The Adventures of MDawg II

Quote: SOOPOO

Is buying one of these high end watches like buying a car?

You can put a small ($3k?) deposit down using a credit card but the final purchase must be cash?
Do they have a ‘finance department’ that will try to get you to take out a loan?
Is there an MSRP that is actually never the real price you will pay?
Do they take trade ins (like in the USA) that allow sales tax savings?
What kind of warranty comes with a new Rolex? Do they try and sell some sort of extended warranty?
link to original post

Is buying one of these high end watches like buying a car? Not really

You can put a small ($3k?) deposit down using a credit card but the final purchase must be cash? You can pay 100% with credit card, pay 100% cash or split between two payments.
Do they have a ‘finance department’ that will try to get you to take out a loan? I don’t know. I’ve never had to borrow to pay for high end watches.
Is there an MSRP that is actually never the real price you will pay? If you buy from boutique stores or AD’s you pay MSRP. Finding a watch at these stores is the tough mission.
Do they take trade ins (like in the USA) that allow sales tax savings? I’m not sure.
What kind of warranty comes with a new Rolex? Do they try and sell some sort of extended warranty? Warranty is dependent on whether you buy at an actual boutique store, AD, or grey market. (Somebody correct me if I’m wrong).

Overall, I have zero complaints about my previous Rolex purchases as the values have appreciated. I’ve been offered cash offers for my used watches on the spot at different grey market watch stores for well over a new MSRP price.

This is just about Rolex. Other high end Swiss watches have different availabilities. But in general the authorized dealer for a time piece will sell only at MSRP.

The authorized Rolex dealers (AD) sell at MSRP only, no more, no less. They don't care how you pay, cash, credit card, whatever. They don't accept trade ins, unless they are an AD that sells pre-owned (like Tourneau), and in Tourneau's case they aren't really taking a trade in, but rather are sometimes willing to buy your watch, whether you choose to buy another watch from them or not. There is no deposit because these days there is no way to order one, just you have to be lucky enough to get the call to come in and buy, and when you do get the call if you don't buy right away, someone else will get the call. (Orders of certain Rolexes were allowed in the past.)

The sports models especially Daytonas typically re-sell for more than MSRP, which is why both collectors and flippers (those who buy for quick resell) want to buy directly from the AD.

There used to be a waiting list at the AD to get the opportunity to buy but in recent years there is no formal list and it is more about "give us your name and maybe we'll call" where, as SiegfriedRoy alludes, getting the call has mostly to do with a prior relationship of having bought other watches from that AD. In general the ADs encourage people to buy from their hometown ADs.

For some time now the AD has little or nothing for sale right away in the store. Didn't use to be like this, years ago pretty much anything but a Daytona was available for purchase anytime.

There is a large amount on the market of pre owned Rolex watches that are all brand new and unworn. These come from flippers who buy and then resell, either directly or to gray market dealers. Over the years the Daytona models especially when brand new unworn have always been resold for more than MSRP, but how much over MSRP has varied. During especially the second year of the pandemic prices for fine timepieces skyrocketed, but there have been periods where many brand new unworn Rolexes have resold for less than MSRP.

When you buy directly from the AD, you get Rolex's five year warranty, but if you buy from a gray market dealer technically there is no Rolex warranty, but if the dealer gives you the watch's Rolex warranty card, you may usually get warranty service even though you are not the original buyer. There is at least one very well known gray market dealer that specifically will never give you the Rolex warranty card when you buy from them, just some sort of understanding they have with their supplier, but they give you their own 2 year warranty.

With all the watches I have bought, only one ever needed factory service within warranty and that was not a Rolex. I had a vintage Rolex that needed work but it was decades out of warranty and I was by no means the original owner.

The main thing you have to do with watches is at least let them run a few minutes every now and then. If you leave them unworn and not running for too long in the safe, their movements may dry out and need service to get going again. This is part of why watch winders are popular among high end watch owners.

Same with an automobile - leave it undriven for too many years and you are probably looking at a disabled vehicle.

For some time now Rolexes have been something like brand new Ferraris where you can't just walk into the dealership and buy one - a prior relationship is needed. Didn't always used to be that way, and depending on supply and demand it may go back to the days when you could buy a Rolex just by walking into the AD.

I bought mine on Chrono24 and was quite surprised the cash/credit card price was the same, so of course I put it on my credit card. That amount of miles was worth a one-way overseas first class ticket…call it $4000. Obviously you must have the credit limit to do it. One time I tried to buy a car with my credit card and, not surprisingly, they said sure but they’d have to add a 3% transaction fee. So I wired the money

No sales tax as long as the watch is being shipped to another state.

