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Roman Sharf: Inside the $100M Watch Empire: Secrets to Scaling | DSH #1529
00:54:41
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- [00:00]
Roman Sharp
This doctor buys this car from the guy and he tells him, okay, send me the money. I'll have the car delivered. I'm taking care of the shipping. Meanwhile, he calls me and bargains on two watches with us for 54,000. He sends 54,000. But the wire direction, yes, I'm mine, not the guys. The doctor calls us like, oh, you know, I just realized I sent you guys money for a BMW. We're a watch business, which I already knew. Didn't dawn on you that this is fucking fraud Foreign.
- [00:31]
Brad
Got a big watch expert here today, Roman. Someone I've watched for years now. Glad to finally meet you in person.
- [00:36]
Roman Sharp
Pleasure meeting you as well.
- [00:37]
Brad
Yeah, we've been trying to set this up for a while. And you got two watches on today.
- [00:40]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, I come double wristing anytime. I come talk about watches or, you know, represent watches, if you will.
- [00:44]
Brad
Two protects, right?
- [00:46]
Roman Sharp
Yep.
- [00:46]
Brad
Could you explain each one?
- [00:48]
Roman Sharp
So I figured, okay, what am I going to wear? What am I going to wear when I come to see you? And I said to myself, all right, the watch industry has become a lot about flex, right? It's no secret. It always has been a flex, but not to an extent what it is now. We saw markets shift tremendously during COVID where you saw so rising prices of all these watches. Everybody started screaming, oh, watch index 20 years. I'm saying watches are not an investment and expensive toys. But unfortunately, due to recent events, you've seen prices climb through the roof. And where are they climbing? Rolex, Patek of Marsh Piguet, Richard Mille. Right. Your top brands. And people have started concerning themselves with two things. Number one, A, the flex aspect, which is probably about 80% of the reasoning. People buy watches today. And the second thing is the dollar sign. Hey, where is this watch going to be in terms of holding value? I'm buying expensive toys. Yeah. During COVID you pay 300 grand for a G wagon. Today you're buying the same G RAM for 120. But watches didn't take that big of a dip when that happens. So there is some truth to the investment aspect of it. So I brought a 5980, one of the latest models, which is the Jean version. Right. The Nautilus. Everybody's familiar with it. 1976 Genta designed. It was originally supposed to be Piaget. Actually, Piaget turned Genta down, probably still biting elbows over that. But he made this. And this watch has never looked back, whether it's a steel version, whether it's a chronograph, whether it's A dual time. This happens to be a chronograph. I brought the latest one just because I happen to physically like the watch is very attractive. And then on the other wrist, I brought another Patek. And this race trades around 185,000 on the market today. Right. The paddock on my other wrist, which people will be like, what the hell is that? Doesn't really look all that cool. Not really a flex. You have to pay an additional million dollars to own this because this is a 1518. This watch made back in early 40s, 1941 is when they came out with it. It is the first perpetual calendar chronograph ever made. Serially produced in a pocket. In a watch. Outside of a pocket watch. Right. By Chuck Philippe. So different kind of flex. Right. This is for those that know and this is for those that everybody knows.
- [02:38]
Brad
Yeah.
- [02:39]
Roman Sharp
So that's kind of why I decided to go with the two protectively being the Rolls Royce of all watches, if you will. Rolex is still king in terms of popularity and production and sales. But Patek Philippe is sort of that.
- [02:50]
Brad
How many of those exist? The one that's.
- [02:51]
Roman Sharp
So they made a total of 281 of these starting in 1941. But they did. About 220 of those were done in yellow gold, which is what you see here. There were some rose golds, and there's only four known stainless steel. I looked at one in Geneva actually a month ago when I was there for watches of wonder. The Guy was asking $20 million for it and he'll get it. This watch is a bit rare out of the. Out of the 220 made in yellow because they break into two versions because they made them for 15 years. The early 40s edition actually said Patek Philippe and company on the dial as long. And it's known as the long dial. Where later they started producing without the CO because it was too long. So out of the 220 yellow, you probably figure 75% of them survived altogether. And I take off another 25% of the watches that are mangled. The dials are messed up. I've been changed out these. In reality, there's maybe probably less, fewer than 20 of these in the world that exist in good condition.
- [03:45]
Brad
That's nuts. Is 20 mil the most you've heard of for a watch?
- [03:48]
Roman Sharp
So the record, current record for Patek Philippe 1518 is about $11 million for the stainless steel. The one that I saw was a stainless steel that was born in a stainless steel bracelet. The guy's asking 20 million. I think he'll get in the realm of 17 million for that watch. He's not putting it through auctions. If he did, it would be way over the last result. But that's the record holder today.
- [04:10]
Brad
You mentioned the top four brands earlier. Do you ever see a fifth watch brand?
- [04:14]
Roman Sharp
Oh, there are, there are plenty. Again, it depends on what level you're playing on. Right. I mean, if you look at strictly from a sales perspective, you have Rolex, that's number one. And it's number one by far in terms of sales. It actually the next four brands in a row, Rolex does collectively what the number 2, 3 and 4 together. 2 and 3 has always been between Omega and Cartier. Cartier taking the cake last year. They've been kind of going back and forth. And mind you, Omega was always number one until Rolex took over and never looked back in the 70s. Right. It took, it took Rolex a while to catch up to Omega. Omega is also older. Right. So you have Rolex, Omega, Cartier, and then you have the big majors. But again, if you're talking strictly sales, you know, not eating Rolex, they make a million watches a year. They had 10 billion in revenue a year ago. Right. And then the next again. And that was bigger than the following three. But popularity wise, right, what people are going for is you're going to see obviously Rolex, Cartier, Omega, you're going to see Audemars Piguet and different price level right now, Audemars Piguet, you're entering an era where you're spending 20, 30, $40,000, where with Omega and Rolex, you can still get away under 10. And then, you know, you have the ultimate Playbill watches, which is Richard Millennial. And as much as people look at them as the ultimate flex watch, which is what they are, they're still a pretty big horological powerhouse. If you understand horology and mechanics of those watches, they're pretty amazing, along with use of materials. And then you have a slew of other brands that are out there. It's just a question of taste. But if you ask 10 guys that are into watches what watches they're going to reach for within a reasonable budget, those are the brands they're going to pick. Usually.
- [05:45]
Brad
Today you made a video about Hublot, which is one of the most controversial brands, right?
- [05:50]
Roman Sharp
So thanks to my buddy Nico, you know, it's, it's actually the watch, the brand is not as bad as it is. I actually had to sit down with the new CEO Julian, who was At Zenith. And he did wonders for Zenith. He elevated that brand tremendously. But he I can't wait to see what he's going to do for Hublot. You have to understand Hublot from my perspective. When I started in the industry 22 years ago now, Hublot just celebrated this year their 20th anniversary of the big bang. The big bang was that 20 years ago it was a big bang. It was probably the number one selling watch came into the market at the time where big it was better. And mind you like this watch is tiny, right?
- [06:23]
Brad
Yeah.
- [06:23]
Roman Sharp
So we were sitting at that 36, 38, 40 millimeters. Being a huge watch. All of a sudden they came out with these beautiful looking watches, well designed at 44 millimeters. And the name to big Bang I it was probably the number one selling brand for at least three, four years. And it was because of the big bang. They never changed anything. Right. They kept with the big bang DNA and they're going to continue doing it. Just changing up materials, improving on the movements. The gripe that people had at the time was like okay, well you're charging x, you're charging 20 grand for a movement that you can find in a $2,000 watch. Also did the rest of the industry at the time that was the Tri.
