Selling a watch online

[Watchthis]

I'm considering listing a watch on Ebay for sale at around the £7k value. It would automatically be enrolled in the authentication guarantee process which means I'd post to Ebay rather than the buyer. The postage options available only cover insurance to a fraction of the watch value which means I'd want to add my own insurance on for peace of mind ( and same for any return postage if necessary)

I've read elsewhere that additional insurance products only cover you when sending direct to the buyer. I've scoured Ebay incase I'm missing something but it looks like I'd be taking a large risk with the whole postage thing. Or am I getting it wrong? Surely all the sellers on there aren't posting watches without full cover insurance?

[Sy1441b]

Watchthis said:

I'm considering listing a watch on Ebay for sale at around the £7k value. It would automatically be enrolled in the authentication guarantee process which means I'd post to Ebay rather than the buyer. The postage options available only cover insurance to a fraction of the watch value which means I'd want to add my own insurance on for peace of mind ( and same for any return postage if necessary)

I've read elsewhere that additional insurance products only cover you when sending direct to the buyer. I've scoured Ebay incase I'm missing something but it looks like I'd be taking a large risk with the whole postage thing. Or am I getting it wrong? Surely all the sellers on there aren't posting watches without full cover insurance?

I've found additional insurances for these sorts of things to be prohibitively expensive. I had a bag that I needed shipped from London a couple of years ago worth a similar amount and you were looking at 10% of the value to have it fully insured for transport.

[Watchthis]

Secursus would be £70 so not crazy expensive. Issue is they won't cover sending to ebay.. only direct from sender to buyer. I'm genuinely stumped as to how so many are selling their watches on eBay. A) I've got it wrong which is definitely possible or B) people are blindly trusting ebay not realising they're not covered if the watch goes AWOL

Edit: I should add, I absolutely want to use the authentication system as it should prevent a lot of headache

Edited by Watchthis on Saturday 17th January 12:37

[Sy1441b]

Makes me recall the time I worked for a large pawnboker and we'd often get bags and boxes of gold, diamonds and Rolex's with only a partial address on them that would end up in random shops in the streets we operated in. Once there was a guy in Glasgow who came in screaming and threatening the staff as the postman had woken him when he was on night shift to delivery an incorrectly addressed parcel and threw it at the cashier. Would have been around £200k of gold in that parcel in today's money. Was another time I was in Tesco for a meal deal and staff member seen the logo on my shirt and said "I think we might have a parcel for you", was everything in it from a solid gold and diamond Cartier to a 1.5ct diamond ring, value around £150k.

[CoupeKid]

What advantage is there to selling on eBay when there are dedicated websites for buying and selling quality watches?

Wouldn't Chrono24, Watchfinder or Chrono Hunter be more appropriate?

[ExBoringVolvoDriver]

CoupeKid said:

What advantage is there to selling on eBay when there are dedicated websites for buying and selling quality watches?

Wouldn't Chrono24, Watchfinder or Chrono Hunter be more appropriate?

My thoughts as well. I have sold a few watches on eBay where the value was less than £500. Would I sell anything more than £1,000 on eBay, no I would look at other places and whilst the price might not appear as high, there is no hassle.

Personally, I would be a little suspicious of buying a £7000 watch from eBay, regardless of any checks and guarantees.

[BlackTails]

CoupeKid said:

What advantage is there to selling on eBay when there are dedicated websites for buying and selling quality watches?

Wouldn't Chrono24, Watchfinder or Chrono Hunter be more appropriate?

IME Watchfinder buy from you rather than sell for you. And offer trade prices.

Chrono24 want 6.5% to allow you to sell on their site.

EBay doesn’t charge a private seller a fee, and provides some protection to buyer with its authenticity check.

[Tonberry]

Not sure of the detail on sending items to eBay but you'd assume some sort of cover was possible for high value items. Try the eBay or Rolex subreddits.

I've sold watches online but direct to buyer. Sent a parcel from Portugal to a jewelers in the UK using the state postal carrier.