Like cars, you’ll get a much better price selling your Rolex to a private party than trading it in or selling to a dealer. There’s a huge online market and very easy/quick/secure

The one big difference is that after several years of ownership and essentially zero maintenance cost, you’ll sell your Rolex for more than paid for it. Youll sell a car for a fraction of what you paid and also have spent $$$ in ownership costs

A high-end watch is possibly the best splurge purchase you can make. You”ll enjoy wearing it, look good, and it costs nothing to own. Might even make some money

Maybe you got lucky with your credit card but when I was buying one from chrono24 there was a 3% international transaction fee added on. Chrono24 is in Germany, so that is where the credit card is processed, or sometimes it is processed in France.

As well chrono24 charges more for credit cards period, the wire price is always lower, and that is notwithstanding the additional international transaction fee that might be added on by your bank. Even if a lower wire price is not listed, with minimal negotiation they will accept a lower price for a bank wire BUT then you lose your ability to dispute the transaction easily if something goes wrong and keep in mind that chrono24 is just a marketplace, not the actual seller.

For some time now, people look at chrono24 to see what the high end of the market is - prices that are anywhere from high to ridiculous. Didn't use to be like this, as recently as a few years ago chrono24 prices were reasonable, but right now it consists of mostly greeder flippers trying to gouge people. You can't look at chrono24 to determine the value of your watch right now, because although the prices offered are high, not many if any sales are closing at that high end.

There are a number of dealers I would much rather buy from today, and I have wholesale contacts now so can buy most any watch these days at the lowest price available anywhere. These are reputable dealers where a network of other dealers stands behind them willing to vouch for the deal with their own money.

The cash/credit pricing might vary by dealer. I would have definitely paid by wire if the CC price was 3% more

If you don't ask, you don't get!

Day 4 play.

DD Blackjack.

Heavy duty play! Won most not all of the larger hands.

+11100

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

Quote: SiegfriedRoy

I really like the new GMT. I’m in Barcelona and stopped by one boutique store and an AD store. Supposedly, they’re completely out of inventory except for undesirable models. They’re pretty blunt in telling me that I need to buy their expensive junk models before I am blessed with an opportunity to buy a sports model.

The same dynamic seems to apply when one tries to buy certain new, rarer, costlier models of Ferrari ; by report, a dealer will not sell one to you unless you've previously purchased one with them, and once you buy a contract prohibits you from flipping it for awhile.

Quote: SiegfriedRoy

I really like the new GMT. I’m in Barcelona and stopped by one boutique store and an AD store. Supposedly, they’re completely out of inventory except for undesirable models. They’re pretty blunt in telling me that I need to buy their expensive junk models before I am blessed with an opportunity to buy a sports model.

The same dynamic seems to apply when one tries to buy certain new, rarer, costlier models from a Ferrari dealer; by report, some (if not all?) will not sell one to you unless you've previously purchased one with them, and once you buy a contract prohibits you from flipping it for awhile.

Day 5 play.

DD Blackjack.

Smooth sailing, just doing it like I always do. (Well, almost always anyway.)

+3300

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

Pick a fish, any fish.

Quote: MDawg

Pick a fish, any fish.

The Red Snapper is one of my favorites. What is the bigger fish in the center left?

It is a St. Pierre (John Dory). Actually have not tried that yet at that restaurant.

Never know when another Bacc tournament might happen.



Might as well enter, don't cost nothin'.

Party at MDawg's tonight!

Quote: MDawg

Party at MDawg's tonight!

link to original post

The second best comedy of all time.

Yes, Animal House is another one of those movies I don't mind watching again and again.

What would the #1 comedy be?

Quote: MDawg

Yes, Animal House is another one of those movies I don't mind watching again and again.

What would the #1 comedy be?
link to original post

I feel sorry for you that you even have to ask.

Quote: MDawg

Yes, Animal House is another one of those movies I don't mind watching again and again.

What would the #1 comedy be?
link to original post

I feel sorry for you that you even have to ask.

Has anyone been watching Mel Brooks tv show History of the World, Part 2 An awful lot of the skits fall short, and most just suck.

Airplane is definitely a good movie, but not one that I'm up for watching repeatedly. Animal House echoes some of my college experience, which may be part of why I love that movie.

Quote: MDawg

Airplane is definitely a good movie, but not one that I'm up for watching repeatedly. Animal House echoes some of my college experience, which may be part of why I love that movie.
link to original post

Watching Animal House was the first time that I ever saw boobs.

