Top 5: Best places to sell your Rolex

Introduction

If I sell my Rolex I want to know what the best place is, and probably so do you. Ofcourse there are different aspects as to what one might consider 'best', but we define it as a combination of getting a fair price (read: low sellers commissions) and overall service provided by the party to engage you to help sell your watch.

We are the founders of Relleb (Kenny en Marcel) and we are asked on a daily basis by both customers and friends about where they can best sell Rolex watches. We hope that this overview helps you get a general understanding how to best come about this, but feel free to reach out if you might have additional questions after reading this!

Of course everything you read also applies to other brands or models you might be interested in selling, such as Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and many more.

This is just a small pick of what kind of questions we get, and you might have:

• Where should I sell my Rolex?
• Can I sell Rolex watches somewhere near me?
• If I sell Rolex watches online, what should I ask?
• Where can I best sell my Rolex online?
• Should I sell my Rolex to my local dealer?
• Where can I get the best price for my Rolex?
• Where do I pay the lowest commission if I want to sell my Rolex online?
• Is it safe to sell Rolex watches online?

As watch enthusiast ourselves and helping others buy and sell Rolex watches, we know these are very fair questions to have. If I sell my Rolex, I would have the same questions and there are tons of options available today, of which some are better than others. Online watch web shops are shooting out of the ground everywhere, you can get "free quotes" and there are also a couple of marketplaces to sell Rolex watches.

In this blog we will explain our top 5 places to sell your Rolex and also explain why we think our Relleb platform is the best place. It is basically a marketplace we built on the question where do I want to sell my Rolex.

If you want to sell your watch at any other place, that is of course totally fine. But after doing research, interviewing watch sellers and buyers, and being struggling with the question where to sell my Rolex ourselves as well, we are convinced we are the best place for every private seller to sell your Rolex or any other watch. The process is fully facilitated from having the watch picked up at your house by our shipping partner, to the authentication process and subsequent shipping to the buyer. Oh, and did we tell you that we charge no seller commissions?

What do Rolex sellers think important

At first we have investigated and researched what people struggled with when facing the question "where to sell my Rolex". To our surpise we discovered that the price you get for the watch you want to sell is just one of the important matters for a seller, and other aspects such as a smooth service and transparant process are equally important. We will summarize the top 5 most important matters to sellers online, supported by our research and feedback:

• The price you get
  When selling your Rolex watch, you want to get the best price and at least the "market price" you feel good about. Nobody likes to be lowballed.
• Commissions you pay
  To be honest, if somebody who helps to sell Rolex watches earns a bit of money that is ok. But the commission in relation to the service provided should be fair, and not excessive. 
• Safety of the watch and yourself
  In case you want to sell your Rolex watch, it is very important that your Rolex is safe until you have received your money. And we all agree that selling a Rolex in a face-to-face meeting might be tricky, depending on who the seller and buyer are? Also having your address, name, email or phone number on display to anyone while selling a Rolex doesn't give a safe feeling. You want the safety of you and the Rolex watch to be certain.
• Aftersales (what if after -or during- the sale something happens)
  When you sell Rolex watches online and something happens, you don't want anyone to come back to you after a period with a problem. Maybe the watch is damaged, not accurate or anything else happened. You just don't want to have anything to do with it (you are a private seller after all, not a sales company)
• How long it takes to sell my Rolex
  Once you have made the decision to sell your watch, you rather want your money today than tomorrow. Speed is important (but lowest compared to all other aspects), but most people agree that it does not have to come at greater expense.

 

Selling your Rolex online vs. offline

Online, the possibilities are nearly endless. So how do you make a pick between the various options? You can sell on local online marketplaces (mostly national), to an online web shop or on a watch marketplace like Chrono24 or Relleb.com. When you sell your watch offline, possibilities are limited to your location. Often there will be some local (vintage) watch dealers or Certified Pre-Owned ("CPO") watch dealers (like Bucherer). 

We will handle local vintage watch dealers and CPO watch dealers in our top 5 below as one category.

Where can I sell my Rolex?

This the question we are answering: "where to sell my Rolex". We do that by giving an overview of the top 5 best places you can go to sell Rolex watches. Where to sell my Rolex is a question that depends on what you think is important. In line with our investigation most priority is given to price, commission fees, safety, aftersales and the speed of selling Rolex watches with a certain party. We start at the bottom of the list and work our way up.

#5: Local and CPO watch dealers

To give it right away, this is our least favourite place. I would personally never sell my Rolex at a local dealer. We have investigated what prices in the Netherlands we get for a general Rolex Submariner 116610 or a Rolex Daytona 6265 and note they discount online prices by 10% - 30%! If they sell your Rolex on consignment basis (a construction where you leave your watch at the store where it will be put up for sale) they will on average ask 20% commission fee. 

