1 /5 Christina C: The buyers of Place Vendome came to my area, so I made an appointment to bring my Cartier and Rolex watches for appraisal by Todd Tyra.
The Cartier watch was a gift from family which I wore only once or twice because these days watches are made redundant by smart phones. It was mint in box. Right off the start something did not feel right. Todd looked at it closely with a pretentious frown. He gave me a lowball offer way below the price of second hand market. To justify the unreasonable lowball figure, he claimed it looked like the watch had been worn many times. If he is worth his salt, that would be a blatant lie because the watch is like brand new given it had been worn only once or twice. The price he claimed they could sell is less than half the price of second market pricing from my research. Either he has no clue of the value of the watch or he is lying (again). Given he has 25 years of buying experience, I figure it is the latter. The story of appraisal of the Rolex is similar.
There was a big crowd waiting for their items to be appraised on the day I came. My observation is they are mostly average American working families taking their valuables at home for appraisal. Many of them are elderly who are unlikely to have the ability to research the value of their items, let alone finding means to sell them online. I can see how people like Todd Tyra can fool them by convincing their items are worth significantly a lot less than what they can fetch in second hand market. I feel terribly bad for them, especially for the elderly who probably can use a bit of cash from selling their valuables.
I give a 1 star review not because we did not agree on a reasonable price, but because they do not engage with good will and fairness. By buying at a price way below market price, I am sure they can sell them at the store at a market price with a big margin. If I were shopping for vintage jewelry, I would not buy from them knowing they earn their money by scamming the average American working families with dishonest practice.
