When trying to sell your luxury watch, options are many. Know that it may take sometime to find a suitable buyer who will agree to your terms and be willing to pay the asking price. There are other hurdles that might come up such as lack of proper warranty papers and the buyers not trusting your legitimacy. You can similarly be unable to market the watch properly to reach the right audience. All these aspects can lengthen the selling procedure and lead to the watch not being sold at the asking price.
To get the right price for your timepiece, it is advisable to consider where you want to sell it. Here are the top places where you can expect to get the best price for your luxury watch.
Family, Friends, and Colleagues
Ask your family, close friends and colleagues to spread the word about your watch. This is probably one of the safest and easiest ways which can ensure you get a decent price for it. Try and look for someone in your close circle to find potential buyers. If you’re employed at a large corporation, there might be an email list or a poster board that could be used to advertise your watch and selling intent. These can help get the best price for your wristwatch.
Consider selling your timepiece to family or friends. But it could become difficult to negotiate a fair price with someone you know so closely. You should think about the wear and tear and the next servicing too, which can be quite expensive when done at the watch’s official service centre. Then, if something happens to the watch soon after the sale; or if they see a cheaper replica of the same watch somewhere, they might hold you accountable and blame you for charging them too much. This may lead to the relationship becoming strained in the future and is why it should be thought through before being acted upon.
Online Forums
There are numerous online sites that act as mass forums and are used to sell anything and everything. The selling process can be completed within a few days or even hours, depending on the site’s popularity and the traffic it receives on a regular basis. With most of these websites, you generally have to either set a price for the product or set up an auction where people can bid. The former selling is as simple as it sounds, however, the latter allows people to bid a price they are willing to pay until one comes out on top.
Jewellery Shops
Many jewellery retailers are known to work in resales and trade-ins. Although their primary business may come from selling vintage and brand-new jewellery, many are known to buy pre-owned watches and reselling them. Moreover, sometimes they may offer trade-ins, providing more possibilities to discover a method that works for you. This is why a jewellery retailer is your best chance of finding a new home for your watch. However, do proper research on the retailer before committing to anything as different sellers tend to have different policies. Some may only allow trade-ins and some may offer a gift card in exchange while others might pay cash for the luxury watch.
Pawn Shop
This is possibly the fastest way to get cash for your luxury watch. Though, in most cases, this is also how you get the lowest value for it. Pawn shops generally don’t specialize in luxury watches, which is why they provide heavy discounts on their offer as they are uncertain about reselling the item. Additionally, pawn shops are more interested in giving a loan out while holding the watch as collateral than buying it on the spot.
Auction Houses
Most auction houses are known for hosting popular auctions which generate enormous amounts of money for hotly-contested and very high-priced items. If your watch is an heirloom, you could have excellent luck selling it through a venue such as this.
However, the main disadvantage of selling your luxury watch at an auction house is that you don’t know what price it will be sold at. The bidding could skyrocket and send the price to astronomical heights or not generate much interest and fetch only a small sum of money.
Additional Tips:
Knowing how to sell your pre-owned luxury watch is much more than simply being smart with the repairs, understanding its market value and having an idea of exactly where to sell it. You need to be a practical salesperson with very strong organizational skills and have a good head for details. Saying this, here are some points to keep in mind to ensure you get the most out of your luxury watch sale.
- Take high-quality pictures
- Keep excellent records
- Save everything from the original packaging
You could have luxury watches lying around your house or could have inherited them from family members. However, you’ve come into possession of one, if you’re thinking of selling your luxury watch, consider the above-mentioned tips to ensure it’s sold at the best possible price. It’s also a good idea to have the luxury watch appraised from a professional jewellery seller before listing it for sale.