Rating: 5/10

• Price: Very bad
  On the upside you might sell your watch relatively fast, but with a hefty discount of upwards to 10%-30%
• Commission: c.20%
  Selling on consignment is sometimes possible, but commissions are on average 20%. 
  
• Safety watch and seller: Excellent.
  You sell the Rolex straight to the shop and your name, address or anything else will not be out there.
• Aftersales: Good
  The dealer will take care of aftersales.
• How long it takes: Bad-Excellent
  Your watch is sold right after you agree with a given price. In case you want  a slightly better price with consignment, it can take a long time to sell your Rolex. The dealer generally earns less on your consignment watch so will try to sell his own watches first, and after that the watches he has on consignment. After a long time and you waiting, he will give you an even lower price to conduct the sale right away. Do you see where this is going..?

#4 Online web shops

You have multiple online web shops where you can sell your Rolex. For example bobswatches.com, Watchfinder&Co and Chronext are one of the largest. They always service their watches fully and sell it with a hefty mark-up to end customers. It has it's advantages, but you have to send your watch to them and the prices they give are unfortunately very low. They generally carry also high commissions (when you sell your Rolex through consignment) or lowball direct selling prices. Also here we feel we would never sell our own personal watches to one of these web shops, and here is why.

Rating: 6/10

• Price: Very bad
  Sell directly, but with a discount of 5%-25%
• Commission: c.20-30%
  Selling on consignment is sometimes possible, but commissions are on average 20%-30%. Extremely high.
  
• Safety watch and seller: Excellent.
  You sell the Rolex straight to the shop and your name, address or anything else will not be out there.
• Aftersales: Good
  The reseller take care of aftersales.
• How long it takes: Bad-Excellent
  Your watch is sold right after you agree with a very low price. In case you want a slightly better price with consignment, it can take a some time to sell your Rolex.
• Shipment
  Most of the times, you have to arrange shipment and insurance yourself.

Unhappy customer trying to sell a watch online by consignment with a large dealer (source: Jan21, Trustpilot)

#3 Auctions (CataWiki, Christies, Phillips)

You can easily analyse the watch auctions market on itself, but in comparison to each other there is only one large deviator: the condition of the Rolex you want to sell. If you sell Rolex watches in bad to average condition, you will not be able to sell at Christies or Philips. But you will be able to sell your Rolex on CataWiki with bad to average condition. Even Frankenstein watches can be sold on CataWiki, just read our blog on fake watches on CataWiki.

if I would have a highly coveted piece, I would think at least once to sell my Rolex through a Philips action (when I have a really, really, special piece). They are generally known for selling highly coveted and special Rolex watches, like the Paul Newman Daytona). 

However, all auction parties work on the same basis with regards to the topics we rate them on in this blog. Big disadvantage of auctions: they take place at a certain moment and reserves can lead to disappointment and a result in a long period required to finally be able to sell your Rolex. Also, auctions in general are as good as the potential buyers they attract - which is something you do not have in your own hands as well.

Rating: 6/10

• Price: Depends
  Auctions are unsure. You can choose to put a reserve on the Rolex you want to sell or not, but auction platforms might not always accept this (or only accept relatively low proces), because if a watch is not sold then the auctioneer does normally not get any commissions. In addition, some auctioneers can set a good scene, whilst others cannot.
• Commission: c.10-30%
  Selling through an auction is expensive. General commissions are between 10-30%. For example, CataWiki takes c.20% on every lot...
  
• Safety watch and seller: Average - good.
  On CataWiki they will ask your name, address and telephone number. Not everything will be shared with the buyer, but as a private seller there is a lot of information to provide. Through Philips and Christies, all information will be withheld form the buyer.
• Aftersales: Average
  Through auctions you may have some aftersales issues if there are problems with the watch afterwards. We have heard about a private seller, selling his watch to another private seller on an auction platform, and all was and went well. However, years later the watch turned out to be stolen and the seller that sold his watch through the auction platform was questioned about this - eventhough this entire issue unfolded after he sold it. So he would potentially get duped by others actions.
• How long it takes: Bad-Excellent
  It depends if you have a reserve price or not and the bid. No reserve will give you certainty a watch will be sold directly, but will provide uncertainty about the price.
• Shipment
  You have to arrange shipment and insurance yourself on CataWiki.

