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My Gray Market Speedy Pro

I'm a recent Speedy Pro enthusiast and just purchased a new 3750.50 online thru watchmaxx.com. I'm posting this thread simply to relate my experience of my gray market purchase. Before deciding to buy a Speedy Pro I did quite a bit of research on the Speedmaster line and eventually narrowed my pick down to the 3750.50 reference number. Unfortunately, Omega stopped manufacturing this particular model in 2014. Considering it had been in continuous production for 18 years though means there's plenty of them for sale in the used markets. For something clean I was looking at around $2500. Many of the watches I considered had vague histories though, which made me nervous. Other concerns included: How prevalent are fakes?, How soon would I need service?, Would I need to pay U.S. Customs fees for an overseas transaction? In the end I decided to buy new. I went to the local Omega Boutique but they didn't have any in stock. I believe it was retailing at $4500 before they stopped producing it. With local sales tax that would have brought the price up to nearly 5K, effectively putting me out of the market. I had read on a forum post that authorized dealers will often sell them at a decent discount from Omega's list prices, so I figured I'd try that. Since I didn't want to pay local sales taxes I only contacted authorized dealers that would ship items to me in Texas. One dealer in Philadelphia had "one more in stock" and he wanted the full $4500. The other dealer I contacted in L.A. didn't have any 3750.50's but she did have a new model she'd let go for $4400 with free overnight shipping. Now I'm not a rich man and honestly I don't have any business spending that kind of money on a damn watch, but that Speedy Pro put a spell on me! So I went online to Amazon and see they have vendors selling them new for as low as $3500. The cheapest site says they normally "ship within 8 weeks". Say what??? Watchmaxx.com was selling them on Amazon for $3700 with a 2 yr. 3rd party warranty offered thru Amazon, and free shipping. Not too bad I think so I do a little digging into watchmaxx.com. In general they have pretty good reviews and the fact that they appear to be a prominent seller on Amazon made me feel better. While I was on their site I noticed that they were selling it a bit cheaper than Amazon, with their own 2 yr. warranty and free shipping, total = $3595. After a considerable amount of hand wringing I went direct thru watchmaxx.com and I'm quite pleased. The package came fully insured via UPS with everything but the manufacturers warranty card. Obviously anyone should be cautious when making a purchase like this and I know that gray market dealers can seem a little shady but I'd have to say that my experience has been quite positive.

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