My African Breitling & the Lessons Learned When Buying From Ebay
I was bitten by the Explorer bug. If you want to know more about this debilitating condition, there are entire threads dedicated to this on Rolexforums. I suffered from this condition for several years.
It was early 2018, when I finally found a cure.
Right place, right time, wrong seller
Just like any other working-class watch collector with a positive balance in their chequing account would do, I went online in search of an alternative to the Explorer. A watch that would fill the void of desire, one that I could financially justify, and one that looked somewhat like I what I was looking for.
There I was, lying in bed late at night scouring eBay on my phone. That’s honestly where most of the trouble always begins. As I was about to turn my phone off after casually scrolling through tons of overpriced timepieces, I see a listing alert for the Breitling Transocean Chronograph 38mm, literally the red bike Santa had promised for a damn long time.
Now, mind you at this point in time, this specific Breitling reference had already been about 5 years old since it was first released back in 2013.
It was listed for $2400 USD which was approximately $1000 USD lower than all the other listings new or used at this point in time for the market. The watch seemed like it was in IMMACULATE condition for a pre-owned watch. The pictures were perfectly amateur. When I mean perfectly amateur, I mean you could tell it was Joe, your neighbor taking a few snaps on his iPhone 6 to quickly upload it to eBay. It was a full set, box, papers, warranty, and of course, the watch itself.
If you’re an experienced eBay user, or if you’ve been burned one too many times, you would understand that a seller’s feedback history is the make or break in any transaction. The problem I had with this particular seller was that they only had 20 positive reviews to their name. Of the 20 positive reviews, nearly a dozen of the reviews were left for them when they were the one doing the buying. If I was going to get scammed, without a doubt, this was going to be it. I had already eaten the bait. Typically, I never go through with risky transactions in the thousands of dollars if a seller does not have a long history, over years and years with many different buyers with high value transactions, but I knew I had to at least try. The price point was too perfect to look the other way.
Hedge Fund Manager, Astronaut, Arab Prince
So I send them a quick eBay message detailing my concerns that goes:
Me: “Hi, I was interested in your watch, but you don’t have a lot of history selling high ticket items. I was wondering if you could tell me about yourself and why you’re selling the watch.”
“Hi, my name is Mark Lastname, I am the president and CEO of a very large simulator-based training company, we train pilots for the airlines. I am selling to fund another watch.”
This response left the biggest alarm bells in my head. I have never met a scammer who was bold enough to give himself the lead role at a large company. A quick LinkedIn search showed that yes, it was indeed a “Mark” who had the titles of President and CEO of said company.
I was extremely skeptical; he left me with even more questions than answers. At the time, I was a very new pilot working in the industry with very little money, but I understood there was plenty to be made in the airlines. There was no way a busy CEO AND president of a pilot simulator-based training organization was pawning off his 2 grand wrist watch on eBay. The idea of it all was absolutely hilarious to me. I had felt that this individual had definitely chosen the wrong identity to steal.
Me: “May I ask you why you’re selling the watch for such a low price, and why it’s in such great condition? Also could I call you and talk to you over the phone?”
So I decided play along with his narrative that he is some bigshot CEO, and I asked him a few more questions; however, the phone call was the only thing I was really interested about. I wanted to hear how he would actually carry himself over the phone.
Mark: “I need the money quickly to buy a solid gold Breitling Transocean Unitime which is being listed for $12,000 USD. I actually only wore the Transocean 38 a few times, it mainly sat in my dresser. You know what? Here is the phone number to my work XXX-XXX-XXXX. I’ll be in the office on Monday, so you could give me a call then.”
This guy had guts. He had all the right answers, but craziest of all he gave me a phone number to the actual business. I googled the number as soon as he gave it to me. It checked out.
Trap Set, But For Who?
It was Saturday night when I had received the response. I lived on the West coast in Vancouver, and this guy was based on the East coast in Toronto. My plan was to take Monday morning off from work (#dedication), and call him at 8:10am sharp his time-zone which was 5:10am my time.
