Please, enough with the excuses... There are plenty of AP boutiques that have to to do this everyday and do it in a graceful way where the customer still feels like they got something out of the interaction. I went to the boutique in Costa Mesa (they also have nothing to sell) and the SA sat with me for an hour and created a profile, chatted about life, and tried to come up with a plan on how I can work towards a Royal Oak. This is how it should be handled.

I was mainly talking about AP. To me if more watches are being made (AP has increased production) and a ton of folks are willing to buy any AP they are offered, then I would think selling is pretty easy for the SAs. In other words, they are having to do less work to make more in commissions (since there are more pieces being made). I would think the boring part of their job is having to constantly turn people away. They also don't really have to compete with ADs anymore for allocations since AP is now all corporate boutiques.

I hear ya. I was offered a chrono code (was outside my budget) and the gray/white two hander code and declined. This was at one of the west coast boutiques. I'm refocusing my efforts on an offshore as my first purchase (hopefully something will happen). Nice to see the gray market start to get a bit more affordable. I am seeing a few of the new 43mm offshores for going under retail (when you factor in taxes) on some of the FB watch groups. Also seeing some 15500s coming down to 1.5-2x retail (some were listed over 100k just a few months ago). I am starting to lean towards giving up on getting a stainless RO from the boutique. With current gray prices for (for the ones I am interested in) it is much cheaper to go gray (was told that for me to get the 15500 I want I'd have to possibly buy 2 CODEs plus an offshore and then I'd be a serious contender for one).

interesting. I can see that. it seems from a lot of the posts on here and in other forums that people that are actually getting the allocations are coming out of the Asian markets.

I mean AP is still making new watches and these are going to someone. These SAs don't get a commission on these? If anything wouldn't there jobs be even easier than before since most people are willing to buy any piece offered to them? Doesn't seem like they have to work a client to make a sale these days.