PBS Benny Hill show

Day 6 play.

DD Blackjack.

Was down quite a bit, came back to about even, stopped.

+110

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

Day 7 play.

DD Blackjack.

Hasn't been easy going lately, but it has been happening. That small win belies the large average bet from this session. Lot of back and forth.

+850

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

Perhaps you've received the catfishing / scam "Hello" , "I changed my number" , "Hey are you free this weekend" , "Are you _____" texts trying to engage you into responding. As soon as I get such a text from an unrecognized number I block or delegate to perpetual SPAM, but they're getting more creative.

I received this one today,


and if I had been less on the ball or if they had sent just one and not two texts (and no pic) I might've been lured into responding with some kind of innocent "Wrong number" type message. Of course, by the time the busty pic arrived (which is also a new angle), it was obvious what was going on.

SDSU representing southern Cal, making a go at the championships!

Quote: MDawg

Perhaps you've received the catfishing / scam "Hello" , "I changed my number" , "Hey are you free this weekend" , "Are you _____" texts trying to engage you into responding. As soon as I get such a text from an unrecognized number I block or delegate to perpetual SPAM, but they're getting more creative.

I received this one today,

[Snipped]

I'd be so tempted to send a picture back of the most unattractive dude I could find on google images for those type of catfishing scams, if it wasn't for the fact they would actually take it seriously and keep going.

The temptation is sometimes to engage with these would be hustlers, but once you respond to the text or email you're probably sure to be added to some list of "live ones" who are potential marks, and get spammed torrentially.

Got busy with some other matters took a break from the tables.

Day 8 play.

DD Blackjack.

Taking a break between days of play might do wonders! In any case, smooth sailing this time. Played hard and fast.

+13800

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

THE GAMBLER WHO BEAT ROULETTE

This is an in depth article dated from just today at Bloomberg about the Eastern Euro team who reportedly used lasers and computers to calculate the drop quadrant of a roulette wheel at the now closed Ritz in London in 2004.

RITZ CASINO HIT BY pounds 1.3M LASER SCAM; Three arrested over roulette 'sting'.

Roulette arrest trio keep £1.3m winnings


But, did this group and more especially their leader, an elusive Croatian who calls himself "Tosa," really use lasers let alone computers, or did they find a way to take advantage of that perhaps - nearly all roulette wheels are biased.

Read, and judge for yourself, because it turns out that neither the authorities nor the casinos ever unearthed the slightest evidence of any laser or computer use, which is why this group was released from any criminal liability, and got to keep all of their winnings.

From the tail end of the article:


In person, he was even taller and more birdlike than I’d expected. He spotted me in the street outside and pulled me into an awkward embrace under his umbrella, saying, “Oh oh oh oh.” Inside, he introduced me to a friend and a younger relative who both spoke good English and would translate when needed. Niko Tosa, they explained, wasn’t his real name. [Just like MDawg isn't mine.] I agreed not to publish the actual one, because they said he had enemies who were less forgiving than John Wootten.

Tosa was by turns enigmatic, jovial, prickly, paranoid, frank. Also generous—he insisted on buying a round of single malt whiskies. He readily admitted to playing roulette using fake identity documents and to disguising himself with a wig and fake beard. “What’s wrong with that?” he asked. He had no problem referring to some of his former playing partners as criminals. One of them had been gunned down in Belgrade in 2018, killed in an apparent Balkan-mafia feud. Tosa had fallen out with others over money.

But he was adamant that he’d never used a roulette computer. The idea was like something from James Bond, he said with a laugh, adding, “We are peasants.” As I pressed him about computers, he threw up his hands in exasperation and started to argue with his friend. Is he angry, I asked. “No, that’s just how he talks,” the friend replied. “He’s asking how he can make you understand.”

I began to suspect that Tosa had agreed to talk to me specifically to make this point. Between glasses of white wine and plates of locally caught squid, he burst out, “You can call me Nikola Tesla if I have such a device!”

So how did Tosa do it, then? Practice, he said. They showed me a video clip of a glistening roulette wheel Tosa kept in his house to train his brain. How had he learned? A friend taught him—Ratomir Jovanovic, the Croatian who’d given the disastrous demonstration at the Colony Club. London police had been right that the two were working together.

The condition of the wheel is vital, Tosa said. That was why he’d sought out a particular table at the Ritz—he’d played the wheel enough to confirm that he could beat it. He’d been able to identify it on sight even after the casino moved it into the Carmen Room.

