Yes, I believe this is a pretty good idea. The question is how do we start off with the ratings? Perhaps have a Caucus or Primary for each model, and let people express how many they've seen in the past year (or average over a number of years)?

As for a name, how about "eBayDAR"? A play off of the word RADAR, and meaning eBayDection And (price) Ranging... I think that if it's called eBayDAR people will intuitively know what your talking about! We'd have to expand it to include what typical closing prices were, but...

-- Chuck

: every few days, we get a question that reads
: something like the following: "I would
: like to buy a such-and-so chronograph, and
: am wondering how scarce or common they might
: be?? How often do you see them offered for
: sale??" sometimes, the question is more
: like "I have a such-and-so chronograph
: that my uncle gave me. How scarce are these
: cronographs and what are they worth??"

: the answers to these questions, samples of
: which you can see by scanning down this
: page, usually refer to the frequency with
: which they are offered on ebay. for the sake
: of sharing some basic language / vocabulary,
: it would seem useful to have a standard
: frame of reference for answer these types of
: questions.

: I am thinking that the most useful index /
: scale / reference might be how often we see
: a particular model offered per year. the
: "we" in this sentence refers to
: fairly serious collectors, who keep an eye
: on ebay and check a few dealer websites on a
: regular basis, looking for the Heuers. It's
: not from the perspective of dealers or
: others who either frequent big watch shows
: (or the streets of switzerland). It is the
: average guy who reads this discussion forum
: and actively pursues these chronographs.

: Here are a couple of quick examples: I would
: estimate that "we" are seeing 100
: to 200 Viceroy Autavias in a year, so the
: "score" is 100-200 . . . maybe the
: number even approaches 300. the Siffert
: Autavias (Cal 12 automatics) might come in
: at 4 to 6 per year, so let's call it a
: "5" on the scale. the Carrera,
: Valjoux 72, white dial with black registers
: [ sorry to remind you, chuck ] might come in
: at one every two years, so it is at 0.5 on
: the scale.
: You get the idea -- the scarcer the model, the
: lower the score.

: Over time, we can create a fairly comprehensive
: list, and give it a permanent page
: OnTheDash. When people ask about scarcity,
: at a minimum, we would be talking the same
: language. If this system really works, we
: would have a ready reference through either
: an OnTheDash page with a list of the scores
: or a column of our chronograph reference
: tables.

: A few questions:
: Would this be useful or is this going a bit
: too far?
: Is the number offered / available per year the
: best frame of reference?
: What should we call the scale?? I am thinking
: of something like "Offered Per
: Year" (OPY) or "Available
: Annually" (AA).
: No need for real precision; it's just an
: estimate of how frequently serious
: collectors are able to find them.

: Some might say that the more useful information
: might be some sort of $$$$ value scale or
: index. While this works for the dashboard
: timepieces, it seems far more difficult to
: establish and maintain for the chronographs,
: as there are so many models and variations.
: We played with this type of $$$$ scale for
: the Carreras, and the data was almost
: overwhelming by the time we covered only a
: few models and variations. somehow, rating
: the scarcity seems far easier than pegging
: the values.

: Thoughts??

: Thanks.

: Jeff