I joined Watch Trading Academy on March 31st, 2018, but when was my first actual watch purchase?
September 15th, 2018 – I bought a Bell & Ross BR-X1 WhiteHawk.
6 months passed between my joining and actually buying a watch. So what took so much time? And more importantly, how did I get through it? Let’s get into it.
Part of the reason I took so much time was that I was out of the country and wanted to wait until I was back in the US to start watch trading. But frankly, a majority of it was pure analysis paralysis. I was skeptical and overthought the entire thing. Are people really making money with watches? Can you make a lot? Are they better than stocks? Who’s this PJ guy? And a million other questions…
Even after going through the course, and doing my first watch deal, I was still sort of slow and dragged my feet with the process. I would find a watch, but my mind would then wander to “Who do I sell to? I don’t know anyone who will buy my expensive watches. Everyone around me thinks spending so much money on watches is dumb. I’m gonna be stuck with the watch”.
Your fear and overthinking manifest in the form of excuses, so below are 5 of my analysis paralysis fears, and I’ll explain how to handle them.
What if I overpay on a watch and lose money?
– In the beginning, my fear of overpaying and instantly losing money kept me from actually purchasing deals in the WTA group. If I learned too late that I overpaid for a watch, I would be stuck with it for a long time.
– Why this isn’t valid: There are several resources and ways to make sure you’re buying at the right dollar. One resource I use on a regular basis is the BCV Charts in Part Deux; these help you calculate the bottom cash value on a watch and estimate your risk exposure when purchasing a watch. If you follow the process in Part Deux and you buy close to BCV, you won’t overpay.
There’s so much information, steps and processes…and what if I miss a step?
– Coming from a world revolving around academics and engineering, my exposure to buying and selling items as a true business was scarce. So when I joined Watch Trading Academy and saw all the videos and steps, my thoughts were that I would forget these steps and somehow make a mistake buying a watch – so I kept watching and rewatching videos until I felt like it was “the right time”. There’s never a “right time”.
– Why this isn’t valid: The copious amounts of resources at your disposal should not dissuade you or discourage you from taking the first steps and digesting the information online, but rather make you feel comfortable. There is so much information in Part One that covers all aspects of watch trading; the basics on whatever you need to get started — and more—is covered in this section and all it takes is you just applying it. When you learn the material and execute on what you learned, you’ll win. Whenever I would have a doubt, I’d reference the material. Question? Reference the material. Even now after having trades under my belt, I go back and reference the material.
What if I ship and possibly lose a watch?
– After lurking in the Facebook group for a bit, you hear of stories where people ship a watch and lose it. Either it got delivered and the customer claimed the box showed up empty or it got stolen on the way to the customer. It’s nerve-wracking to think about losing money before you even get the chance to make money. You save up, buy the course, buy a watch and then bam – you ship the watch but somehow it’s gone and so is your money.
– Why this isn’t valid: While it can happen, it’s not the norm. Which shipping service to use, which one not to use, how to package it, how to insure it, and basically how to protect yourself from this happening is all covered in Part One, and even more in Part Deux. Again, put your fear aside, follow the course and all will be okay. I’ve done over 20 trades and I haven’t had a single issue when it comes to delivery of my watches to customers, or taking delivery of a watch.
What if I buy a watch using the wire payment method and the watch isn’t shipped to me?
– This is again related to losing money, it’s of course scary to wire someone money in hopes that they’ll stick to their word and send you a watch in return. True wire payments are irreversible, so once the money is sent, it’s sent and you can’t get it back. Okay you wire $1000 and it’s gone, what about $15k, $30k or more? Once you wire it, it’s gone.
– Why this isn’t valid: Of course there is risk in any watch trading you do, however keeping your money safe when purchasing watches is covered in the course—buy the seller, not the watch. There are various safety checks you can perform, and ways to make sure the seller is legit and not some guy just trying to profit off of your ignorance. It could be the best watch in the world and everything could look right on the surface, but if the seller doesn’t pass the verification steps on being a legit seller, don’t buy. Go through the material and learn the signs of a legit seller. Will they pick up a phone call, give you their photo ID, FaceTime call you, send you extra pictures of the watch? How are they to converse with? These, and so many other things can be analyzed when vetting a seller. By knowing what to look out for, I started to see patterns in who I could trust, and I started to move faster with buying and selling watches.
Seeing other’s people numbers or successes makes me feel like I’m not ready yet.
– I would see some people making money and rationalize in my head how it was able to work for them but may not work for me. Maybe it was a unicorn deal, or maybe they met a guy who’s dumb and sold a $20k watch for $15k. It at times felt like it was working for others and not me, and like others had special circumstances. Some people also start out with different amounts of money, and the lack of comparable funds to others could be used as an excuse as to why you’re not ready to buy watches.
– Why this isn’t valid: It’s easy to see the end result of a Facebook post stating $5k profit on a watch and thinking that’s not possible or too difficult for you. Maybe someone else had more money to buy watches so they have more opportunity than you, but what you don’t see is a person going through the material, internalizing it, and actually putting the work in. Several members in the group have started out with less than $5k and have turned it into much more. If you execute, the money will come and in this game, the one who recognizes opportunity and follows the proper steps will succeed. It’s not always about who has the most money. The more I went through the material, and put it into practice, the more things made sense. How did that person make $5k on a watch? They saw a watch, checked the charts, did the calculations, vetted the seller, bought using the appropriate payment method, listed the watch properly, waited for the right seller and made $5k.
So all in all, what took me from overthinking to actually watch trading? Going through the material, following the steps and putting into practice what the course says. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It’s all in your head.