- [07:01]
Brad
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- [07:30]
Roman Sharp
The trade, right in house movements weren't really a thing. Everybody was buying movements off the shelves from factories in Switzerland and putting them in their watches. Patek did it just as well. In fact Patek for the longest time didn't have their own chronograph. They used Lamania and so did five other brands. It wasn't a German brand, Langenzone. They made a watch, their own in house chronograph. That's when everybody said okay, I guess we're going to start making our own kind of thing.
- [07:51]
Brad
I'm impressed with the history, you know, of these watches.
- [07:54]
Roman Sharp
This is my stuff. This is what, this is what I love. So for me it's, it's always been I'm a walking encyclopedia, as they say. As I get older, I tend to forget dates and things of that nature or maybe some names because I suck at names.
- [08:04]
Brad
Yeah.
- [08:04]
Roman Sharp
But for the most part, Hublot today, I would say is Hublot is the number 14 most popular brand in the world today. And mind you, we're talking about thousands of brands. So being number 14 is huge. Regardless of everybody, what everybody talks about. Hublot is still very much on top production numbers. I think they're top 50 in terms of how many they produce per year. So they're really strong brand till this day, regardless of popular, I guess belief on the Internet. But then for those that hate on that brand for the most part, probably can't even afford it and it's still my top 10 sellers.
- [08:35]
Brad
Yeah, I noticed a lot of haters with these big brands like Rolex, they can't get them at retail prices. So they, they hate on that. Right. It's.
- [08:42]
Roman Sharp
Listen, it's the oldest trick in the book of supply and demand. I've seen this back leading up to the 2008 crisis that we had. Whenever you have the economy at the very top is bound to go back down. But the best part about it is that so prior to the hype, if you had specific roles is selling, let's say 10 to 20% off retail, then they doubled in price. Well, yeah, they did come back down when we had a correction two years ago, but they didn't come back down to 20 off. They came back down to 1 1/2x retail. Why? Because the secondary, the secondary is a huge market. Was it, I think it was Bloomberg, either Bloomberg or Robert, where they were talking about how by 2026 the secondary market is going to catch on to the primary market. Where the primary watch market today is about 60 billion. Let's say was. Because the secondary market has long surpassed the primary market.
- [09:31]
Brad
Really?
- [09:31]
Roman Sharp
Of course you don't have the tangible data. I open up my phone and I show you my WhatsApp. I'm part of just million dealer groups. I get added to every single day. There's millions and millions of dollars that are traded every single day. But who has access to that day? Nobody does.
- [09:44]
Brad
Wow. So secondary market search past.
- [09:46]
Roman Sharp
Because think about, there's only so many new watches that are produced every year and how many get left over in the secondary? The trade show we're at today, you walk into that room, there's a billion dollars in watches in that room.
- [09:55]
Brad
Geez.
- [09:55]
Roman Sharp
You know what I mean? So it's like. And it's traded all day. Like, we just. We did about a million in business yesterday alone.
- [10:01]
Brad
So what's your strategy with these trade shows?
- [10:03]
Roman Sharp
The strategy is actually I gotten away from the B2B stuff, to be honest with you. We used to be huge into B2B. And that was up until right before COVID where I said, look, I looked at my books and I said, I got 30 million in receivables. I got. I wrote out about $2 million about that expense because it comes with the territory, B2B. And yes, I'm $100 million plus company. But is it a product that's sellable? It's not. So I said, we're switching back to B2C heavily, because we're about 85 B2B and 50% B2C. So right before COVID said, I made a plan for two years. I would gradually, we'll switch over, because when people owe you 30 million bucks, you can't just abruptly cut them off. You kind of like, got to collect what you're owed, you know, kind of thing. So Covid happened, and it literally, in an instant, we were able to switch. It helped a lot because of the craze.
- [10:51]
Brad
Right.
- [10:52]
Roman Sharp
And so now we're B2C. Did the revenue go down over the highest years of COVID Of course it did. On an average, Pepsi GMT is trading at $28,000 a day. Said 18. Your revenue will suffer. Our numbers went up in terms of units. Margins stay the same. But the revenue did go down. We went from like, 136 to, like, 111 in revenue, which was expected.
- [11:14]
Brad
Yeah.
- [11:15]
Roman Sharp
But now, you know, we have a product that's sellable, that's evaluatable, that that has a value. And the plan is just to, you know, so to your original question, trade shows is a good way to buy for us. It's also a good way to get rid of aging inventory. And listen, you can also. You also make money. Yeah, it's not, you know, we also have a jewelry aspect of our business, which is still B2B, only that's where really, we're going to make most of our money while we're in Vegas.
- [11:41]
Brad
So your goal is to sell this thing one day, though, you want to exit?
- [11:43]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, yeah. And I have a pretty good plan. In fact, I almost did it during COVID but I felt that we weren't quite there. We did get an evaluation of, again, some of the guys I work with, some big, big names. And in the industry, you know, they want to commit us. Oh, we're going to get you 250. Realistically at the time, I think I would have gotten maybe 110. Around 100. Right. And I felt that there's still a few more products that are missing within the industry that we can launch. And we're working on launching, especially with AI now being a thing where the evaluation can be a lot higher.
- [12:16]
Brad
Wow. Nine figure business. Well done, man. How many years?
- [12:19]
Roman Sharp
So I started this out of my basement that my business is almost as old as my son, my wife.
- [12:23]
Brad
Holy crap.
- [12:24]
Roman Sharp
My son's gonna be 22. So my business is a little bit over 22 years old.
- [12:28]
Brad
Wow. You teaching him the ropes right now. Is he part of the company?
- [12:31]
Roman Sharp
No. So my son has got a bit of an entrepreneur above himself. He was 14. And the rule of my house is everybody gets a job when they turn 15. I have three kids. I feel that that should, everybody should do that. It teaches kids responsibility, teaches value of a dollar. Doesn't matter how much money dad or mom have. Now my kids to go to the best school, to private schools. They have a good roof over their head and they get whatever that they need as far as necessities are concerned. But same token, we don't spoil them and we make him get a job. So my son is like, ah, dad, I'm about to be 15. I don't know about a job. I want, I want a business. I said, what do you want to do? And he was huge into sneaker and streetwear culture.
- [13:10]
Brad
Yeah.
- [13:10]
Roman Sharp
Like, I want to buy and sell sneakers. I got 2,000 bucks. I'm going to use them. I'm going to buy some supreme stuff. The time, it was still cool, I guess.
- [13:18]
Brad
Yeah.
- [13:19]
Roman Sharp
And he's like, I want to buy and sell sneakers. All right, son, if you want to do this as a real business, we're going to set it up. You're going to, I'm going to show you. You're going to give me a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet, an inventory statement. He's like, huh? He's like, 14. I'm like. So I explained it to him, put it on Excel, and he's like that, well, what do I need all that? I said, you'll thank me in a year. So first year, 2000. At the end of the year, his balance sheet showed 24,000.
- [13:40]
Brad
Wow.
- [13:40]
Roman Sharp
The following year, it went from 24,000 to 127. His year in high school, he did a million in business and went to, he went to apply for colleges. He submitted his tax returns rather than an essay.
- [13:49]
Brad
Yo, I love that.
- [13:50]
Roman Sharp
The kid got into Northeastern Business School. Babson Indiana was a backup. University of Miami. He applied to six school. He got into all of them. Ultimately chose University of Miami. I don't blame him. I did a tour with him and.
- [14:03]
Brad
I'm just like, party school.
