I’m looking at buying used on chrono24 or other from countries outside Canada. At first the price seems reasonable and offers enough saving to make it advantageous compared to buying new. However, I’m finding that after estimating import fees and taxes I am getting close to new price. Add in a service inspection or full service and the prices are very similar. Wondered if anyone else has found this to be the case and whether there are other ways to make buying used a better path for Canadians when buying watches from overseas?
I’ve bought plenty of used watches from outside Canada, but mostly from reddit and watchuseek.
What I do is, I ask them to declare a lower value so I don’t have to pay a lot of import taxes.
Of course, there’s a risk, since they can’t insure the watch for more than the declared value.
But to be honest, I’ve bought and sold over 50 watches / knives in the last 10 years and never had anything lost in the mail.
Just be aware that you pretty much always take responsibility if anything happens, since you’re the one asking them to declare a low value and forgo the full insurance.
If you’re not comfortable having a small chance of losing the watch / money in transit, don’t do this though.
I’ve bought watches from chrono24 from Japanese sellers (Watchnian/IPPUSHIKI and Closer). I’ve only paid at most 10% of the paid price so I want to say I’ve only ever paid the tax (Ontario).
The watches I’ve bought from Watchnian were marked as A grade, but they were basically both brand new with box and papers. Got both watches basically at 35-40% off with taxes. The one from Closer required servicing from Longines. As long as you do your due diligence, and buy from reputable sellers, you should still be saving money.