I like watches

I don't like the way that watch prices have been inflating

it takes the joy out buying a nice watch when you know you're being chumped.

women are glad to pay $1000 for a nice quality $400 handbag. they get $600 worth of bragging rights.

that idea does not appeal to me at all

what's the manufacturing cost of a typical stainless steel omega or rolex?

you take away the snob appeal and what do you have? A $1000 watch

"A DateJust Rolex model cost $900 in 1981 and by 1991 the price had skyrocketed to $2350 for the same model with minimal improvements."

the watch snobbery thing is currently basically about on par with women buying coach handbags

they make 1 million Rolexes per year on mass production machines that rolex invented

it's not some incredible handmade watch, they just have incredible branding and marketing

They really went nuts with the oversize watch faces. before long that fad's going to be as cool as a leisure suit and disco chains.

Do yourself a favor and buy a "normal" size watch

My friend worked at the biggest BMW dealership in Florida

He said the salesmen would stand behind the customers as they signed the paperwork and pretend to shear their head with an imaginary pair of clippers

"shearing the sheep"

he also said the number of repossessions was amazing. There are vast numbers of people who are way over-extended on bank loans.

In my mind, owning a lot of stuff with bank loans is the exact opposite of being rich.

I owned a BMW, it was a nice car but not spectacular.

I'd be happy to buy another one but it's off-putting to buy a product that has a customer base that takes pride in being overcharged.

in any case, to each his own.

I have to disagree with you on the "keeping up with the pinhead" comment.

Collectable items are generally considered to be an inflation hedge, a way to protect wealth from inflation when the stock market is doing poorly.

I mean true established collectable stuff like stamps or coins or antiques.

Not stuff that's specifically made to be collected like Disney figurines or fads like beanie babies.

If you sink money into a decent collectable like firearms, coins, stamps, generally you will at least get your money back plus inflation when you sell.

Sometimes a collector market will get hot and turn into a very nice investment.

Like for example, 60's muscle cars were selling in the $10,000 range until they suddenly became red hot in the early 1990s and now some of them are worth $100k+.

Pinball machines are collectable, they are "Americana" like vintage jukeboxes.

I think there's always going to be a collector market for 80s and 90s pinballs.

On a side note, to be fair, even though Rolexes (in my opinion) are grossly overpriced, they hold their value very well. A guy with a rolex collection is probably going to make out just fine.

this thread got too grim and serious

I owned a BMW, I guess that puts me in the brotherhood of "pricks"

This is just internet chitter chatter, don't take it too seriously

Historically, collectable stuff like firearms, antiques, artwork, coins, stamps, etc was used by rich people to protect their money from inflation risk.

Like back in the jimmy carter era, when inflation was 12%, you'd have to be making a 12% return on all your investments just to break even.

I've been thinking about this thread.

Ultimately, the only thing I personally really care about is getting value for my money.

If I pay $2,000 for a top-quality refrigerator or whatever, I want a refrigerator that's worth $2000.

I don't want to get a $1300 refrigerator and pay an extra $700 because the refrigerator company has awesome marketing and product branding.

that's my problem with buying a lot of top-shelf products, the products might be excellent but they seem overpriced to me.

Obviously most people don't feel this way, because the free market bears the current prices

I think you missed my point.

If Rolex was a brand new product without decades and decades of expensive marketing, realistically they would be selling a submariner for around $2500.

Aside from all that,

I think this effeminate snobbery among watch buyers is basically ruining the marketplace.

Everyone is tremendously pleased by being overcharged, nobody can explain why.

It's like back when everyone was drinking Perrier with a smug look on their face, the water came from a dirty rubber garden hose in a shed in NY

So anyway, who's going to trade a pinball for a rolex with the original poster?

It says his account is frozen

Yes, my wife has a nice leather $400 handbag that I paid $800 for because it says "Coach" on it.

I know the drill.

Any thread that talks about luxury items always turns out the same.

Always has the same general comments back and forth.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who collects pinball games could scrounge up enough money for a Rolex.

It's not even that much money.

So is anyone going to trade a pin for one?

Why was the OP banned?

A lot of swiss watches use movements made by a swiss firm called ETA.

Tag Heuer, Breitling, Tudor, Hamilton, Tissot, etc etc all use ETA movements.

Some of the companies take the ETA movement and pretty it up or replace some parts.

Some competing brands are actually made by the same company, like Tissot and Hamilton

You can find all this information at the various watch forums.

I researched this topic pretty well last year when I was buying and found out some very interesting information about the different brands.

A lot of these watch aficionados on the watch forums are sort of "value shoppers" in their own way, so they do a good job of picking apart all the components and build quality and so forth.