Phillips sold this Rolex Daytona worn and owned by Paul Newman for $5,475,000 (credit Phillips)

#2 eBay & Chrono24

eBay and Chrono24 have been the best places in the last years to sell my Rolex. If I would sell my Rolex -and Relleb.com would not be here- I would say to go to Chrono24 or eBay (of the two we would prefer Chrono24). Most people who want to browse watches and know what is available, go to eBay or Chrono24 so they have a broad audience coming to the website. 

In essence eBay and Chrono24 are big marketplaces, but for example Chrono24 is more focussed on large retailers and not so much on private sellers. Chrono24 even advises private sellers to meet face to face with sellers, and their "buyer protection" does not apply to private seller listings... The commissions are also too high in our opinion - as Chrono24 merely helps sellers and buyers to connect.

Rating: 8/10

• Price direct: 10-15% below marketvalue
  You can choose to sell your Rolex to Chrono24 directly with a discount of approximately 10%-15%. This is a new feature launched in 2020.
• commission: c.6.5%-10%
  Selling through Chrono24 for private sellers results in a 6.5% seller-commission and through eBay even 10%. 
  
• Safety watch and seller: Poor.
  You have to provide a lot of information to eBay and to a lighter extend to Chrono24. Unfortunately your name is on display and customers are able to contact you for questions and inquiries. Not something we think is always beneficial to protect the seller.
• Aftersales: High (risk)
  Buyers will always contact you as the seller. We have heard about private sellers faced with a claim by a buyer for selling them a fake watch (while they know for sure it was a real one they shipped out) and having troubles with aftercare after they sold their Rolex
• How long it takes: Good
  Because of the high volume of traffic on these websites, watches can be sold quickly quite easily for the right price. Unfortunately, because of the risk of buying from a private person on Chrono24, it is often heard that it can take a long time to sell your Rolex.
• Shipment
  You have to arrange shipment and insurance yourself.

#1 Relleb.com

We started our Relleb marketplace specifically for private sellers who want to sell Rolex and other watches. Ranging from watch enthusiasts selling on a weekly basis, to sellers that might only sell one or a few pieces in their lifetime. In essence, our service has to be good - always and for everyone. As said, it is built on the principle question where to sell my Rolex. 

We wanted to serve private watch enthusiast who want to safely sell Rolex watches (or one) while their personal data is protected, with NO commissions, shipment service, perfect aftersales and a 24/7 seller assistance. Since we are a start-up company with not as much traffic compared to longer existing marketplaces, we see that people are selling their watch on other marketplaces next to their listing on Relleb. When they find a buyer, they might agree to checkout via their listing on Relleb to provide the seller the best price (and aftersales protection) and provide the buyer with certainty over authenticity and quality with our Relleb protection services. 

After a long time of development and research we are proud to say that we feel Relleb.com will suit every need for private sellers, and we hope other watch enthusiast continue to recognize this as well. The reviews we have received are fantastic, and above all encouring to contine on this route and we will do our utmost to keep this up!

• Price direct: Marketvalue as there are NO commissions
  We have no seller commission on our platform. The best value for the Rolex you want to sell.
• Commission: 0%
  No commissions. 
  
• Safety watch and seller: Good.
  You don't have to share any personal information to a seller on our marketplace. We serve as your assurance partner in selling your Rolex.
• Aftersales: no worries for the seller, we do all the aftersales.
  Buyers will always contact us if there are any problems as we will be labelled as "the seller" after we have authenticated the Rolex.
• How long it takes: Good
  Our traffic to the website is growing and with that our listing outstanding days is decreasing. 
• Shipment
  We arrange to pick up the watch at your doorstep with our carries (DHL, FedEx) and insure the watch for you.

Selling on Relleb: how it works>>

The verdict

We hope this gives some insights to the possibilities to sell Rolex watches online and hope it answers your question where to sell my Rolex. Instead of asking other people "what is the best place to sell my Rolex", we hope and are confident that this blog has helped you to know what place is best for you and hope that you have the same conclusion as us.

With our selling protection, pick-up services and no commission fees we believe Relleb is the best solution for private watch sellers available at this moment. At this moment we need more watch enthusiast to find out about us and hope you can help us in this regards. Share our website with other watch enthusiast, list your watches with us and buy with us. We are the true watch enthusiast who want to make online trading safe and fun for everybody.

In case you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us.

How to sell Rolex watches online the best way possible

We have written a blog to help you sell your Rolex for the best price possible online. I show how I would sell my Rolex with regards to text, pictures and how to avoid the easy traps.

It is coming online soon, stay tuned! 

Other blogs of interest

How to authenticate the Rolex Hulk 116610LV

Chrono24 review: our experience after buying multiple watches

Fake watches on Chrono24: what is that all about?