- [14:05]
Roman Sharp
And my wife was like, stop looking around. I said, all these girls illegal. At least I can look at them, right? You know, so it's. And he was there. Now he's in Miami. He just opened up his third store. They're doing about 6 million in revenue. Damn. This year. Last year was just under 6. I'm sorry, last year was just under 5. Like 4, 9. This year I think they're on track to do about six and change. He's in the right place. All the influences. Who's anybody. Who's anybody are in his stores. Aiden Ross. Every other day he flips a coin with him for like five grand watches. And he's. Some of the stuff he sells. I'm just. He just sold a pair of chrome hard jeans. $18,000. For what? Like it's, It's. But then again he goes, and he's like, dad, you sell million dollar watches. I was this. I said, I get it. But that's jeans. Do you wear them out?
- [14:50]
Brad
I wouldn't even know if jeans were expensive. I saw someone wearing them, you know, but that's.
- [14:54]
Roman Sharp
So he's sort of on that. And then now he's on track to do the same. I told him, I said, look, you build a brand. Shout out.
- [15:00]
Brad
I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.
- [15:06]
Roman Sharp
The Hype Miami. You build a brand, you build a product that's sellable, you exit, you move on. And that's really the plan for him.
- [15:13]
Brad
That's cool.
- [15:14]
Roman Sharp
And he understands that. He's smart enough to get it to.
- [15:16]
Brad
A lot of similarities with your business. I'm sure he picked up on some stuff.
- [15:19]
Roman Sharp
Very much, very much. A lot of similarities. I actually made him come to my job when he was like 6.
- [15:24]
Brad
Bring your child to work there?
- [15:25]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, no, but I would. I would bring him to work as. As many times as I could. I'd give him an old auction catalog when he was 6. And I said, okay, here's the result list. Go into the catalog and write out the numbers. When you're six years old and you're writing out numbers like 135,000 and changes like how that I don't get it. I'm like, don't worry. Just right.
- [15:42]
Brad
Yeah. That's the way to teach these days.
- [15:45]
Roman Sharp
That's the only way to do it.
- [15:46]
Brad
Love that. So this watch market, I know it's taking a lot of dips over the years. Where's it at right now? I haven't been.
- [15:51]
Roman Sharp
So it took one dip, right? So you had. You had your Kobe craze where everything went ridiculous. But it wasn't just watches. Like I said, a g wagon was $300,000, right? And along with anything else, clothing, certain purses, certain brands, everything just went luxury, went crazy. And then two years ago, it took a dip, as it should have. What goes up, it's got to come down. It's not sustainable, if you will. Right. And why did it happen at all, this influx of money? A government helped, right? People that got 1200 buffs, where did that ultimately end up? It all rises to the top, right?
- [16:22]
Brad
Yeah.
- [16:22]
Roman Sharp
I've seen people in line at Louis Vuitton that had no business being able to Vuitton, right. And that's just. That's the nature of a human being. People buy expensive things is what they want. So when all that money came into the market, then of course, the rise of online shopping because of lockdowns, and this is a global thing. At the time, you also had the Asian market, which was huge, right? Their market was doing well, not so much right now, but you had all of this demand on the market, and rightfully so. Prices started going up. The secondary market jumped in really, really quickly because the primary market could not provide enough goods, and hence we had the rise. And then after a while, when it was too polluted and prices just got ridiculous, it was, I want to say, three, three months, four months before it went down. Adrian, who's head of procurement at my company and also the sales manager, has been with me since he was 17 years old. He comes to my office, Roman, we're done. We're selling off all the hot stuff. Now, just to put it in perspective, a Rolex Daytona, the most popular stainless steel Rolex Daytona, the most popular watch in the world. The most recognizable, right? That's a watch that retails for $16,000. At the peak, that watch was selling on the secondary for 55,000 B2B. So the retail clients were paying 60 grand. Today, that watch trades around half that. It's still almost double retail, but it's trading at half that. And that was the story for the more popular. Something was the bigger hit it took. But still, it came down to where it's at least 1 1/2 x pre Covid prices. Right? So when that happens, this is when we know that, okay, it doesn't make sense. A G wagon that retails for 150,000 does not make sense at 500,000. You can equate the same to watches. So agent said, we're selling off everything that's hot. We can sell it at a loss, we can sell it a cost. It doesn't matter. Let's. Let's upload about 25% of our inventory, which was the hot stuff, as you said. And it's coming.
- [18:09]
Brad
Wow.
- [18:10]
Roman Sharp
And it had. That was May. At about July, August, the B2B market started to catch on because people were afraid to trade stuff back and forth because we're just trading amongst each other. Everybody's making money, but the watch is not on the wrist. It's a problem. And by about September, the retail public understood that things are coming down right now and trying to cash out as fast as possible. What happens? The market comes down. It stabilized about, I would say a year ago at this point, maybe nine months to a year ago. Now the prices have stabilized. This is where you are where now the demand meets the current price.
- [18:41]
Brad
Right?
- [18:42]
Roman Sharp
So this is where we are now. We're in a stable market, which the market I prefer, granted, I make more money or smart people make more money on the down market. Right? And we did take advantage of that because now you're able to buy things anticipating a further decrease. So you're buying a lot cheaper, but yet still selling at the current market price. But for the most part now we're back and stable. And it's not easy. But the watch industry has never been easy. And a lot of the competition, some ended up in a federal penitentiary, some ended up just out of business. Right? Because it's very easy to get behind in my business. Right. You know, because my business is based on trust and word. Me and you go to 47th street or any of the big. Go walk the trade show with me today. I'll put 10 million in my bag. I won't sign a single piece of paper just on a handshake. That's our business.
- [19:26]
Brad
Old school.
- [19:26]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, it's very old school. And when I say old school, you saw some of the invoices these people hand you out. It's like you go to Staples and you buy like a generic invoice book. That's what some of the shit these dealers have. And then business for 30 years, very, very old school, right? Very handshake based so you had a lot of people that got hurt, a lot of people that exited, A lot of people. Because a lot of people also jumped in, oh, this looks easy. My ad can give me a couple of Rolexes I can flip and make five grand. All of a sudden they become a watch dealer and they lease a Lambo and next thing you know, they get behind because they can't sustain the lifestyle. But we've seen this before. Oh, 8 was a perfect example for us. And so this was. We came in. We came in cash heavy because we knew there was going to be buying opportunities. So cash was king. It does. Cash does take. Tend to deplete because post a hot market like this, what you end up with is a lot of trading. So now cash flow becomes a problem. Yeah, on paper, you're making good money, but then the cash is not flowing as it used to.
- [20:18]
Brad
You said earlier you had 30 mil out, so people owed you.
- [20:20]
Roman Sharp
That was when I was doing B2. B 28.8 million was the biggest I've ever had in receivables.
- [20:25]
Brad
Jeez.
- [20:25]
Roman Sharp
But you leverage that against payables, right? Because you have your own payables, because you get credits in certain places as well. But if you want to do big business, that's usually what you're looking at.
- [20:34]
Brad
You.
- [20:34]
Roman Sharp
You become more of a bank rather than a watch dealer. So if you're a small dealer and you know, you can come to roman and buy 250Amillion dollars and get 30, 60, 90, let's say with 30 days credit now you're able to work with my money. I usually will. You usually end up paying me a little bit more. But mathematically, if you did the math, you know, money on money, it makes sense for both parties.
- [20:54]
Brad
Yeah.
- [20:54]
Roman Sharp
I still have a buddy of mine who is in that business. He does about 250 a year, and he's straight up a bank.
- [20:58]
Brad
Holy crap.