I think I believed him when he said he didn’t use a computer. Later on, for a sanity check, I contacted Doyne Farmer, the physicist whose roulette prediction exploits are chronicled in The Eudaemonic Pie. “I do think it’s conceivable that someone could do what we do without a computer, providing the wheel is tilted and the rotor is not moving too fast,” said Farmer, who’s now a professor at the University of Oxford. He compared cerebral clocking to musical talent, suggesting it might activate similar parts of the brain, those dedicated to sound and rhythm.

Then again, if Tosa had concealed a tiny contraption, I don’t think he’d have told me. It seemed to me an uncomfortable life, traveling the world in search of casinos where he wouldn’t be recognized, waiting for security teams monitoring closed-circuit cameras to realize he was too good. Tosa said he’d been beaten up by casino thugs more than once. Sitting at the table in Dubrovnik, I asked him if he ever felt hunted. He looked baffled by the question. “Why would I?” The casinos were the prey; he was the hunter.

His young relative said he could remember the day, years back, when Tosa first pulled up in a Ferrari. Their hometown in the foothills of the Dinaric Alps isn’t rich by Croatian standards, though Tosa is from a prominent family. He seemed to share traits I’ve seen in other professional gamblers: an aversion to the grind of nine-to-five and a need to live on his own terms, whatever the risks. Ultimately, what set him apart from other roulette predictors was his willingness to go big. [Hallelujah!] Most players only dare win a few thousand dollars at a time, for fear of being discovered. [Sounds like an alleged blackjack player some of us know.] “Like squirrels,” Tosa said with contempt. If he hadn’t been arrested at the Ritz, he claimed, he would have gone back the next night and made £10 million. He felt the casino had gotten off lightly.

Toward the end of our encounter, Tosa asked exactly when my story would be published. Why did he want to know? He was planning his next international trip, he said, smiling. He didn’t want me to blow his cover.

Day 9 play.

DD Blackjack.

I like that number - 9.

Pretty good progress, some high bets not all successful.

+2200

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.

This latest Vegas trip is CONCLUDED. Successfully. Was a relatively short one.

Besides winning at the tables, I also won at another very high end drawing for only the highest end players. About forty of us, ten prizes, CHA'CHING. This time - the prize I won will not be revealed because it would be too easy to track me down. It's not hard to win when there is a 1/4 chance, apparently.

Quote: MDawg

We liked these

https://eattopround.com/

and there is one located in L.A., but one by one they have been closing, including the L.A. location.

The concept is roast beef and crispy chicken sandwiches.




Good, a little over priced, evidently not working out as expected as their locations have been closing down.

One is supposed to be open in Las Vegas.
link to original post

Just got a “black and blue”, which comes with blue cheese and carmelized onions, at the location attached to New York, New York

Nothing to write home about and not that much beef. $14 and change for a sandwich (only) that I ate in about one minute. I doubt I’ll return

The Los Angeles Top Round location is now a different restaurant.

One of LA’s Most Famous Burgers Expands With New Retro-Cool Stand on La Brea

We haven't eaten any red meat in a few weeks. Only chicken and especially fish as far as animal flesh. Go through periods like that sometimes.

Partly it's an experiment to see if cholesterol / triglyceride levels change. Not that they are high, just, I want to see what might happen.

So, no Top Round. Or Irv's Burgers (or Holstein's) for us.

Is something like this (from Charlie's) necessarily more healthful?


Probably not.

A grass-fed ribeye with a baked potato and a spinach salad is much healthier than that

I assume DarkOz has seen this movie. We saw it for the first time recently and had no idea that pinball machines were once banned as gambling devices in some cities, including New York City.

Quote: MDawg

I assume DarkOz has seen this movie. We saw it for the first time recently and had no idea that pinball machines were once banned as gambling devices in some cities, including New York City.


link to original post

Where I lived in Ohio they banned any pinball where you could win free games because operators were buying back the free games from players.

I walked into a pizza place that had a South Park pinball machine a few days ago. I only needed 30 million to get a free game. I've never seen the machine before. The machine was in poor to disrepaired condition. The scoreboard was blanking out much of the time, it needs a new scoreboard. I only used the 50 cents I had in change from the pizza purchase, which gave me one credit. My first game was 61 million. On the 2nd game, the replay score went up 10 million to 40 million, and I hit 115 million. On the 3rd game, the replay score rose to 50 million, and I hit 87 million. While I was on the 3rd game, the woman behind the pizza counter told me that they actually closed 45 minutes before and she wanted me off the machine at the end of my game. I told her I had 1 game left, then she gave me 5 more minutes. My 4th game sucked and I barely made 30 million, and the replay score was 60 million, but I got a match replay. I quit with a credit left on the machine and refilled my Pepsi for a 3rd time and left and she turned off all the lights in the shop before I got to my car.

