How to search for a watch to buy on eBay to practice on ...help needed please

[nrm]

On 8/24/2023 at 1:17 PM, dazzystar said:

I'm sure I'm not the only person new to the hobby going through this but every time I do a search for a movement to 'play' with on eBay I'm afraid the seller is trying to flog something that can't be serviced or repaired easily. What are the things to look for or the pitfalls in listings to avoid?

Hey Daz! I'm new to this as well; but I've been shopping on ebay for a long time. When I started searching for something to work on that was less likely to be a disappointment I made use of the boolean search features that ebay has. I started with the basic search "Automatic Watch". Clearly that's very broad, and returns thousands of useless results. I then use the left side bar to set my budget -- say just a max of $60CAD & Buy It Now only. Finally I start trimming: "Automatic watch -quartz" -> "Automatic watch -quartz -timex" -> "Automatic watch -quartz -timex -seiko -citizen" ... That cleared out a good portion of the mixed heritage specials that typically ship from India or Pakistan and the engineered to cost, jellybean timex family. I'm sure that there are some fantastic "Mumbai Specials" to be had, with quality parts that haven't been completely worn out prior to installation, but that's not what I was looking for ... so then continue cutting and refining until I have a few candidates and press play!