- [20:59]
Roman Sharp
And it's, it's. It's like, you look at his pricing, you know, it's like, yeah, I can get out there and buy it 5 to 10% cheaper. But then this guy, I can pay him in 30 days. So that 5% all of a sudden starts to make sense. It allows you to grow. That's how my business grew. I was, I was in banking.
- [21:16]
Brad
Oh, you weren't banking before this?
- [21:17]
Roman Sharp
I was, I was. And I was on banking on the IT side. I was an electrical engineer, computer science guy and guy I used to buy watches from in the gray market from his house came. He's like, oh, you Know all this computer stuff, it's a little bit more complex than that, but okay. I managed at the time, I managed their global payment system which processed 42 billion a month.
- [21:36]
Brad
Geez.
- [21:37]
Roman Sharp
20, 20 million in hardware across three data centers across the world. Like the whole thing, I'm like, yeah, I guess you can say the computers, right? So it's like, oh, this ebay thing is coming. I think we can sell watches online. I'm like, who the fuck's gonna buy ten thousand dollar watches online? It was my wife that said, seems like a good idea. So I started it part time for three years and that's how LB was born.
- [21:55]
Brad
Wow. So when it comes to selling online versus in person, how is the percentage changed over the years from when you first started to today's economy?
- [22:04]
Roman Sharp
When I first started, 90% of the time I spent convincing people that I'm not going to send them a brick in a box because mind you, this was the birth of E commerce. People were afraid we didn't have the mechanics in place to prevent from fraud. I could have easily sent somebody a brick in a box and they would have to come look for me and good luck kind of thing. Right. So that was, that was the most of building your name, a reputation online. Of course it was a lot easier because it was me and maybe 10 of the guys that started doing this at the same time 20 years ago. Now you have thousands and thousands of websites. So now we fight it with what? We fight it with our media presence. You know, I have a media team just as big as yours and we've gone the route of brand name recognition. That was a decision made when we decided to go from B2B back to B2C. That's when YouTube came in, this is when Instagram came in. And, and content 3C's creative content consistently, that's affiliate, that's what gets you there today. And now that people know your face and know who you are and they become fans, you know, was it, I think I was still working out of my house or time I met a client, spent like 20 grand with me and he was one of those marketing gurus. Of course back then it was convention centers. You fill a room with 5,000 people and then you sell.
- [23:11]
Brad
Yeah.
- [23:11]
Roman Sharp
So CD disc sets like of six, like that was the thing back. I still have that somewhere as a memory. And he said, Roman, educate your consumer first and foremost. Two way they would feel stupid to buy anywhere else besides you, regardless of price, within reason. Right. I've gone by that and that's I swear by that. That's why my entire sales team, myself included, we educate our consumer. Except it's a lot easier now. Before it used to be a one on one phone call. Today it's a YouTube video.
- [23:35]
Brad
Right. And some of your videos get a ton of views. So I'm sure they lead to a lot of business.
- [23:39]
Roman Sharp
Right now something's up with everybody. Instagram, YouTube, like the views are down across like my team is back home.
- [23:44]
Brad
Trying to figure Instagram. I'm down 30% this month. Same YouTube, I'm down even more.
- [23:48]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, YouTube. YouTube has been down big. So now you know, my CMO and we're talking to a ton of different people to try to basically reboot the algorithm, if you will. Yeah, you know, we, we took a break from our reality type of videos. The gray market show, we took a break of like two months now we just launched the first episode. So long as we get that one would know that seven days later we'll post the next one and the next one and hopefully that will reboot the algorithm. But you also have to consider when we started gray market, we were the first to show behind real behind the scenes of what's going on in the watch business. Right. And now you have hundreds of guys that are doing the same like anything else. How many people copied you?
- [24:27]
Brad
A lot. Yeah.
- [24:28]
Roman Sharp
You know what I mean? You know, but what that is, it still takes away little by little, you know, over time. Yeah, over time it will take away little by little. So we're, we're trying to do something to reboot that. We're also coming up with some new show concepts and things like that.
- [24:40]
Brad
You were the first I remember to show the dark side of business. Like you show deals where you get scammed and stuff, of course happens every day.
- [24:47]
Roman Sharp
We have a big target on our forehead because the stuff that we sell is liquid. Some of the scams. Oh my God.
- [24:52]
Brad
Someone called back the Wire. I saw.
- [24:54]
Roman Sharp
Due to some of the amount of scams we've been hit with and we've lost money over the years. You know, we've been hit, you know, but it's cost of doing business. You know, it's like you put yourself out there, you sell the type of product that you sell. Yeah, it is what it is.
- [25:06]
Brad
What's the most clever scam that, that you fell for?
- [25:09]
Roman Sharp
Guy calls us up bargains with us as a. I'm such and such, I want to buy these two watches. We go back and forth and we end up on a price of say 82000 on a watch. At the time, the market price on the watch was 85. We were selling it for 88 online. So 82 was a reasonable offer. We made money. And he goes to me. He's like, listen. He's like, for safety. Can you send it to my job? Sure. Where you work? I work at bank of California. And he goes. And my address is bank of California Tower Suite. Such and such. I'm a VP of whatever. And it's like. And what I'll do is I'll overnight you. I. I don't do wires. I'm going to overnight you a certified check. We get a check overnight in the mail from bank of California with the same address that we're actually shipping the watch to.
- [25:52]
Brad
Yeah.
- [25:52]
Roman Sharp
Right. I go to my bank. I said, hey, is this check good? Okay. Checks good. It's real check. Put it in. We send the watch to bank California Tower Suite. Whatever. Whatever. And what? Two or three weeks later my banker calls me. Like, roman, I don't know what to tell you. That check came back. What do you mean? Said it was a real check. He's like, it is a real check. But there's no money in that account. So. What the hell, guy? So then I started digging. So the bank of California tower is owned by bank of California. But they only occupy like the first three or four floors. They lease out the rest. This guy rents an office and that tower made a deal with somebody downstairs to get the blank real checks from there. Like pay the guy or something.
- [26:30]
Brad
Yeah.
- [26:31]
Roman Sharp
$2.4 million in three days. He stole. No. They caught the guy. I have a judgment against him.
- [26:37]
Brad
Wow.
- [26:37]
Roman Sharp
And if he ever shows up somewhere and buys a house, maybe I'll get my money back.
- [26:41]
Brad
But holy crap.
- [26:42]
Roman Sharp
The best though is my. The three way scams where somebody scams somebody and then sends the money to us. So a guy puts up a car on ebay. It was a. This happened. It was a BMW M3. I think for. I forget which one it was. It was like around 50,000, which is just slightly lower than market price. But a good deal. And VIN numbers nowadays, you can find them anywhere online. Right. So this doctor buys this car from the guy and he tells him, okay, where are you? The guy's like, I'm in Ohio. He's like, well, I'm in California. He's like, send me the money. I'll have the car delivered. I'm taking care of the shipping. The guy. How do I trust you? This was three bay. Why do I trust you? The guy Was like, well, if you want, we can do an escrow service. Guy puts up some cocky media escrow website. Meanwhile, he calls me and bargains on two watches with us for 54,000. So the guy says, okay, I'm good. He sends 54,000. But the wire directions he gets on mine, not the guys. I get the wire for 54 grand. I take the two watches, I ship it to the guy, the guy disappears. This guy starts looking for his money, I start looking for my watches. Of course, we see the ship coming a mile away, we look at shipping addresses, we put the two together. Something didn't add up. The guy bought 54 grand worth of watches. And I didn't grow up in a very good area in New York. Yeah, when I look at the address, I'm like, yo, these are the projects in the Bronx way. This guy's buying $54,000 watches. So we stopped the ship and the guy disappears. Two weeks later, this doctor calls us and he's like, oh, you know, I just realized I sent you guys money for a BMW. It's like we're a watch business. Tells me the stories I already knew. I just messing with him a little bit. So I'm like, doc, I'm like, kind of doctor, are you some kind of ologist? So you went to what, 46,000 years of school? It didn't dawn on you that this is fucking fraud? You know the messed up part about it is if I would have sent the watches out, I would still have to return the money to him. Oh, by law, yeah. I would have to. I would be out that 54 grand.
