Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Who the *#$% is Jackson Pollock ?

Before you jump on me for using a profane language, let me clear that above sentence is actually the original movie title. But more about that later.

Suppose you have choice of buying a 1 year old Rolex 16613 and the same model watch, but 3 years old. Which one would you go for? Well this is no brainier; while the younger watch is an obvious choice, you would make the right decision only in case that said younger watch is also in significantly better overall condition.

The key word here is the overall condition.

Unfortunately with vintage watches, overall condition is less important. The predominant factor is ORIGINALITY. You don't really want a watch in your collection which is a marriage of bits and pieces. Such watch may keep time, but the time keeping in vintage watches is even less important than overall condition.

Lets expand this bit further. You are a keen collector, knowledgeable buyer, ready to part with rather large sum of cash on an extremely rare piece. What would be the predominant factor that you'll be looking for in a watch now?
The overall condition? Originality?
Price? Resale value? Investment potential?

All of above, of course, but to a degree.

To tell you what the key point is would be too easy. And if I do so now, you will have no reason to watch one of the best documentary movies I've ever watched
on this topic!

The movie is called "Who the *#$% is Jackson Pollock".
It is available at your local video store.
Rent it tonight and watch it because the key point or moral of the story is so brilliantly presented - it will change your understanding of rare, valuable and unique objects (and the way they are they traded) forever.

No comments: