The End....proper....not quiet...

[Pesman 9,461]

I accept that I may have claimed to be leaving this game a few times but, when you are down to your last £300 and find yourself ordering a watch on AliExpress (I did then cancel) you realise that the time has come....
 
So it was with a heavy heart, but steely resolve, that I opened my watch boxes and used my 12 slot watch box to select my final 12 survivors of a hobby that has consumed me for the past 12 years;
 
- 226 gens
- 185 reps
- 26 happy Ali homages
 
- over £250k spent and recouped on gens..nett loss £28k or £135 per watch
- over £40k spent and recouped on reps...nett loss £2450 or £14 per watch
 
12 years of coming and going reduced to around 40 and then further reduced to the 12 shown below....
 

 
So is this is a perfect farewell collection? Able to cover any social occasion I'm likely to find myself in? I hope so!
 
- 2 gen Omegas (my brother has my Speedy Pro pawned to him 4 months ago- one day it will be mine again)
-1 gen Bremont Limited Edition (1 of 30)
-1 gen Chris Ward Compressor ( CW at their best)
-4 homages ( Steeldive Willard, PD 007 Commander Bond, OceanX Sharkmaster 1000m, OKNTTD ( San Martin BB39 is on my wrist))
- 4 great reps (IWC(gen ETA 7750) Top Gun, Rolex Explorer 2 CHS and GF Breitling SO Kelly Later LE and GF Avenger)
 
Those I should never have let go?....none, funnily enough.....but I will miss some of those I've had to choose between this time...
 
Those that didn't make the cut? You know what's coming....
 
Mods: realise this should probably be in collections but just felt too momentous to go in there.....HVS approval?
 
 
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[BadApple 13,081]

Jeeez Perry - those figures are frightening and also sobering for me as it just makes me thing how much I have lost over the 5 or 6 years I have been at it. I never did keep any records so in a way I am pleased I haven't.

Many of us are slowing down for various reasons, cutting back, trimming the herd etc..... 

Many of the well seasoned members on here have just wilted away and accepted that time is upon us - literally.

I've just had my eyes taken out by a well know Pam builder, have a couple of not so well made reps up to Rolie and intend to settle down with 6 reps myself now. The obligatory Rolie (SD43), IWC Big Pilot, A Breitling Chronomat and a 44mm PAM (on the way from Mary)

Rolie may be able to fix the shoddily built Pam 47 Rad so leaves room for a final final piece which will be an Omega.

[n18lld 656]

Excellent choice of remaining reps

[GingerApple 7,285]

Good luck, but I can't help but feel that this is like Paddy telling  Mick, over their 10th pint of Guinness, as they prop up the bar at their local, "I schwear Mick, thish is my lascht ever pint......"

[NCRich 13,748]

Nice remainders.  I use the same logic that I use on stocks.  You never lose money if you never sell.  I also allocate a fixed amount of money to spend on my hobby and I don't exceed it.  I don't count on recouping that money, its just a monthly expense and a small part of my budget.  I have over a hundred watches but its over well more than a decade.

[Pesman 9,461]

Good luck, but I can't help but feel that this is like Paddy telling  Mick, over their 10th pint of Guinness, as they prop up the bar at their local, "I schwear Mick, thish is my lascht ever pint......"

If you can't pay for the pint it's a pretty good cure unless you want to send me some meths

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[Pesman 9,461]

Nice remainders.  I use the same logic that I use on stocks.  You never lose money if you never sell.  I also allocate a fixed amount of money to spend on my hobby and I don't exceed it.  I don't count on recouping that money, its just a monthly expense and a small part of my budget.  I have over a hundred watches but its over well more than a decade.

Mine was similar in terms of the overall amount I was prepared to lose - hence my tracker ... however no income means I cannot just sit on their value... this time 2 years ago I has £60k worth of gens....not any more...

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[Redfire1066 10,946]

@Pesman …. A sobering topic. ….. 40 years I have been buying, selling, trading as a hobby…. Pawn shops, junk sales, jumbles, online now mostly….. with Gens, Reps … and over the past 5 years I have gone microbrand daft … … I am inclined to lean towards @NCRich. … comments … for me it had been a hobby with a monthly expenditure …. It can be exciting, rewarding, interesting and fun buying watches and wearing them … I also get a kick out of selling a watch that I think is a well enough made time keeper to someone for a fair price knowing that they are likely to be as pleased with it as I was.  

