Your first watch deal, step by step

Reading about dealing only takes you so far. The first deal is where you find out whether your pricing is realistic, whether your checks are thorough, and how long a watch really takes to sell. It's worth doing deliberately, and worth doing small.

Before you buy anything

Get the boring parts in place first, because they're much harder to retrofit:

• Decide your niche, so you're buying something you understand. The niche article covers choosing one.
• Set the business up, at whatever level fits your plans, as the LLC article discusses.
• Check what applies where you operate, including any secondhand-dealer registration and sales tax, with the compliance checker.
• Open a separate account for the business, so the money is never mixed up with your own.
• Decide how you'll record things, even if it's a spreadsheet. The recordkeeping guide covers what to keep.

Pick the watch

For a first deal, choose boring on purpose: a common reference in your niche, in honest condition, with a history you can check. Avoid rare pieces, unusual configurations, projects needing service, and anything you're not confident authenticating.

Before you talk price, gather sold evidence for that exact reference in that condition, as the market prices article describes.

Work out your ceiling

Decide what you can pay before you negotiate. Take a cautious sale price, subtract selling fees, payment processing, shipping, insurance, prep, and your target margin, and the remainder is your maximum. The max buy calculator does the arithmetic, and the max buy article explains the reasoning.

Write the number down. Its whole purpose is to hold when a seller is persuasive.

Check the watch properly

Inspect it in person if you can, following a fixed order, as the viewing article sets out. Record the serial, authenticate the watch, match any papers, ask where it came from, and run a stolen-watch check. The pre-purchase checklist covers the full routine, and none of it is optional because this is your first deal.

Buy it

Agree the price, pay by a method that suits the situation, and record everything: the seller's details, the price, the date, and photographs of the watch and its paperwork. Issue a purchase receipt, which the paperwork article covers, and follow any local reporting or holding rules that apply.

Prepare and list it

Clean it carefully, have any service done if you planned for it, and photograph it properly, as the photography article explains. Write an honest listing describing every fault, using the listing article as a guide, and list it on the channel you chose when you worked out your ceiling.

Sell it

Answer questions promptly, hold your floor on offers, and confirm the deal in writing before money moves, as the closing article covers. Take payment by a method that protects you, then ship it tracked, insured, and signed for, with photos of the watch and the packing before it goes.

Review it honestly

This is the part most new dealers skip, and it's the reason to do a first deal at all. Write down:

• What you paid, and everything you spent after that.
• What it sold for, and what reached your account after fees.
• How long it took, from purchase to payment.
• What surprised you, including costs you hadn't planned and questions you couldn't answer.

The profit article shows how to work out what you actually made. Compare it with what you expected when you bought, and carry the difference into your next deal.

How to become a watch dealer covers the wider path this first deal sits inside.