NAWCC Regional Convention In St. Louis
by Watchking

The weekend of May 27-28 was a good one for start-up watch collectors who visited St. Louis for the NAWCC Regional Convention. With almost 300 tables the St. Louis Regional was certainly not the largest or most spectacular convention this year or maybe even that week. There was also another watch show scheduled on the same dates in Las Vegas and many collectors shopping for high-end or new watches would be visiting America's gambling capital. This only made things more interesting for beginning collectors.

There were two reasons for this:

The first reason was that many of the sellers who normally sold high-end watches at a mid-States regional were not in attendance and their normal table spaces were occupied by sellers of mid-range and low-priced watches and clocks. Some tables had been taken by 4 or 5 collectors who banded together to cover their space and sell off the excess watches they had. This meant that a much greater proportion of sellers were devoting their table space to the kinds of wristwatches that beginning collectors usually start their collections with. I say wristwatches because there was no competing show for clocks and pocket watches and some very pricey pocket watches and clocks were on display in St. Louis.

Out of almost 300 tables there were about 150 tables for clocks, clock parts, tools and other (books, repair manuals, videos etc.). There were perhaps 80-90 tables with pocket watches and very expensive wristwatches. The remaining tables were mostly filled with watches that would appeal to beginning collectors. This also doesn't count the tables where two or three of these categories of items were shown for sale. The sheer numbers of Omegas, Longines, Midos, Rados, Zodiacs and dozens of lesser names (though not always) was surprising. The sellers had lots of time and a surprising amount of interest in selling their watches and chatting.

The second reason why this was a good show for new collectors became obvious before the show opened. There weren't nearly as many high-end and well-heeled shoppers in St. Louis because of the Vegas show. Often times the best deals on LeCoultre, Rolexe, Girard Perregaux and other quality watches are scooped up before a show officially opens. Sellers setting up buy from other sellers, and guys with piles of dough are waiting as soon as the doors open to buy the cream of the crop and then leave after the convention has only been open for an hour. This didn't happen in St. Louis. In addition, the sellers with Patek Philippes and Vacherons filling their displays often get clogged with buyers and gawkers who also buy up many of these sellers' mid-priced merchandise. This wasn't happening either. New collectors were prowling, comparing prices and striking hard bargains with so much selling stock available.

Towards the end of the show sellers began to get a little antsy. Sellers don't like to go home without selling enough watches to pay for the booth and travel costs even if they have to sell some items at a loss. A few people made me offers that I couldn't refuse. A mint alarm watch here for $50, and a nice collectable vintage automatic there for $40. Accutrons for $50 were everywhere. I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to buy a few high-end items but the deals weren't there. There were deals on mid-priced stuff everywhere. A reasonable all Stainless Steel Omega Constellation, 24 jewel, auto Day/Date, non-pie pan with Omega bracelet cost me $240 and that was as far down the high quality road as I got. In fact there were so few high-end watches that the sellers who had Rolex 14kt yellow and SS 2 tone Datejusts said they could have sold decent heads with very stretched bracelets for $13-1500 and they ran out of stock before the end of the show. On the other hand a few sellers who had only 5-10 mid-range Rados and Omegas were selling way below market to get enough money to pay for their tables.

The St. Louis show was the perfect example of how market trends are not nearly as important as circumstances for new collectors. The selection for beginners was fabulous. In fact, it was better than normal. The competition amongst mid-range sellers was fierce. There were very few big buck buyers purchasing large quantities of watches. There were only a few tables with expensive watches that took up gawking time for beginners. Any new collector looking to buy 4-5 very nice watches on a tight budget would have done very well at this show.

The Nationals are interesting. The Mid-winter shows in Florida really bring out the high rollers who visit the warm weather in January. Some regional shows like Detroit and South Texas have great reputations as "mining" sites for expensive watches like Rolex and Patek that can suddenly show up from auto or oil people. The St. Louis show had many new sellers, lots of mid-market stock available and few quantity buyers. This added up to be a lucky break for beginners.