- [28:33]
Brad
Is that a cali law in New York?
- [28:34]
Roman Sharp
It's not, no, it's just a general law because he, he sent the money to the wrong place. Even though the guy was frauded. I didn't sell them a BMW M4.
- [28:42]
Brad
Wow.
- [28:42]
Roman Sharp
And just because I sent the watches out to a fraudster, that's on me. So I wasn't out any money. But that was a clever scam. These three way scam, sometimes four way scams, they get pretty clever.
- [28:51]
Brad
That is clever. My seller scam too. My boy, the very watch you're wearing, he wired 140k at the time. Never got it.
- [28:59]
Roman Sharp
That's why I always tell people the same thing. Buy the dealer, not the watch. Yeah, and social media being transparent really, really helps because people know who you are. And worst case scenarios, guys just come to my office, pick it up.
- [29:10]
Brad
Yeah. It's crazy though, because he. Even if you win a judgment, you still got to collect. So that's been pending for five years.
- [29:15]
Roman Sharp
You know how many judgments I have against people? Dude, if I collect. If I collect half of my judgments, I'd be very, very. Trust me, when I. I've had dealers that have gone under, I think the biggest was 2.8 million.
- [29:28]
Brad
Damn. He owed you 2.8. Jeez.
- [29:31]
Roman Sharp
I got just under 2 out of it, but that was it.
- [29:36]
Brad
Wow. He just went too crazy because this.
- [29:40]
Roman Sharp
Guy was flipping to another guy. And if you Google it, there's a news article about a big Russian dealer that was taking $250 million worth of. He was selling to that guy. And when that guy went under, he owed him over three. So he was leveraging my credit, giving the other guy credit. He was always paying. He was always good. The guy wasn't bad. It's normal in our industry for that to happen. That's why I got away from B2B to begin with, because it's pretty dangerous. Like it's, you know, a deal can. I've seen guys go under because of a big one single big deal. That's why when I was small, a smaller business, and I never bit off more than I can chew because I knew potentially that could put me under. Because I'm not the guy that's going to fuck somebody. I'm going to work three jobs to pay somebody back.
- [30:20]
Brad
Yeah.
- [30:20]
Roman Sharp
Or anybody a penny never had. Right. So you have to be smart about it.
- [30:25]
Brad
Yeah. What's the closest you've gone to going under? Was there a specific moment you remember?
- [30:29]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, it was actually based on a positive thing. I. I made a deal with a major manufacturer. Will mention any names. It was a $33 million deal over three years on a major brand to receive packages every month.
- [30:42]
Brad
Yeah.
- [30:43]
Roman Sharp
That deal lasted five years. And there being about a $65 million deal over five years. And it was a pure example of biting off more than I can chew. Not in the sense that I couldn't afford to pay for it, but this was in a situation where product would come in, I would have to sell off most of it fairly quickly in order to pay the next bill next month. And that's how my B2B grew. That's how I had 30 million in receivables. Right. I would extend credit, but at the same time, I didn't have the same credit on the other side. So it would continually took away from other revenue streams that we had. And all it did is it constricted our cash flow. And lucky for us, and this is before any craze or hypes. Lucky for us, we were able to build a big network, B2B like worldwide, middle East, Asia, everywhere. Where we had the buyers to continuously take this stuff. If at some point, you know, like halfway through, those buyers cooled off and I would have no way to get rid of that stuff, it could potentially put us on there. So just a good example of biting off a little more than you can chew now. Would my business go under? No, it suffered tremendously. But still it was post that deal is when I made the decision to say, you know, I got through this deal. On paper, I made a ton of money. Trust me when I tell you, it grew my business through the stratosphere. But I realized that it's also very dangerous.
- [32:00]
Brad
Yeah.
- [32:00]
Roman Sharp
And at some point you have to, you have to do some risk assessment.
- [32:04]
Brad
High risk, high reward. They say it is.
- [32:06]
Roman Sharp
It was high risk. High reward, but. But again, high risk.
- [32:09]
Brad
Yeah.
- [32:10]
Roman Sharp
When you have a business going, it's like if it's me out of my basement, it's one thing. But at this point, it's not just me. It's not me, my wife and three kids. It's now a company of 30 people that are also my kids. I call them jokingly. Right. You know, and I'm very sensitive. My company is like my family, like so, you know, I know there's a group of people depend on this company being successful, not just me.
- [32:30]
Brad
But you mentioned earlier the Asia market cooled. What happened over there?
- [32:34]
Roman Sharp
Well, you had the whole. They kind of had like I guess the housing crisis we had here, but on a commercial level. So covet hits or pre covered. Right. You have. Manufacturing was booming. Right. So what ended up happening is they started building these towns that are now known as ghost towns. Huge towers. The apartments in there, the size of this chair. Right. But these were for all the factory workers that would. They needed a place to live when the manufacturer started booming and when the action moving employees are booming now you need a place for them to stay. So they started building these huge towers, these 60, 20 towers that again, the apartments are maybe 200 to 300 square foot apartments. Right. And all of a sudden you have big money that came in because they knew that the man was there. So they started. So they built one, develop, let's take six, seven towers that are 60 stories each. Right. And they leverage that and build the best. And the next one, the next one. Well, Covid hits and then they anticipated that Post Covid. You're going to have all these people return back to work. Well, half the people were scared shitless because the government scared them into like Covid in China. The COVID scare was real. Yeah, People were scared, like legitimately scared. Right. And then the other half that kind of went back to an old school way of living up in the mountains, living off the land kind of thing, and, and things of that nature. They said it, I don't want to slave away 12 hours a day on these factors. I don't want to come back. And all of a sudden that demand goes, all this shit's leveraging boom. And that's what they had. And then, mind you, prior to that, you got to figure China was what they were responsible. So $60 billion luxury industry, out of which 22% was made made up of watches and jewelry, and the Chinese market alone was responsible 60% of that. Think about what that does globally. Right. In terms of demand.
- [34:21]
Brad
Yeah.
- [34:21]
Roman Sharp
You know, China was big. We have an office in Hong Kong for that very reason because we cater to mainland Chinese clients and especially B2B, you know, when that gets shut off, takes a hit. Hong Kong has always been a big pulse of our market kind of thing. Now you got the new rules in Hong Kong in terms of money exchange. Before you can go to Hong Kong with a million dollars in bag and it was perfectly legal and fine, you go, you pay cash, you take your and you leave. Now you have to report a lot of things. Now you have. So everybody went to crypto, which is also not exactly kosher if it comes to American companies. Right?
- [34:54]
Brad
Yeah.
- [34:55]
Roman Sharp
So there's a lot of things that sort of led up to that where mainland China is sort of choking on Hong Kong's way of doing things because they left them alone post Brexit. Right. So a lot of things are changing in the landscape, but it's again, it's all, it's all cyclical.
- [35:12]
Brad
Yeah.
