Thank you , Ron
Dank U well

I absolutely understand and agree with your thoughts.
Well described, and sadly true.
In so many aspects of society nowadays, not only within our little "community", I find it quite depressing to see this development, which we cannot turn back or change.
We can only stand strong, upright, and refuse participation.
Happy Holidays to you, yours, and all those sharing your view.
Kind regards,
tot ziens,
Olaf

P.S. You mentioned greed. ...
GREED EATS THE BRAIN.
WHEN GREED BECOMES LARGER ... THE BRAIN BECOMES SMALLER ...
( or, does it just function differently for those people? I will never understand, and I don't really want to know. )

: Friends,

: While roaming the net today, I also visited some of the collectors'
: websites with Heuer focus. One of them specizializes on
: Autavias. When I started reading it, my mind started floating
: back 6-7 years when collecting nice Heuers was still possible at
: prices around a 1000 Euros. Just have a look at this link;

: http://www.heuerautavia.com/00000099ec0939810/index.html

: The owner of the site obviously has been less active in updating
: the site. Have a look at those price estimates from not even so
: long ago.Sifferts for 2000-2500. Orange Boy? Around 1000 Euros.
: Prefer a 1163 GMT? You have to count with around 1500......

: Aren't we all drewling now?

: Assuming that those prices were right at the moment that the site
: was uploaded, we can ask ourselves the question however what has
: happened to prices but certainly also to collecting. Prices have
: gone up dramatically -and I mean dramatically- causing that
: quite a number of collectors are not able to follow anymore and
: lose interest. I myself find that quite sad. At the same time
: the real nature of collecting as we used to know it, threatens
: to be fading away slowly but gradually. Isn't my impression
: right that collecting is also more and more about business
: nowadays? "Unfortunately"a romantic collector may add
: to this development. Call me an old f..t, I started collecting
: Heuer in 1999, former century, but this impression has taken
: possession of me.

: The Heuer world until, let's say 2-3 years, was still a world where
: enthousiastic people exhanged views, traded watches and
: friendships were built. Now it seems to become -in a growing
: number of cases- more and more the domain of traders, sometimes
: presenting themselves a passionate collectors, doing nearly
: everything once they spotted a piece that they see as valuable
: for their business. I myself witness that in some cases
: relations between the collectors change from collector friends
: to collecting competitors. I have witnissed some cases lately
: which make me worry about this development. Some do everything
: to get a certain watch without bothering to lose good manners.
: In some cases misleading innocent sellers by imposing their
: expertise, in order to talk down prices. And not a few hundred
: Euro, in some cases more than 40-50% of today's value. In one
: case I talked to a trader who was proud having bought a nice
: Monaco from a 70 year old widow for only 600,-! .Other examples
: are sellers that promise to keep a watch on hold for a few days,
: and then sell after massive, almost stalking, pressure from
: another bidder. To me such practices are out of bound, proving
: that greed has taken over there.

: Some of you may say : "that's business", and of course
: that is correct in a way. There are limits however, and I guess
: all of you who read this,agree.

: Now since this is Christmas time I want to close this contribution
: in a positive way. The cases that I just described are still
: exceptions, the vast majority of the Heuer community I know,
: still have their collector's heart in the right place. Lovely
: people with a great hobby.Please let it stay like that however,
: and let good manners and chivalry prevail always over collectors
: greed.That at least is my intention, not only for now but also
: for next year and after that. I hope many agree to that.

: Happy hollidays to all and enjoy your favourite Heuer under the
: Christmas tree!

: Ron