CWBC Commission - The Best Way to Sell a Watch

The Classic Watch Buyers Club Ltd has been trading in the luxury watch space for over seven years now and many of our sales have been commission sales. We will take in a watch and list it on behalf of a customer through our sales channels and take a fee when the watch sells. This is a great way to sell a watch without investing the time, money and effort to sell privately. At CWBC we offer a flat commission rate of 7.5% with options for marketing, platform listings and more.  It can be risky for a private individual to sell their watches without the backing of a watch dealer. There are a number of unforeseen costs associated with selling your watch that can make a good deal seem pretty disappointing in the end.

A non all-encompassing list of potential costs includes:

Watch Service Requirements – Customers expect the watch they buy to be fully functioning and not in need of any work. That means if you want to sell a watch that needs a service, you’ll have to get it serviced yourself.

Cleaning of Watches – Watches, being worn day in day out, accumulate grime, dirt and scratches. Customers expect the best and want their watches to be lightly polished and clean. Sometimes that is just a wipe down with a jewellery cloth but it could also need a deep clean which would be a cost to the seller.

Discount required as private seller – Trust is everything in the luxury watch industry and a private seller will struggle to create the same trust as a dealer. A dealer has a history, business address and sufficient infrastructure to deal with mechanical issues. To compensate for the lack of trust private sellers normally have to sell at a discount. The discount would vary from 5-15%, with the average discount closer to 15%.

Platform fees – Every platform will take a cut of the total sale with the average being 12.9%. 

Creating the Advert - Whilst this might not be a direct cost you do need to be able to create a high quality advert to have any hope of selling the watch. If someone is looking at a high end luxury watch they will want a full description, multiple pictures and increasingly a video of the watch. You do need to factor in the logistics of selling the watch as well as the cost.

Shipping to Customer – Depending upon the specific deal the customer might pay for shipping or they might expect you to. But either way it is a cost worth considering.

Insuring your shipment – If you are selling a £10,000 watch you will have to insure your postage and that can add up quick. The insurance will be approximately 1% of the total value.

Fraud - There's no way around the fact that watches are faked and stolen frequently. This includes online sales where scammers can buy a watch and return a fake and pocket the difference. When selling privately the risk entirely lies with you. The selling platforms won't get involved and will chalk it up as a learning experience. When you sell on commission, CWBC will take on all risks linked to fraud.

That isn’t a fully exhaustive list but it does give you an idea of the costs you might run into once you start selling privately. To break it down further I will show you a comparison between a private sale and a commission-based sale. I will presume for the private sale that the watch is in full working order and ready to be sold. However I will include the cost of servicing for the commission based sale.

The take from a private sale is around 77% versus a commission-based sale which is closer to 86%. That is an extra £923 to the watch owner when selling on commission than selling privately.

If you are interested in selling a watch on commission please click here and fill out the form. 

If you have any questions please leave it in the comments, message us through the site or email us at sales@theclassicwatchbuyersclub.com.