I got the opportunity 11 years ago to buy a Rolex 116139 Datejust 18k white gold for a reasonable price …. But I would have been pushing the financial boundaries that month if I dived in.  I new it was a very fair price but I declined as I knew I would have been prioritising wrongly.  For me it’s a hobby and I would not let it come between me and my essentials priorities, no matter how good a deal or how taken I was with a watch. Balance. 

[Philiusmaximus 5,064]

Well mate I wish you all the best.

I too have decided to leave the rep game for one reason or another. A new chapter awaits.

 

[RussP 22,257]

You can't leave, Perry.

Just stay, but don't buy 

[Mystery Shopper 5,887]

There is always dancing on tables to cover the habit- just saying

 

[Rokerite 2,444]

1 hour ago, Mystery Shopper said:

There is always dancing on tables to cover the habit- just saying

 

[GenTLe 1,501]

I once did a short rough calculation and decided that "Nope, better not to do it"... But I too have slowed down A LOT. This year I think I got like 5 watches in total (2 of them now, because I unexpectedly got a nice 9k paycheck from the previous job I was in). Luckily my most expensive gen was a 900€ Airman Glycine because I stay far from those expensive ones as I don't see much of their values when you can have such good reps here...

Anyway @Pesman yours seems has been more an addiction than a hobby with those amounts, but eventually you could afford them, so good to you  PS: you're definitively missing a dress watch; 8/12 are divers... I'd replace one of those homage with a dress rep

[Pesman 9,461]

An you got me. I have rarely needed a dress watch. At a funeral recently I wore a rep AT (still a diver?). Which I them gave to my nephew for Christmas. There are a few nice homage that are closer to dress watches but I'm really not a fan of minimal dials. I suspect the Speedy will suffice.

 

 

 

[GingerApple 7,285]

4 hours ago, Pesman said:

An you got me. I have rarely needed a dress watch. At a funeral recently I wore a rep AT (still a diver?). Which I them gave to my nephew for Christmas. There are a few nice homage that are closer to dress watches but I'm really not a fan of minimal dials. I suspect the Speedy will suffice.

 

 

 

Sorry - just to clarify - you're researching potential dress watches - not to buy them obviously, but just to research.

Yeah.

This is going to end well.

[Pesman 9,461]

Sorry - just to clarify - you're researching potential dress watches - not to buy them obviously, but just to research.
Yeah.
This is going to end well.

Er....exactly.....just making a point

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[Pesman 9,461]

OK,....I'm struggling! The cheapy Yachtmaster (which even appears to have gaskets on the crown) was just too good to lose and that Omega OHMSS is just a classic

 

My next size up Watch Box is

 

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[Pesman 9,461]

CONFESSION!!I HAVE FAILED!!!

OK I sold a good load but the cheapy YM and OHMSS are too nice to go...so I'm now moved to my 28 slot box....Will it get filled?....I think we know the answer...

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[Rokerite 2,444]

55 minutes ago, Pesman said:

CONFESSION!!I HAVE FAILED!!!

OK I sold a good load but the cheapy YM and OHMSS are too nice to go...so I'm now moved to my 28 slot box....Will it get filled?....I think we know the answer...

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It seems to me the problem is not keeping the watches you already have in your possession mate. It is not buying any new ones to add to them 

[Pesman 9,461]

It seems to me the problem is not keeping the watches you already have in your possession mate. It is not buying any new ones to add to them 

Indeed blame Ali

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[GingerApple 7,285]

1 hour ago, Pesman said:

CONFESSION!!I HAVE FAILED!!!

I'm genuinely shocked.

I did not see that coming.

Wow.

I'm floored, totally floored. 

Flabergasted.

Etc.

[Rokerite 2,444]

8 minutes ago, GingerJesus said:

I'm genuinely shocked.

I did not see that coming.

Wow.

I'm floored, totally floored. 

Flabergasted.

Etc.

Facetiousness gets you nowhere 

[FudgyDocker 3,500]

18 minutes ago, Pesman said:

Indeed blame Ali

@alilondon @als86 etc - apparently, this is all your fault

 

[als86 5,278]

Not guilty 

[Pesman 9,461]

Aliexpress.com.....

 

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