The look on the cashiers face and audible exclamation when I told her the value of the parcel and if they offered insurance was.....amusing

Thankfully it wound up right where it was supposed to.

[RotorRambler]

CoupeKid said:

What advantage is there to selling on eBay when there are dedicated websites for buying and selling quality watches?

Wouldn't Chrono24, Watchfinder or Chrono Hunter be more appropriate?

Low fees
Free authenticator, protects seller & buyer

Insurance to authenticator, could use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed.

“Royal Mail Special Delivery does cover sending to eBay s authentication centre
This is widely used by UK watch sellers and is not considered third-party delivery”

Used it to sell a Tudor I never used, great service!

Edited by RotorRambler on Saturday 17th January 20:13

[Watchthis]

What was the insured amount on that?

[catso]

Shipping insurance on expensive items is usually prohibitive.

In my business we regularly ship expensive equipment where the cost of insurance for full value would make it unviable so generally don't insure but you need to find a reliable courier/shipper or deliver in person if distance/value is suitable.

Fortunately in 40 years of doing such business, we've never lost anything.

[Watchthis]

It's not the cost of insurance thats the issue, I just can't find an insurance provider that specifically covers posting to the eBay authentication service. Secursus for instance, specifically exclude cover for this.

If I manage to find a solution I'll update the thread

[Hamperman]

Hi, try overland express. I think they will insure it sent to the Authenticator using ups.

[Watchthis]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll give them a try

[Jinba Ittai]

RotorRambler said:

CoupeKid said:

What advantage is there to selling on eBay when there are dedicated websites for buying and selling quality watches?

Wouldn't Chrono24, Watchfinder or Chrono Hunter be more appropriate?

Low fees
Free authenticator, protects seller & buyer

Insurance to authenticator, could use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed.

Royal Mail Special Delivery does cover sending to eBay s authentication centre
This is widely used by UK watch sellers and is not considered third-party delivery

Used it to sell a Tudor I never used, great service!

Edited by RotorRambler on Saturday 17th January 20:13

Royal Mail SD has an insurance limit of £2,500 so he’d need to arrange extra insurance anyway.

No way would I roll the dice on sending a £7k watch without insurance. When I’ve sold high value watches, I’ve always used Chrono, insured through Secursus. Packaged EXACTLY as per instructions, photos at every stage, then sent Royal Mail SD.

I have suspicions over the whole eBay authentication process anyway. I can’t see how they can authenticate and turn the watches around so quickly considering the volume of watches they process. I think they’ve just worked out that they’ll get more watch sale revenue by offering this service than they’ll lose on paying out/refunding when the odd super clone gets through. I don’t trust it.

[JEA1K]

Sold via ebay using their authentication process on a £7k and £4k watch and it worked really well.

Also, ebay won't force you through their simple delievry due to the value so you can add the £70 for Secursus delivery to ensure it gets there insured. Maybe I was lucky but I had two decent buyers, as opposed to places like FB marketplace who just want to scam you out of whatever you're selling.

[Wills2]

There is a watch for sale thread on here as well to consider, plus you could use watch collecting to auction it, I'd be looking at what the spread is between selling it to the trade vs selling it on ebay taking into consideration risk/time and additional costs, I for instance wouldn't pay more for a private sale on ebay than it would fetch on watch collecting as an example and some private sellers seem to think they can charge more when they offer nothing in the way of surety.

[Watchthis]

JEA1K said:

Sold via ebay using their authentication process on a £7k and £4k watch and it worked really well.

Also, ebay won't force you through their simple delievry due to the value so you can add the £70 for Secursus delivery to ensure it gets there insured. Maybe I was lucky but I had two decent buyers, as opposed to places like FB marketplace who just want to scam you out of whatever you're selling.

The issue I discovered is additional postage insurance does not cover you unless you are sending direct to the buyer. For the value of my watch it automatically gets enrolled in the authentication program and so you aren't sending the watch direct..secursus will tell you themselves they don't cover this.