- [35:12]
Roman Sharp
It all goes up and down. So now you have India, which is a huge upcoming market. Of course, what's stopping them is their stupid tariffs and duties because it's impossible to sell in today. People smuggle stuff in there. Right. They've been talking about changing that for the last 10 years. We'll see what happens.
- [35:26]
Brad
What's the tariff percentage there?
- [35:28]
Roman Sharp
Oh, dude, if you, if I, if I. If you live in India and I send you something, you're paying 50.
- [35:32]
Brad
50?
- [35:32]
Roman Sharp
Yeah. It's like stupid.
- [35:33]
Brad
Holy.
- [35:33]
Roman Sharp
And now you got Trump doing tariffs on our end, which in the long run I agree with. But in the short term, it affects a lot of industry, including ours. So to import watches Into United States of America, you're paying anywhere from three to three and a half percent, depending on the watch. Now there's the temporary additional 10%.
- [35:50]
Brad
Damn.
- [35:51]
Roman Sharp
So now it's 13 and a half percent. So now what happens now in a market on the secondary, especially when your average margins are 10 to 20%, you can imagine what that 10% does. Essentially wipes out. But now you have all this product floating around. So until that catches up, we're now slowly but surely starting to say to clients like, look, majority of the stock is still in Asia, but bringing it in is now 10 more expensive. So now we have to adjust. You know, it's like, hey, here's the new price. It is what it is now. If the tariffs go away, I want them to stabilize because it opens up to us. To me, it would be free trade because today I can't. I sent some to the UK. 24.
- [36:27]
Brad
Wow.
- [36:27]
Roman Sharp
Any other European country, 20 to 27%. Right. But if you. Even at the playing field was 10 and 10, now the world Wide web actually becomes the World Wide Web.
- [36:35]
Brad
Right.
- [36:35]
Roman Sharp
But now we're in, not the World Wide Web.
- [36:37]
Brad
Yeah. Because if you want to grow your revenues, you're probably gonna have to go more international. Right. To these.
- [36:41]
Roman Sharp
We do international, but it's very small because again, they have to pay crazy duties. So if I have certain deals that fit within the criteria they do, London is, I think I look at my traffic stats, like, London is probably the number two city people watch our from really. But they only buy a tiny percentage. So if, if they do even out the. I don't care if it's 10 this way, 10 this way, 20 this way. 20s eventually stabilize, but it takes time. So you have to be able to weather that storm because then inadvertently sales will be down because of that. Because you still have people in the United States that have a ton of product that are still selling at all prices. But eventually it's going to run out. And if they go outside the United States, we have a beautiful hedge on that because we buy from the public. So for us it's easier.
- [37:21]
Brad
Yeah. You got any big whale clients in like Dubai or Saudi or.
- [37:24]
Roman Sharp
We have. So our clientele will go from, you know, guy we're visiting tonight, old money, multi billionaires, real estate tycoon. We have celebrities and I don't, I don't clout chase. I never named my celebrities or try to take pictures. And we have some of the biggest celebrities that buy from us. Right. And so unless they want to be on camera or Give me a shout out.
- [37:48]
Brad
You don't care for it.
- [37:49]
Roman Sharp
It's not that I don't care for it. I feel that the reason we were able to land a lot of clients like this, because I will treat a kid that comes to buy $3,000 Omega the same way as a megastar is going to buy $3 million Richard Mille. Right. Because I feel that people, all humans, and you have to treat them with respect regardless of their status.
- [38:05]
Brad
Yeah.
- [38:06]
Roman Sharp
Now, are there people that I would fan over, like, if I saw them, like. Yeah. Big Formula one fan. So if, like, Lewis Hamilton came to my door, I'd geek the fuck out because. But that's personal. Right. But for the most part, the clientele varies. You know, you have young kids that made millions doing something or other in technology to, you know, season money, old money.
- [38:28]
Brad
I got Leclerc coming on.
- [38:30]
Roman Sharp
Oh, you do?
- [38:30]
Brad
During Vegas F1. If you're in town, I can introduce you guys.
- [38:33]
Roman Sharp
That's amazing.
- [38:34]
Brad
Yeah.
- [38:34]
Roman Sharp
I have a buddy in mind. Maybe a gnome. He's a guy out of Singapore. His name is Jeff. He's a big collector of Formula one cards. He has some of the most important formulas. He goes by Jeff Crypto.
- [38:43]
Brad
I think I've seen him on Instagram.
- [38:44]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, he went to.
- [38:46]
Brad
He.
- [38:46]
Roman Sharp
He went to dinner with Charles when he was in Singapore.
- [38:48]
Brad
Oh, yeah.
- [38:49]
Roman Sharp
And you wouldn't want to talk about the biggest fan of. Of Charlie Claire. Like, he's like. God, to him.
- [38:54]
Brad
He's like.
- [38:54]
Roman Sharp
He's a big Ferrari guy, obviously.
- [38:56]
Brad
Right.
- [38:57]
Roman Sharp
But yeah, Jeff is like. He's. He's nuts with the. Some of the cars. I collect Formula one cars.
- [39:02]
Brad
Oh, you do?
- [39:02]
Roman Sharp
Pretty decent collection.
- [39:03]
Brad
How expensive are those?
- [39:05]
Roman Sharp
So it depends. They get up. So he. I know that Jeff just bought the Lewis Hamilton Super Fractor auto from the rookie year 2020 for a million bucks. White. Yeah.
- [39:15]
Brad
Holy crap. Where do you even store all those? If you start collecting those, dude, Singapore.
- [39:20]
Roman Sharp
Is one of the most safest places in the world. You can leave your. Your car window open with your wallet and cash hanging out. Nobody will ever take it.
- [39:27]
Brad
No way.
- [39:27]
Roman Sharp
Singapore is.
- [39:28]
Brad
I've heard that about Dubai, too.
- [39:29]
Roman Sharp
Dubai is extremely safe, too. Singapore is. Singapore is one of the safest places in the world. Yeah.
- [39:37]
Brad
You're in Philly, right?
- [39:37]
Roman Sharp
Yeah.
- [39:38]
Brad
You do that in Philly, you're getting robbed within. Yes.
- [39:41]
Roman Sharp
Well, your wallet is definitely. Well, depending where you are. In Philly, obviously, we're living. We're in the suburbs.
- [39:45]
Brad
Yeah.
- [39:45]
Roman Sharp
Nice and safe. Plus, we're also allowed to carry a lot of Guns in Philly. Oh, you can just like. Oh, yeah.
- [39:49]
Brad
I didn't know that.
- [39:50]
Roman Sharp
Oh, yeah.
- [39:51]
Brad
Because I grew up in Jersey and you couldn't really carry that.
- [39:54]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, Jersey. Jersey. Well, now they're changing it. Now they changed the law.
- [39:56]
Brad
Oh, yeah.
- [39:56]
Roman Sharp
They forced them to change the law.
- [39:58]
Brad
And I don't blame you. When you're moving around expensive stuff, you.
- [40:02]
Roman Sharp
Definitely need, you know, when, when, when people ask me, like, how you know you have this officer. My office is like Fort Knox. But I tell people, look, I don't envy the person that walks into my office.
- [40:12]
Brad
Holy crap.
- [40:13]
Roman Sharp
So I'm ex military. I'm also a sharpshooter.
- [40:16]
Brad
Wow.
- [40:16]
Roman Sharp
You know, if you piss me off at a thousand yards, I could probably still get you.
- [40:19]
Brad
Damn.
