I would recommend that Giuliano, obtains a significant deposit before he starts making straps regardless who the prospective buyer may be ( friend , rich, poor or other). That way, he would at least cover his costs.

Best
D

: Dear,
: Probably you don't know Giuliano as instead many collectors of this
: forum know... this auction was a provocation due to the great
: discouragement Giuliano felt after the guy ordered the strap and
: refused it with a stupid excuse...

: I know very well Giuliano, I bought some great watches and many
: straps from him, and I know he is an honest and really
: passionate guy... but something is changing among some people
: out there...

: Is not the first time that some rich collectors asked him a strap
: for their valuable Heuers worthing tenth of thousand of Euros
: and then, after Giuliano finished the strap, they find stupid
: excuses to not pay him... the problem is that Giuliano usually
: employes many hours to make a strap, subtracting that time to
: his family (and to his life)... yes, he gains money and doesn't
: make ghe job for free, but I can ensure that most of the times
: the time employed doesn't worth the game...

: Another category of squallid people are those who want a very
: special custom strap, with non-standard measures, or with
: special skins, and after he made the strap they ask for a 5€
: discount... they will put that strap on a manual Autavia or
: Carrera worthing 10k/20k€ but they don't have 5€ more and
: asked the discount AFTER the job is done...If I were in Giuliano
: shoes I would invite them to f..k themselves..honestly...

: I joined this forum only 5 years ago, but 5 years are enough to
: have seen the scenario has changed... some years ago there were
: more passionate peoples, but with prices continuously
: skyroketing I see always more business and always less
: friendship...

: Recently I had the honour to attend the Heue collectors summit,
: where I met some fantastic and passionate guys (Henrik, Dennis,
: Shaun, Darren, Jerome are the first names coming to my mind, but
: also many others), so is not my intention to say all the people
: are the same, but is also true that I also took some
: disappointments in a recent past buying some items from some of
: you out there, items different from as described, so sometimes
: (and always more) unfortunately business prevails on the spirit
: of this great forum.

: More than once I thought to sell everything and dedicate myself to
: another hobby after having been disgusted from such
: "collectors", I would never been able to sell a fake
: dial pushing it for good only to gain few hundreds of Euro (at
: the expense of my reputation)...

: So I totally agree with the Giuliano approach, if you have enough
: money to buy an expensive watch you must also have enough to pay
: the strap... " make me an offer if you want it" is
: really fashioned nowadays, isn't it?

: My 2 cents.

: Regards to all the passionate and honest guys of this great forum.

: Gianluca