Diamonds in the Rough -- Working with Pickers

This week's post is about working with "pickers." Pickers are people who comb the flea markets and garage sales in search of items for dealers with whom they have a relationship and whom they trust them to pay a fair price for the items they find, in this instance, wristwatches. Pickers usually have no interest in selling wristwatches at a physical location (consignment shop, antique store, etc.) or online, for a variety of reasons. They want to sell the item(s), and usually for cash, and be done with it. They don't want to monkey around with eBay or with Paypal, or worry about money back guarantees, or IRS Form 1099s.

The Internet culture has definitely taken a toll on the number of pickers out there. There are fewer of them, as more and more are gravitating toward selling their watches "out in the open," despite the drawbacks mentioned. And the pickers who remain are getting smarter about watches, and want more money for them, oftentimes shopping the items around for the best price.

Despite all this, pickers are still out there, and remain an important resource for me, and I encourage people to cultivate this important resource as one more tool for collecting watches on a budget.

Just this week, I met with one of my pickers that I usually see once every couple of months or so. My deal with this guy is that I buy everything he has for sale ... the good, the bad, the ugly. And even beyond into the realm of "fugly," a term which my friend and fellow watch enthusiast, Amy, introduced to me about a week ago. The term is in the urban dictionary if you can't guess what the combination of the words is!

"Fugly" watches, possibly treasures to others!

 I price out the better watches, so he can see and hopefully learn what are the better watches to look for, and then I make him a package price on the "junk" ... the quartz watches, the Timex watches, the fake Rolexes (I always destroy those), the China-made fashion watches, and so forth. These I will resell as "bulk lots" to people who use them for arts and crafts, jewelry making, sculptures, steampunk, etc. This is a relatively new market that has opened up, and I've found it to be a great way to dispose of watches that are of little to no use to the average wristwatch collector. I sell this stuff in 20 pound lots, and usually get about $5 a pound for it. So the moral of the story is don't pass up a deal if you have to take some junk in order to get some good watches. One person's fugly is another's treasure.

Anyway, here are the four best watches I got out of the bunch:

Clockwise, from top left, they are: Bulova Accutron 214; Orloff 2-register chronograph with Valjoux Caliber 92 movement; Zodiac Sea Wolf; and Technos manual wind in all stainless steel case. All together, I paid $150 for these watches. A bargain, I'd say, but fair considering these are in rough, unrestored condition, and considering my picker probably paid $2 apiece, or less, for them. (I never ask him how much he pays for the watch by the way, because it's immaterial. I pay based on what they're worth to me, not based on what he paid for them. The biggest mistake a seller can make when negotiating with a potential buyer is to reveal what he paid for it. If asked, I always reply, "That's not relevant," or some variation thereof.)

The Accutron started right up when I put a new cell in it. And it has the original bracelet. It needs a new crystal, and the sweep second hand occasionally catches on the minute hand (an easy fix). A little spit and polish, and this will easily be a $150 watch.

The Orloff is one of a hundred or more brands from the 1950s that competed for the "entry level" chronograph market. World War II put the chronograph on the map, and everyone from motor sports enthusiasts to armchair adventurers wanted one, whether they had a practical use for it or not. Orloff was an import company, and did not make their own watch movements or cases, but merely bought them from other suppliers, stamped their name on the movements, purchased dials from a dial fabricator, and offered the watches to jewelers who wanted an entry level chronograph of offer their customers. The best thing this watch has going for it is the Valjoux Caliber 92 movement, a well built movement that has found its way into many more well known chronograph brands, including Wakmann, Movado, Zodiac, and even Rolex. The movement appears complete, including pushers and all linkages, and the balance is good. But the movement is not running and needs servicing. This is one of those pieces where the movement is probably worth more if sold by itself for parts. The movement alone should bring a solid $150 the way it sits. A servicing would likely be a zero net gain.

The Sea Wolf is arguably Zodiac's best known watch, and one of this vintage would fetch an easy $400 all fixed up (more if the watch had its original stainless steel bracelet). But it needs a lot of work, including having the dial and hands refinished, and the turning bezel ring replated. There's easily $200 worth of work involved in this, and it may be better to simply sell this one as-is for a hundred bucks or so, and let somebody else worry about restoring it! Want more information about vintage Zodiac watches? The best source is Butch Dunn's website.

The last watch is a Technos. Here's a 1950s ad from them:

Once upon a time (from the 1920s to the early 1970s, with its heyday in the 1950s), Technos was a very visible and respected brand. They used high quality movements, and usually the cases on their sport watches (for which they are probably best known) were all stainless steel, versus cheaper base metal. But the company fell victim to the invasion of cheap throwaway watches. And so far, the brand has not been resurrected. The watch runs, and all it really needs is a new crystal with white (silver colored) reflector ring, which might run $15-$20. This is one of these watches that might have to be "romanced" a bit, but it should bring an easy $100.

So all told, we're looking at around $500 on an initial investment of $150, plus maybe another $30 or $40 spent on crystals, and a little time spent on "spit and polish." I lucked out this time because the Accutron worked. They don't always, and I suppose it would be a good idea in the future to carry an Accutron cell to these meetings. I'll probably flip my guy an extra $50 the next time I see him, which will also go a long way to building trust and loyalty. But all in all, a nice return, whether you're a dealer looking to make some profit, or a collector looking for a nice return on investment and possibly trading one or more of these on a more desired piece.

So any way you look at it. pickers can be a good resource. They can be a little "weird" sometimes due to their lifestyle which is often "off the grid." Maybe not the kind of person you want to take home and introduce to your family. But they recognize and respond to respect just like anyone. Treat them nicely and fairly. Don't "cherry pick" their stuff and leave them with the junk. And a nice meal out (like a breakfast or a lunch) can often work wonders in building a good relationship.

Well, I'm off to Daytona Beach next week for the back-to-back World Wide Trader show and NAWCC Mid-Winter Regional. My next blog entry will be from there.

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