: 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,

Your friend then, must had eventually sold the houses at a profit...which is the only way he "did OK"...unless he has a lot of rentals now.

I had another friend; my dad's friend too. His name was Harold Rappaport and he owned one of my father's favorite pawn shops. Harold and my dad were born one day apart in 1921. Both were WWII vets. Harold came home from The Battle of the Bulge on a stretcher, one of 12 survivors in his unit of 80. Anyway, Harold used to tell me, "Johnny my boy don't ever fall in love with the goods." He knew that the tendency was in me. I can't help it. I do love the goods but I hear/imagine Uncle Harold admonishing me all of the time and I try. What trying means to me is that unless I have a sure way to turn the goods in a day or so I try to factor both getting a watch I like along with getting a decent deal into every buying equation. The year after I left HP...in the middle of the bad economy I drove the mid-west buying every Rolex I could buy and selling every one at a fairly low but decent margin to one dealer...within a week of the purchase. I bought a ton of Rolex and did very well thank you. I did buy a lot of other goods and I still have some of it but a lot of it has "churned and turned."

My point is that I think you can make money in the watch business. I think it helps if you love the goods but don't "fall in love with the goods." Every deal is fraught but you can deal enough with your head that your heart won't lead you into bad decisions...at least on average. Like my "Uncle" Harold said.... and boy do I miss that dude....what a guy.