- [40:20]
Roman Sharp
But. But I'm also not the person that. I'm into gun culture. I'm into guns. I go shooting a lot, but I'm the person that will do everything and everything in my power to avoid ever pointing a gun at anyone because I know what it does. And I'm not the guy to say, you know, start doing not a cowboy when it comes to that. My kids, my kids know about gun culture. They all know how to shoot. They all understand one thing, that the only ever time when you pull out a gun is when you absolutely have zero choice. The number one job is to get away from not to put yourself in a situation where you have to pull your gun.
- [40:55]
Brad
Yeah.
- [40:55]
Roman Sharp
And that's what I live by. And thank God I haven't shot anybody yet. So.
- [40:58]
Brad
Has someone ever targeted you?
- [41:01]
Roman Sharp
No.
- [41:01]
Brad
Wow.
- [41:01]
Roman Sharp
Make it very known, invisible, that in my office, outside of my office, I'm well protected, that I do carry a gun. I know how to use it. I'm not afraid to use it. And you know, I, I put that message out there subliminally. I don't. I'm not the guy to be. Look at all my guns, you know.
- [41:19]
Brad
Because people in your space are targeted usually. Right?
- [41:22]
Roman Sharp
Of course we are. But you follow certain procedures, you know, you fought in certain things. You make sure you're insured, obviously, which we are.
- [41:28]
Brad
No.
- [41:28]
Roman Sharp
And at the same token, you don't put yourself in situations to where there's a possibility that, you know, somebody may want to rob you, you know, you don't want to, you know, you don't want to get jacked or robbed, you know, and you know, the certain neighborhoods are bad. Don't go there.
- [41:42]
Brad
Yeah.
- [41:43]
Roman Sharp
Very simple.
- [41:43]
Brad
I don't post where I'm at live anymore.
- [41:45]
Roman Sharp
I don't either. So if you if you look at this like, I'm going to take a video here when we're done.
- [41:49]
Brad
Yeah.
- [41:50]
Roman Sharp
And I'm going to post it as if I just got here.
- [41:51]
Brad
Right. I love it.
- [41:53]
Roman Sharp
That's. That's what I do. That's smart. Why?
- [41:55]
Brad
You know, people want to flex where they're at, like at a fancy dinner. And I'm like, why would you do that?
- [42:00]
Roman Sharp
I'll take pictures, I'll take videos. Also, I don't post a lot of food, but like, I'll take a picture in the video. But if you go there, I won't be there. Yeah, it's just, it's just a smart way of doing it. Because when you get, when you put yourself out there on social and people know your every move, that doesn't mean they have to know where you are physically.
- [42:15]
Brad
Yeah. How good are the fakes these days? Fake watches?
- [42:18]
Roman Sharp
Very good.
- [42:19]
Brad
Can you tell?
- [42:20]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, we can tell a fake from a room away. Especially my buyers. Right. Just because we handle this stuff so much and people ask, well, how? I'm like, well, experience, Right. Had a particular watch in your hands a thousand times over. You're gonna know. It's also very situational. Right. Because it's like, oh, dude, I got this watch. Somebody gave it to me as a gift. It's got no box, no papers. Red flag, right? Oh, you talking to someone. You can tell when somebody's a watch guy, right? If. If somebody's into cars and they started talking to me, they'll know right away I'm not a car guy. I asked you something about Formula one cars. I'll tell you everything you need to know.
- [42:52]
Brad
Right.
- [42:53]
Roman Sharp
But in like Porsches and Ferraris and all that stuff. I'm not into that stuff. I don't care for it. Therefore, when a conversation takes place with a Porsche guy, he'll know I'm not a Porsche guy. Same thing with that. But for the most part, I don't take any chances. So we have a service center that we own and every single one that comes to the office goes through my service center. And the head watchmaker there will open up every single watch. He'll look inside every single watch. But it's a brand spanking new Rolex and it's all looks like, oh, it's all legit. He will still check it. Because the super clones today are scary.
- [43:24]
Brad
That's what they're called. Super clones.
- [43:25]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, they're scary. Dude. It can get. It gets really scary. Like I've had a few again, I'm at A trade show. Another dealer comes up to me and sells me a watch. Because it's very common to have a watch with no box, no papers. Doesn't mean it's a.
- [43:38]
Brad
You still buy those?
- [43:39]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, of course. There's nothing as long as I have recourse. If you're a dealer, you sell me a watch and there's an invoice, I have recourse.
- [43:45]
Brad
Yeah.
- [43:46]
Roman Sharp
And you can go get archive papers now. And there's plenty of ways to legitimize a watch. Rolex, you get a service card. So for me, guy comes up is like, hey, check out this ap. I know you like this Gives me like a slightly under market price. I'm like, reasonable. I bargain with a couple thousand, but he takes it back. He's like, it's fake. Situational. I'm at a trade show. A dealer I've known for 10 years comes up and sells me this watch. And I'm like, okay, in that case scenario, I'm not expecting a fake. He was messing with.
- [44:15]
Brad
Your guard is down and.
- [44:16]
Roman Sharp
But I looked at it close enough to where with a naked eye handling the watch. It wasn't until I really looped it closely and I looked on the inside because it was an exhibition back. That's when I met him. Like, wait a minute, I see it now. And the guy goes, how good is this? I'm like, it's really good. It's scary. Yeah.
- [44:31]
Brad
Even the weight.
- [44:33]
Roman Sharp
Weight case. There isn't a thing or watch part that a CNC machine can't make today. Right. You can take a block of steel and you can make any Rolex that you want. Damn right. So it's like, it's a question of how much money do you invest into it and what's the purpose? Now, the stuff you see on Canal street, people buy and sell those for the purpose of selling fake watches by telling you that you buy a fake watch. So when you're paying 300 bucks for a Rolex, you know you're not getting a real Rolex. Right? But there are some out there that will make specific watches, and their ultimate goal is to sell it as new. That's the ones you have to be scared of, Right. Because their goal is to actually fraud you. I don't. I'm really against. Against counterfeits in general. I'm against people wearing counterfeits because I think it defeats the purpose. It's like being rich in Monopoly, who you're trying to impress. Right. And you're lying to yourself. But at the same token, there's guys out there that will maliciously will reproduce certain things for the sole reason of selling you a fake watch and making a profit. Because it has to make sense financially.
- [45:32]
Brad
Yeah.
- [45:33]
Roman Sharp
The better you make the watch, the more it's going to cost you to produce it. There's still a cost behind producing things. The box, papers, whatever it may be. And at some point, if you're selling it as a fake, you're not selling a fake for three grand, guys, I might as well buy a real one, right?
- [45:46]
Brad
Some of them cost that much these days.
- [45:47]
Roman Sharp
Some of the. Some of the super clothes, like Richard Mills and things of that nature.
- [45:50]
Brad
Yeah.
- [45:51]
Roman Sharp
Plus technologies that today they're easily fixing. But he will tell you how to make a watch.
- [45:57]
Brad
You know, what about people that wear a fake watch, but the real ones at home in the safe? Have you heard of that?
- [46:01]
Roman Sharp
I think it's stupid too. If you feel that you're ever in a position where you feel unsafe, that defeats the purpose. Because the idea is like, oh, well, I don't want to. If I get jacked, I'll steal a fake. I'm like, well, isn't the whole purpose for you to not get jacked? Like, then how's a fake going to prevent that? Because you can get physically harmed, hurt too, while you get injured.
- [46:17]
Brad
Right.
- [46:18]
Roman Sharp
So, no, I'm not. I'm not a fan of that either.
- [46:20]
Brad
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. People walk Melrose and getting robbed these days, so I could see where they're coming from.