Pinball was illegal in NYC and Nassau County until around 1976. One man fought a long and costly crusade to legalize them.

Quote: MDawg

Day 9 play.

DD Blackjack.

I like that number - 9.

Pretty good progress, some high bets not all successful.

+2200

Note: Lately, for security reasons, session reports are not necessarily presented in real time corresponding directly to the day played.

And this is the MDawg challenge.
link to original post

Were you playing at a private table with your "normal" credit limit/buy-in bankroll during this trip??

tuttigym

I prefer add-a-ball machines because I can rack up super high scores with all those free balls. Free game play is like stuck in the same video game and only making small gains except for maximum credits on the machine. In a free game state, I can play one machine and only get like 80,000 points, whereas in an add-a-ball state I might rack up 600,000 points on the same or similar machine. Getting 30 extra balls beats getting 6 extra games on a 5 ball game.
Tournament Mode reduced gameplay down from 5 balls to 3 balls. So ever since Tournament Mode came to be, we've been stuck with 3 ball games because of the status of Tournament Mode. Don't you want to play like you're in a tournament? Eh, not really.

Yes tuttigym I play almost always at private reserved tables. The requirement to play at such tables is a minimum level of credit line or cash on deposit (typically, minimum $250K). Once you have "arrived" at that private level there is no minimum bet, although I suppose it is assumed to be $100. since that is the least anyone may bet in the typical high limit salon. However, the maximum bet, known as "special limits," for Baccarat, is raised with a general formula of to 10% of your credit line, maxing out at around a half million dollars per hand. For Blackjack it's hard no matter how much you bring to the table to be allowed to bet more than $50K a hand, and even anywhere near that $50K special limit is very hard to achieve.

Here are the actual metal credit cards I have right now.

(Additionally at least one of the top Strip casinos provides me with a special gold plated solid metal player card.)



AMEX Platinum runs $695. a year plus $175. for the extra card for my wife (hers is the Kehinde Wiley version with colorful flowers all over it.). The AMEX Platinum is made of stainless steel and weighs 18.5 grams. Is it worth the $695. per year? For some, yes. Here are the benefits:
Want to know more about the annual fee for The Platinum Card®? Here’s an overview, plus a look at the Card’s abundance of travel and lifestyle credits, perks, and services.

$870. is at outer limits of what I'm willing to pay for annual fees - almost all of my other cards are free, no annual fee (I do pay $85 a year for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy card), and I do have a small annual fee on one business Wells Fargo card). And sometimes I am tempted to cancel the AMEX Platinum because getting something for nothing is somewhat ingrained in my thinking process. Keep in mind that whether you have a standard green card, or a platinum or even a Centurion, doesn't necessarily mean that you may charge more (or less). With AMEX it all depends on your credit and spending patterns.

And then we have the Apple card, made of titanium, and weighing about 15 grams. It does not have a card number etched on it - only your name, and even then as long as you carry your iPhone with you, the Apple Card is usable with no physical card simply via your Apple Wallet app.

The X1 card is made of 17 grams of stainless steel. The X1 card has no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees and no late fees. This is another card you don't need to carry in your wallet, and what is most useful, for me, about this card is its ability to create instantly different types of virtual cards:
-Virtual cards with normal expiration dates - cancellable at any time.
-Virtual cards for use just once (for example for a trial subscription where you don't want to risk getting charged if you forget to cancel the subscription in time).
-Virtual cards that auto-cancel in 24 hours.


This virtual card creation flexibility, where all virtual cards may be created instantly, and multiple virtual cards maintained and tracked separately via the X1 app on your phone, makes the X1 card very useful.

One feature the X1 doesn't have though is the ability to create virtual cards that then may be used again only by the first merchant that places a charge on that virtual card - no other merchant will be able to place a charge once the card is used. However, creating a virtual card with Citi, that offers this feature, is a little more tedious than the instant via X1 app process.

The Apple Card allows creation of a virtual card too, but only one may be active at a time, and it offers no special features - the Apple virtual card functions the same as any other card until it is cancelled.

In my next life I want to be born as MDawg

Apparently all you need is a $25K line of credit, and not lose any sessions!

Some really big tournaments coming up soon!