Buying on TZ

[simkin911]

I've found a watch that interests me on Timezone... a 116200 Datejust - pre-owned @ £2k. Looks great and is described as near "mint". Watch is in USA. Obviously I don't know the seller though he's been a member since '05 and has near 300 posts. The risk is with the buyer in this situation - how can I mitigate it and have others on P/H made successful overseas purchases via TZ?

[sparkyhx]

simkin911 said:

I've found a watch that interests me on Timezone... a 116200 Datejust - pre-owned @ £2k. Looks great and is described as near "mint". Watch is in USA. Obviously I don't know the seller though he's been a member since '05 and has near 300 posts. The risk is with the buyer in this situation - how can I mitigate it and have others on P/H made successful overseas purchases via TZ?

I know what you mean - I think at the end of the day its down to trust. Although I haven't bought from US I have paid 2k and 2.75k for watches one was UK the other from N Ireland and I sh*t myself until they arrived.

Sorry its no help. - US has a lot less privacy laws so I think you can do more online checking and asking around. Has he sold before or is this his first sale? - make sure you have an address and a 'landline' phone number. - do some searching on his name - people often register using same name. - is he on ebay as well - look at feedback etc etc.

I don't know what the UK price is but if you factor in postage probably minimnum £30, potential customs then sometimes they are no cheaper than UK - with a lot more risk.

[simkin911]

Thanks, will ask some pertinent questions... however, didn't even consider potential custom issues? I've no idea of the likely impact for a pre-owned watch from USA.

[Pesty]

add around 22% if you get stung by customs

its price of watch + import tax 10%
+ shipping
+vat on top of total of all that

(yes they tax you on tax) and they include the shipping in their tax calculations. the thieving scumbags.

of course you could ask him to send you it as returned from warrenty repair or somthing along those lines .
PS marking as gift does not get you out of paying customs

Edited by Pesty on Saturday 4th October 22:34

[tertius]

I have bought several times on Timezone. I recommend asking lots of questions, try to build up a rapport via email, ask for references and follow them up. Offer your own references. Check their other posts on timezone.

All my purchases have been utterly trouble free.

I think the duty will be worked out as follows:

Duty to be paid will be = (Item cost + postage) x ((Import Duty Rate %) + (17.5% VAT))

Import duty rate for watches is (I think) 4.5%, so duty of about 22% on price + postage.

[simkin911]

Many thanks - this has been a great help. Really, with the prospect of a 22% price increase - I'd probably rather buy in the UK - there's not really much in it probably after that... shame, quite liked the look of it.

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&got...

[hog 1]

For what it's worth;
1]. Mate of mine paid £9k for a Piaget off TZ, never arrived.
2]. Another mate of mine paid £30k for an AP RB2 Titanium from Hong Kong Dealer. Arrived within a week by secure data delivery, no tax paid.

You have to do the background checks and most dealers live or die by their reputations, not so FleaBay or TZ sellers!

[filaborg]

As they say "buy the seller". I bought a Panerai from a guy from Finland a couple of years ago. I asked him for a photo of his passport, a photo of the watch with a recent paper,references, his contact number, proof of his address etc, all of which he was happy to oblige. If he had been shy to do any of the above i would of walked.

[Naked Man]

filaborg said:

As they say "buy the seller". I bought a Panerai from a guy from Finland a couple of years ago. I asked him for a photo of his passport, a photo of the watch with a recent paper,references, his contact number, proof of his address etc, all of which he was happy to oblige. If he had been shy to do any of the above i would of walked.

I recently sold a Navitimer World by Ebay, I put in the advert that i would provide any proof of identity to the winning bidder, providing they would do the same once they had won the auction.

The guy who won the auction (well, he actually missed the end of it, emailed me and said he was interested but happened to miss the end and said what would i take...I added on £100 to the end auction price and sold to him) asked me for copies of my passport, proof of where i lived, copies of all the warrenty papers... I gave him everything that he asked for, he rang me up and we had a good chat on the phone, he gave me proof of who he was.

He paid me direct from his bank account in to mine and once it had cleared i sent him the watch. All went fine and he rang me to thank me for being honest and sending a genuine watch!!!

About 5 years ago, I had a Rose Gold Jagear Le Coultra Master Geographic, I sold it again via ebay to a guy who raced in touring cars, I can't remember his name but he was welsh (won the welsh championship around 2003/04 time???)... we met in a motorway services about half way from where i lived. he brought cash and i had the watch. Before we met i told him that i didn't have any papaers or box with the watch, but was willing to give him the serial number and proof of who i was and where it was bought from originally, so he could check out the watch and myself (i had bought it second hand myself from a friend who had only gone and lost all the papers and box when he moved house!!!!) the buyer took a couple of days to check the watch was legit, then agreed to meet me half way to buy the watch. The watch was legit and in perfect condition (he paid me £4k for it) and both of us went our seperate ways very happy

Good deals can be done if both parties have nothing to hide

[alfabadass]

bought a few watches from the us when the rate was great. Now it's not worth it. I got stung for taxes each time as well.