A friend of mine used to say that it is easier to make money when buying house than when selling them.

His point -- that you can buy opportunistically, but it is rare to be able to sell opportunistically. When selling, you are usually limited by the "comparables" and there may be other factors that limit the price you will receive. It's hard to hit the home run on the sell side.

But when buying, you can get real bargains. This house-buying friend of mine used to say that when you were trying to figure out how much to offer for a house, you should think of the price at which the seller (or real estate agent) would throw you out of the house, and then go 10% below that number. Maybe this approach works for the old watches, as well.

My friend did OK with the houses, and with his career!!

Jeff

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: Every time the economy has tanked I have bought great watches
: and made some money thanks to people who thought buying watches
: was like putting money in the bank. Luxury goods, like watches,
: are not a good hedge against inflation. Their value is a supply
: and demand dictated thing and when nobody has disposable income
: demand goes down. This my friends it the best time to have a
: little cash! Sorry...but it's simply a painful fact.

: My son was brought up in a house full of expensive vices...among
: them watches and sushi. When he was 3 or 4 we often used to eat
: in a nice sushi place in Dallas where when we carried little
: Carl in the hostess would hand him a piece of octopus to tide
: him over until we got a table. Luckily, at 31 years of age the
: Sushi thing is still with him but the watch thing never took.

: JohnCote