Any CEO with integrity/professionalism should be in the office on time. I gave him the 10 minutes for breathing room and to allow him to get settled in, if it really was him.
2 outcomes were probable in my mind prior to the phone call. 1) In fact, it was a case of identity theft. I call the company, and get laughed off the phone while trying to reach their CEO. OR 2) it’s a fake number, his LinkedIn, the company website were all a fake pages, and Google was wrong.
8:08am: I pulled up my Skype account fully loaded with 15 dollars (Canada wide calling plans were not an affordable thing yet). I dialed in his office number at 8:09am, and it starts ringing. At 8:10am, the call gets picked up and a woman answers: “Good morning, “Large Simulator Training Company,” it’s Danielle speaking, how may I direct your call?”
Me: “Hi I want to speak to Mark.”
Danielle: “He’s actually in a meeting right now; did you have a phone call or appointment scheduled?”
Me:“ummm no…”
Danielle: “Can I leave him a message for you, and he’ll call you back?”
Me: “umm, it’s okay, just tell him hiddeninahiara called”
There was no way I was going to tell this mellifluously voiced secretary that this was an eBay related matter. I didn’t feel like being laughed at this early in the morning.
To my biggest surprise I get the following eBay message from Mark not 3 minutes after hanging up.
“LOL, you called my secretary”
“In a meeting, I’ll call you back in an hour.”
I guess in that moment, I realized that maybe Mark was legitimate, and that if all of this was a set up, the effort he went through would warrant me falling for the scam. I mean, the whole situation was a little over the top for an Ebay listing, the shit we do for watches though. I would be laughing too if I was on the other end of the transaction.
2 hours passed and he calls me fashionably late, and we have a good chat, the contents of that conversation, I have forgotten. I remember feeling quite reassured and we were laughing about my phone call in the morning (He didn’t think I would actually call). I end up ordering the watch. If you’ve read up to this point, I commend you for sharing your time with just another regular guy like me.
One week later the watch arrives in the mail, and to my surprise, it’s everything in the pictures. It’s a gorgeous watch; it was love at first sight until I open up the warranty card and see:
Johannesburg? South Africa?
How does some guy in Ontario end up with a watch from South Africa? What the hell? I thought the uncertainty and story had ended, but there was no way I was going to let myself be fooled by a replica watch with a bold enough warranty card saying it’s from South Africa.
I knew that if I was going to confront Mark, he would tell me the obvious. He would tell me he had traveled to Johannesburg, a very beautiful city, and he purchased the watch while on vacation and returned to Canada with it. Surely money and travel are no problems for a CEO of an airline pilot simulator training company. I was temporarily done with getting answers from him.
So instead I go visit the website of “ELEGANCE,” and scour their watch brands for sale. NO BREITLING. I started to panic; I had discovered the first hole in his very complicated story. It was unraveling before me. The watch, the box, and all the documents all looked authentic, but the dealer’s website simply didn’t add up.
I pulled up my trusty Skype account and dialed the South African number. I don’t even bother to check what time it was there, or ask how the woman on the line how her day was going. When she picked up, I asked her desperately, “Hi, Do you sell Breitling watches?”
“Unfortunately we do not, you could try “Other South African Jewelry Dealer.””
Me: “DID YOU EVER SELL BREITLING WATCHES?”
Elegance Sale’s Rep: “We did, but we stopped carrying Breitlings a year ago”
My heart palpitations began dissipating, my breathing slowed.
In the end, she had helped me verify the warranty card, and verify that the Breitling was in fact the watch that was purchased from their boutique. After the phone call, I put my phone down, and took a long nap.
So I just wanted to leave a final thought from this experience. Whenever you guys are buying the grey market, don’t be afraid to ask questions and be skeptical. In the end, someone with integrity will honor your concerns. Sometimes you might even end up with a very unique story alongside your verified authentic watch.
All the real names have been changed to protect their privacy.
