Getting High Off Your Own Supply: Written by Vintage Watchfam.

Buying and selling watches for a living might sound like the ultimate dream job for some of us watch geeks such as myself, but there are some real emotional distress to the trade. What is this “emotional distress” I’m talking about?

Recently, I have taken this watch business a little bit more seriously, curating valuable and affordable pieces, instagramming, and writing. I buy and sell more and more pieces. The problem is, I easily fall in love with the pieces I’m about to sell and I’m not ready to let them go. Sometimes, when I sell a piece, a part of me has been sold with it. The time I spent wearing, winding, and just admiring the darn thing made me want to keep it, but I have to make do. Not too long ago, someone wanted to buy one of my vintage Timex’s. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see that I’m practically their free brand ambassador. The value of vintage Timex is a whole other story (which you can read in my last article Why Vintage Timex?). Anyways, I “accidentally” fell in love with the watch. It was a cheap, fun to mess around with. It got me thinking, how am I going to conduct business in the future if I keep falling in love with these watches and can’t manage to let go of them?

Some people are flippers, and some are hoarders. The difference between the two is attaching emotion and personal connection to their pieces. You can be cold or warm with your personal pieces. I don't know where I am currently on the scale. I’m still trying to figure that out. Getting emotionally attached to my inventory is super dangerous. I can’t have everything even though it can theoretically be done. It’s not practical to have 30 watches to admire and it gets in the way of my vision. “Getting high off your supply”, as Christian from Theo & Harris puts it is a great saying. It definitely is a big deal. I’m sure Christian has his moments as other watch dealers and collectors do as well.

At this point, I’m trying to be disciplined and stay on the path to where I’m trying to be. Having every watch, I love (literally everything) is getting in the way of that. I guess for now, I have to practice my obsession in moderation.

Coming up next with Vintage Watchfam: my collection is chaos with all the buying and selling!