oh yes, the scammers, even with me, try and come and get me.
And I've been doing this a long time.
But if you're slightly naive or come across as being naive on somewhere like eBay,
they'll come and get you, right?
They want your money.
They want your watch.
They don't want to give you anything.
But if you're going to deal with all of that insurance, nightmares, all of that kind of stuff,
plus you've got a 14-day money back, long-distance selling rule here,
which means that you can sell a £10,000 watch to somebody.
And if they want to send it back to you within 14 days for any reason, they can do that.
Now that comes with untold amounts of potential problems.
I might cover those in another video.
Anyway, even if I sold it very quickly online with the online fees,
my fees, my client isn't going to get back much more than £7,500.
More than auction, but still not a great deal of money.
So within a matter of about, say, three seconds,
I decided, once I held this watch, how I was going to sell the watch.
So within 30 seconds, I was on the phone to a watch dealer.
I wanted to sell direct.
So Guy Bolton, vintage watch shopper.
Worked with him for years.
I know his business partner, Jonathan, as well.
You might have seen him on this channel a few times.
They're great watch buyers,
but you've got to catch a watch dealer when they want to buy watches.
Luckily for me, Guy was in the market for a Rolex Submariner.
I knew he would be.
These things are absolutely red hot.
So within a minute and a half,
Guy had on his phone a picture of the watch and all of its documentation.
In under three minutes, I had done a deal with Guy.
I had sold him the watch subject to in the flesh examination,
which you're going to see now.
So you're also going to see how much I sold the watch for,
how much Guy is going to resell the watch for,
how much my client gets back, and crucially, how much money I made.
So go through it.
Tell us exactly what you would do.
Well, David, it's always a good science, obviously.
We've got the original box here.
I do like to see one of the earlier Oyster boxes.
It tells me it's going to be a nice sort of pre-ceramic model.
Yeah, right, good.
So this is a good sign.
Right.
So we open it up, which is always very exciting.
But it almost looks like what we call a full set.
I think it is.
So it's got the paperwork,
which is obviously the most important thing for provenance,
with its serial number, so we can date it from that.
Yeah.
Booklets, all the booklets, even the calendar card and the swing tag.
So I'm confident to say that is a full set.
Full set, yeah.
That's a good start.
Let's have a look at the watch.
OK.
Oh, lovely.
So it's a bicolour Submariner Date, steel and gold with a blue dial.
Nice condition as well.
Even got the hologram sticker on the back of the case.
So it hasn't been what we call sort of over-polished or over-serviced.
There's no sprain in the bracelet.
Let's just have a look at the condition.
Yeah, condition is very good.
It's got the original insert even, so it hasn't really...
What do you mean, insert?
Well, the actual bezel insert.
And a watch like this obviously would have had service history in its time,
but this hasn't been back to Rolex many times
and had the parts placed, which was just part of the service.
Oh, I see.
So replacing with new parts.
With new parts.
What collectors want now really is originality with original parts.
It's like an antique.
I mean, it's basically an antique that you're wearing on your wrist, isn't it?
It's all about originality and patination.
You like the idea that it looks like it's been worn.
Correct.
But it's been looked after.
It's been somebody's pride and joy.
It would have been an expensive watch, which it is now.
But back in 1999, this would have retailed for something like four and a half thousand.
And now we're talking double that.
Yeah.
You think that these things, particularly the Submariners, they're like bars of gold.
They have a price.
They have a value.
Not much more, not much less.
And they fluctuate.
But they've been fluctuating in only one direction.
And we can't see it slowing down at the moment.
It's just week by week.
Prices are going in one direction.
And just for us, it's just nice to see and being able to buy nice stock like this.
This is what we're looking for.
We have the buyers, but we also like stock for the website as well.
Sure.
But it doesn't hang around.
Everybody is looking for nice examples like this all the time.
So you're happy at eight and a half?
I'm happy at eight and a half to do the deal.
OK, very good.
Well, let's do a deal.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
OK, before you go, let me break those figures down for you.
So I've done a deal.
I've sold a watch at £8,500.
My commission, my earnings, £500.
Meaning my client receives within 24 hours hassle free £8,000,
which is more than he would have got any other way.
And now the watch will be sold by Guy at Vintage Watch Shop for its worth £9,750.
