Trying to acquire a good set of watch jewels

[VWatchie]

I've been trying to acquire a decent set of high quality jewels for some time so that I wouldn't have to wait for weeks for delivery of single jewels. So, yesterday I found an interesting offer on eBay for $700 but felt it to be too expensive, especially comparing it to similar sold items. The offer was for 2000+ jewels and as you can see in the pictures a few extra bottles with what looks like hundreds of jewels, so I suspected that some or perhaps even many of the jewels might be cheap unbranded Indian jewels. For this reason I made the seller an offer of $350 and was counter offered $600. At that point I really felt that I needed to know a whole lot more about what I was buying and sent the seller a friendly message, and here is what followed (I think you'll find it pretty hilarious, at least I did):

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VWatchie:

Thank you for your counter offer! Before I consider your offer I need to know that all 2000+ jewels are genuine Seitz/Swiss jewels? The reason I need to ask this is that 5000 jewels can be bought for as little as USD $50 from India, and I see that some of the bottles in your box contain hundreds of jewels that perhaps may not be Seitz/Swiss? Also, these boxes come up from time to time on eBay and have sold for quite a bit less (not so many jewels, but genuine Seitz jewels) Thank you and kind regards!

VWatchie:

Hello again!

I did some research and believe I found a couple of the bottles in your set. You can see them here: https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/jewels-pallet-endstone-jewel-holes They are just approx. $5 each and I would expect from India. Anyway, I could very well be wrong, but if I'm right I'm afraid your set might be overpriced. Again, I might be wrong so I shall wait for your reply before I make up my mind about your counter offer. Kind regards.

anticxander (seller):

No, I can not confirm that all of them are Seitz ... of course. Actually you can see that some envelopes are german RF and the unbranded ones I have no idea what they are. On the other side if I knew for sure all 2000 pieces were Seitz, you can rest assured I would have asked way more than $699.

This is not the first set I sell on ebay (with similar volume and similar variety) for this amount of money, so I'm not really interested in any opinions about how high/low the price is. If you think/know you can find it cheaper, go ahead and buy it somewhere else.

Cheers!

anticxander (seller):

As I said before, I'm not interested in price opinions, so please stop..
If you did this 'research' I'm sure you've also found the entire Seitz set of 540 pieces https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/jewel-set-seitz sold on cousins for £1,495.00

VWatchie:

Thanks for your quick reply!

OK, I understand, so would you agree it to be fair to assume that the unbranded jewels are cheap Indian jewels? How many jewels are in the set if you subtract the unbranded jewels? Searching for sold similar items here on eBay I think your asking price is fair if you could guarantee 2000+ Swiss/German jewels.

Oh, just noticed you retracted your offer. Anyway, thank you for your time and good luck with your sale!

anticxander (seller):

Although I don't like to repeat myself, I will do it once (just for you): I have no idea what brand(s) those jewels are, so I can not say they are indian ... more than that I've never bought things from India (I only buy and collect from renowned watchmakers countries like Germany, Switzerland, France).

Yeah I've retracted the offer and also blocked you, because (apart of the fact I don't really have time to waste) I don't need customers like yourself.

Best regards and good luck finding whatever you're looking for!
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This "friendly conversation" aroused my curiosity, so I checked out his other offerings and found this amazing "ETA Unitas 6498 Military Wristwatch" on offering for just USD $799. Now, promise not to start any fights over it! After all, the seller has 100 % positive feedback, so I'm sure it must be a steal.

[oldhippy]

I've just looked at the other watch stock and tools he has for sale. Talk about over priced. He has cheap unbranded watch buttons some look used for $100.  I think I would have told him to stuff those jewels where the sun don't shine.  

[VWatchie]

50 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

I think I would have told him to stuff those jewels where the sun don't shine.

Yep, I think that would have been the perfect location to store those precious items! 

It just amazes me that people with this level of aggressiveness and prices get anything sold.

Oh, and I must mention that I'm in awe of the hands on that military wristwatch for just $799 that he has on sale. The match with the dial is just a dream come true. Perfection!

Edited May 6, 2021 by VWatchie

[oldhippy]

Yep I know what you mean.