disturbing ebay sales

[elginvanguard]

can anyone help me understand why i see the same person obviously take a complete desirable movement like a 60 hour bunn and part it out and sell each piece.you can actually look right down the page and see an entire wath that was nice to begin with and destroy it to ssell parts to someone who has a less qaulity watch then the one he just scrapped???am i nuts or is this just wrong?

[elginvanguard]

can anyone help me understand why i see the same person obviously take a complete desirable movement like a 60 hour bunn and part it out and sell each piece.you can actually look right down the page and see an entire wath that was nice to begin with and destroy it to ssell parts to someone who has a less qaulity watch then the one he just scrapped???am i nuts or is this just wrong?

[Vic Kuring]

You're digging up old bones here. Go to the find feature at the top of the message board and type in "is parting good for horology".

[Andy Dervan]

Hello elginvanguard,

One word "Greed"

Read thread - heated discussion sometime ago.....

Andy Dervan

[Fred Hansen]

The eBay bidders are making this very profitable.

If the bidders stop supporting the stripping of great watches the practice would die down. But as long as the bidders keep feeding it the practice will only grow as existing sellers scale up and others jump on the bandwagon to destroy great watches for higher profit margins.

Fred

[Wes]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">You're digging up old bones here. Go to the find feature at the top of the message board and type in "is parting good for horology". </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


I thought that thread was deleted by the old admin.

[neighmond]

It was.

The chop shops are simply greedy. There is no further research needed.

[mikeh]

The old ref::parting out thread is still here. I believe the switching topic is the one that was removed.

[Veritas]

I guess this is something Ebay allows.Its not against the law, but it is against our ethics.I see it with clocks too, sad. :confused:

[ckeithjohnson]

Elginvanguard, I do not condone this operation but the simple answer to your question is Supply and Demand, the Magic of the marketplace.If you notice the buyers are seldom the same for each component. Potentially four watches are returned to a complete quasi-original state with the help of a sacrificial watch and original parts. Is it right? It all hinges on whose Ox is being gored.

[Wes]

With all of the parts watches out there already, sacrifing a complete watch to hypothetically "restore" 4 still leads to tons of parts watches out there.

This is the kind of thing that the NAWCC should not condone, and should expel members for doing such. The practice specifically has a negative impact for NAWCC members, and yet we allow members "in good standing" run these chop shops.

[Fred Hansen]

If a 16 size Illinois or Hamilton needs a set of hands (or a case, or a dial) there are less destructive ways to find this part than to support the gutting of a complete watch in superb and apparently original state.

I understand some may see these sales as the answer to their "restoration" projects, but I hope that through threads like these a few bidders may rethink what effect their actions have on this hobby.

Fred

[Jon Hanson]

It was a total disgrace that the switching topic was removed--it is the most important topic ever on this MB. There were, if I remember, 45000 views.

Why should folks waste their time to post thousands of responses and arguments both pro & con if some non watchman "clerk" decides to remove everyones' hard work and such important subject matter?

THIS IS BAD FOR HOROLOGY!

[Grouse]

Question: A matter of ethics?

When the members here on this MB recommend the destruction of items just because in their opinion it is not worth fixing, like Cuckoo Clocks, Alarm Clocks, 7 jewel Elgins, Dollar watches, ETAL. It just does not make sense to me that anyone could complain about a RailRoad Grade Watch or any other Rare Artifact that is being destroyed and that this is a matter of ethics. You either respect all items or none.

Example: Practice watch repair on a Cheap seven jewel Waltham or Elgin. Destroying one of these will not matter.

[mikeh]

Gary,

I would agree that we should respect all watches. However, everyone has to start some place, and I think most everyone would agree that the most easily replaceable the better. I personally think a 17 jewel, 3/4 plate watch is better because reassembly is easier, but I guess that's another topic.

[Wes]

I agree with Mike there. It's not that people are calling for the destruction of 7 jewel Elgins! It is the ease of working on the 12s and 16s 3/4 plate design.