Rolex auction with a nice story to it

[Noah930]

Vintage Rolex Submariner Dive Watch - eBay (item 120652944121 end time Dec-05-10 19:30:56 PST)

As I've found out from our watch threads, there are quite a few Rolex owners on this board. I came across this ebay auction over on F-chat. Quite a nice story, if you peruse the questions/comments on the bottom of the page.

In short, older gentleman puts what he thinks is an old watch up for auction. Time to pass it on to someone else. Little does he know that it's worth a mint, despite its non-minty condition.

[masraum]

wow, bidding started at $10 and it's now at over $61k. Lots of folks were offering much, much lower amounts to end the auction and sell the watch quickly.

[dtw]

Nice story! Sounds like a very interesting old fellow.

Perhaps we can hear that "strippers, flippers, and pimps" whine one more time in this thread.

[Jagshund]

Bunch of rats trying to swindle that thing. I bet it would have gone right back up on ebay if that joker had bought it for $5k.

[David]

Pretty cool!

This reminds of a story of my own:

My older half-brother never talked very kindly about our father's last wife, the woman he was married to when he died in 1972. He said she sold off all our father's stuff after he died and left us with nothing.

I barely remember the woman since I was so young when our father died, but I found her a couple years ago and met her for lunch with my brother. We had a nice talk and I learned several things about my father, some things I was glad to hear and some things that I didn't want to hear that she told me when my brother left to go to the bathroom. I guess she knew how my brother felt about her even though he was very cordial during our lunch.

As we were walking out of the resturant she asked us to sit outside with her for a few minutes. We sat down and she pulled out a box. She had already told us what happened to our father's guns (he had dozens if not a hundred or more) and Porsche during lunch, but now she told us about the things she kept and every bit of it was in that box!

She first told us our father's AMA ring was on his hand since she thought that was the right thing to do at the time. Then she pulled out each item and told us any story that went with it. One of the items was our father's wedding ring. She said even though it was from her marriage, she wanted us to have it. I read the inscription and realized it was his ring from his marriage to my mother.

The last thing she pulled out of the box was a gold Rolex. Not a fancy gold Rolex, just a plan old Rolex. This was the same Rolex that my brother always mentioned when saying bad things about her since he figured she'd sold it. I insisted my brother take it and I hope it changed his opinion of the last woman our father loved.

[MRM]

The story the OP linked us was very nice. David, your story was even better. Thank you both for sharing.

[Tobra]

Two excellent tales, thanks.

Why is a 50 year old Rolex worth so much? Are they super rare or something?

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Two excellent tales, thanks.

Why is a 50 year old Rolex worth so much? Are they super rare or something?

I wondered the same...

[azasadny]

Very cool!

[BRPORSCHE]

Wow David. Great story.

[Eric Coffey]

Cool story. Looks like "Bob" is going to have an exceptionally MERRY Christmas this year.

Crazy to think some of the old Rolex "MilSubs" are fetching 6 figures, depending on condition/provenance.

[Kraftwerk]

Thanks for posting, Going to get my 1953 Bubble-Back (not water proof) out of the drawer and wear it around a bit... Squeeks when I wind it, keeps perfect time, perpetual mechanism has been removed so no.... mine is only a 3,000 watch at most...

Loved the Q & A : "I am ready to board a plane, cash in hand, I offer you $ 80,000..."

[porsche4life]

Thats just insane....

[Erakad]

Wonderful story, indeed it will be a merry Christmas, but I too am wondering about what makes the vintage sub mariner so rare and valuable.

Crazy!

[masraum]

Hmm, "expedited shipping $4.90". I'm pretty sure the old fella's going to eat a little bit of the shipping cost. Assuming that the high bidders actually do pay what they've bit, I'd be surprised if $5 covers the insurance on a $60k item.

[Noah930]

$5 will cover shipping. Insurance, on the other hand...

I shipped an engagement ring cross-country, once. FedEx/UPS/etc will not insure for more than a fairly low value (low in comparison to how much jewelry costs, at least). My sister once worked at an auction house. They ship millions of dollars of jewelry all over the place. She gave me the name of the place her company used. So I contacted that company and had them ship the ring for me. When we received the package at the other end...it was delivered by FedEx. Essentially the "shipping company" provided the insurance coverage for the ring. It wasn't more than about $20 or $30 total, either.

[futuresoptions]

Cool... Good for you Bob, and SALUTE!

[Aurel]

In the bid history, the same bidder was at $31,000 then overbid himself to $61,000 immediately after...

[Joeaksa]

Good story and really nice reading about his history and the questions.

[pavulon]

was bid to $62K+ 10minutes ago....now $31K