- [46:26]
Roman Sharp
Yeah. But it's like, it's like you want to flex but you want to be safe. Like if the idea is I just.
- [46:32]
Brad
Don'T wear it at all.
- [46:33]
Roman Sharp
Yeah. For me, for me, safety takes priority over flexing.
- [46:37]
Brad
Yeah.
- [46:38]
Roman Sharp
I don't care what it is now. I just, I don't get it.
- [46:41]
Brad
Certain cities, I. I don't bring out my watch. You know what I mean?
- [46:43]
Roman Sharp
Europe, London is. Yeah, London was just in London. Almost got robbed.
- [46:47]
Brad
Damn.
- [46:48]
Roman Sharp
And we were. So we're. Mind you, I'm there with a friend of mine, Paul Thorpe, another YouTuber on the watch space. You know what got really political now? So no more watches, but more. A lot more views on YouTube. And so you took me to Han Gardens, which is there, 47th Street. So it's me, him, another buddy of ours, Spencer, my videographer. Social media. Like six of us walking around and we're standing in front. We went inside a store with a friend I knew, started talking. We come outside to look at his outside thing and I'm like, like starting to make a deal with him on the watch. All of a sudden, Paul leans over, he's. I have that on video. It's on one of the episodes. Leans over, he's like, roma, we got to go now. Huh?
- [47:22]
Brad
What?
- [47:23]
Roman Sharp
Some dude came, like, circled us a little bit, like, scouted us out.
- [47:27]
Brad
Yeah.
- [47:27]
Roman Sharp
Went across the street. I didn't see this. Paul did. Went across the street, pulled out his phone, started texting people. And Paul's like, we've been spotted or marked. We need to go. We need to go now. So we made an exit. And I'm like, this is London.
- [47:40]
Brad
Damn.
- [47:40]
Roman Sharp
And then I met with. I'm there. A couple young guys in the industry. They have a office in Barkley Square. I don't know if you're familiar. That's. That's smack in the middle of Mayfair. That's where the Ferrari dealership. It's like Fifth Avenue. They sent me a dm. I was like, roman, I see that you're in London. We're such and such. Is there any way, shape or form we can get 20 minutes of your time? I look the kids up, I see two young kids trying to do something. I'm like, sure. Come to. I was stating at the Grosvenor House. So we met downstairs at Tea Lounge. We're drinking tea, Tea talking, and they're like, roman, give us advice. Like, what do we do? Here we are, you know, we have a decent amount of money we invested into this business, but, like, we can't walk around the street wearing a watch. We can't leave our office with a watch. We can't really do a whole lot of social media because people will find us. He's like, we're also brown skinned, so people are afraid to talk to us. And I'm like, I sat there, I listened to everything. How they did business. How do you do business? He's like, well, see people out and about. We see they're wearing a nice watch, we'll hand them a business card. This is who we are. Our office, here and here, if you ever need anything. And he's like, most of the time, people be scared when I tell them, nice watch again. He's like, I'm. He's like, not because we're brown skin. I'm like, okay. And I'm usually, I'm a pretty smart guy when it comes to business planning and things like that. And finally I told him, I said, I have one advice for you. Like what? Get the out of London. I mean, because I really didn't know what to Tell these kids, like, they really have no way to scale their business because of safety concerns.
- [49:00]
Brad
Yeah.
- [49:00]
Roman Sharp
So I asked them, like, can you have a security guard now? Can you have a gun? No. Can you have a. He's like, I can't even have a baseball bat. I'm like, well, that's kind of, you know. Another buddy of mine, he moved out of London. He went all the way out to. I think it's close, about 40 minutes outside of London. Suburban neighborhood. Still build a fortress there, but it's safer over there. I don't get it.
- [49:23]
Brad
What a shame.
- [49:23]
Roman Sharp
It is.
- [49:24]
Brad
London's like that now.
- [49:25]
Roman Sharp
Yeah, London. Scary. Scary for a minute.
- [49:27]
Brad
That is scary. It's. Parts of LA are like that, man.
- [49:30]
Roman Sharp
La. I don't go to la.
- [49:32]
Brad
Yeah. Melrose, you walk. Melrose.
- [49:33]
Roman Sharp
I can't. I can't. I can't stand the lay. For their geopolitical stance, for the way things are over there. And last time, it was my 20th wedding anniversary. I made a big surprise for my wife out in. So you have. What is it? The Laguna Beach? I think it's. Is it Daniel beach or. That starts with a D. The little town next door and have a Waldorf there with a golf course. Daniel is in Florida. This is Dana Beach. I think it's Dana Point. Heard of Laguna beach and there's a town next to. It was a beautiful scenic place with cliffs and beautiful sunsets. And we spent a day and a half in LA prior to that. So we stayed at the Beverly. Wheelchair. Pretty Woman. And so. All right, let's go do a little bit of shopping. I go to Rodeo Drive and I see guys in full tactical gear with fucking machine guns. I'm like, the fuck am I being Root? What is going on? Like, why are these guys here with machine guns? You know? But in London, it's worse. You walk into Louis Vuitton when you walk out, they give you a plain bag so you don't attract attention.
- [50:30]
Brad
Wow.
- [50:30]
Roman Sharp
Zero branding. And Bond Street. The buddy of mine has been on there, that street for 30 years. That's their Fifth Avenue. I walk up. I was there. I wanted to surprise him. Walk up to the store. It's kind of dark in there. There's not. There's no showcases in the windows. Usually showcase with jewelry and watches. This guy has a lot of cool stuff. So I called him, like, Ronnie. I'm like, you guys closed Wednesday afternoon? He's like, no, we're here. I'm like, it doesn't look like it. He's like, oh, you here Bro, I'm like, yeah. He comes outside, unlocks the doors. We'll go through two doors. He locks the doors behind. The lights are dim. They're sitting inside only, working on web orders. Only by appointment only. I'm like, this is Bond Street. He's like, yeah, guy got stabbed just last night. Right. Right around the corner from my office.
- [51:11]
Brad
Geez, scary times. Is New York safe?
- [51:14]
Roman Sharp
New York. New York is safe. New York is safe. A lot. Look, America is a lot safer. And the reason America is safer, because we have the right to bear arms, you know, and that's again, depending on state, but still in general, you know, you know that you stand a chance of either getting your ass whooped and you have police to have guns. In London, most cops carry sticks and whistles.
- [51:32]
Brad
Wow, that's not doing much.
- [51:33]
Roman Sharp
You got a guy running at you with a machete. You got a stick and a whistle. What are you doing? You know what I mean?
- [51:37]
Brad
Like, man, that's nuts. Well, Roman, it's been awesome, man. What's next for you? Where can people find you?
- [51:43]
Roman Sharp
My social media. Like, I'm one of the guys. I told you, I answer all my DMs. So Roman Sharp on my Instagram will always. You can always get me there. And if people watch it, just go to the website.
- [51:52]
Brad
Awesome.
- [51:53]
Roman Sharp
Our inventory is live.
- [51:54]
Brad
Cool. We'll link everything below if you need to watch. Guys, DM him or check out the site. Thanks for coming on.
- [51:57]
Roman Sharp
Yeah. Brad, I appreciate you having finally. We got this. We got it together.
- [52:00]
Brad
Absolutely.
- [52:00]
Roman Sharp
Perfect timing. You just asked me, like, oh, dude, I'll be in Vegas.
- [52:02]
Brad
Yeah, that's the universe.
- [52:04]
Roman Sharp
I appreciate it, bro. Thank you so much.
- [52:05]
Brad
See you guys.
- [52:06]
Roman Sharp
Take care, guys.