The vintage watch marketplace
Grey Market · grymrkt.co · Effective Date: October 14, 2026
1.1 This Buyer Agreement (the “Agreement”) governs every purchase you make on Grey Market (the “Platform”): bidding in an auction, making or answering an offer on the Exchange, and buying an Exchange post at its asking price (“Buy Now”). You (“Buyer,” “you”) accept this Agreement when you place your first bid, make your first offer, or pay for your first Buy Now, and again each time you do any of those things.
1.2 This Agreement is part of, and incorporates, the Grey Market Terms of Service (the “Terms”) and Privacy Policy. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms. If this Agreement and the Terms conflict, this Agreement controls for the bid, offer or purchase it applies to, except that the Terms always control on dispute resolution, limitation of liability, indemnification and governing law.
1.3 Definitions.
2.1 You must be at least 18, a legal resident of the United States, and have completed identity verification (KYC). Before you bid, make an offer or pay, you must also have a confirmed email address, a verified payment method, a complete shipping address, and have accepted this Agreement.
2.2 By bidding, offering or paying, you confirm that you still meet these requirements and that your identity, payment and address details on file are accurate and current.
2.3 Strikes under Section 11 of the Terms can stop you buying. For ninety (90) days after a strike you cannot place new bids, make new offers or buy; purchases already under way continue and must be completed. A second strike within twelve (12) months is a permanent ban.
3.1 Auctions. You pay the hammer price plus a Buyer premium of 7% of the hammer price, applicable taxes, and shipping from the Verifier to you. Paying by card adds a payment processing fee of 2.9% of the hammer price; paying by ACH bank transfer or wire adds nothing.
3.2 Exchange. You pay the Price plus a buyer fee of 1.25% of the Price (at least $25), applicable taxes and shipping. Paying by card adds 2.9% of the Price. If you add Verification, you also pay a Verification fee of 2% of the Price (at least $149 and at most $399) and the extra shipping leg to the Verifier.
3.3 Every amount is shown to you before you bid, make an offer, or pay.
4.1 Binding bid. Every bid is a binding offer to buy the watch at your bid price, plus the amounts in Section 3.1, if you are the winning bidder when the auction closes. You may not retract a bid, except in limited circumstances Grey Market decides (for example, an obvious typing error reported before the auction closes).
4.2 Maximum bids. You may set a maximum bid. Grey Market bids for you, one increment at a time, up to that amount, and never shows it to other bidders.
4.3 No reserve. Auctions run with no reserve unless the Listing says otherwise; the highest bid at close wins.
4.4 No charge at bid time. Placing a bid does not charge your payment method or place a hold on it. Each bid authorizes Grey Market, directly or through its payment processor, to charge your payment method on file if you win.
4.5 Close and anti-snipe. Auctions run for seven (7) days. A bid in the final 2 minutes extends the clock by 2 minutes; the auction closes when 2 minutes pass with no new bid.
5.1 When the auction closes with you as the winner, Grey Market charges your payment method on file for the total in Section 3.1. The money becomes Held Funds.
5.2 Payment by ACH bank transfer becomes Held Funds when it clears, usually in three (3) to five (5) business days.
5.3 Payment failure. If the charge fails (for example, insufficient funds, an expired card, or an issuer decline), Grey Market will tell you, and you have forty-eight (48) hours from the close to provide a valid payment method and complete the purchase. Entering this period is a strike under Section 11.1 of the Terms, even if you then pay. If you do not pay within the period, Grey Market may cancel the sale, relist the watch, or offer it to the next-highest bidder, and the non-payment is a severe offense under Section 11.2 of the Terms.
6.1 Making an offer. You may offer a Price below the asking price. You choose how long the offer stays open, from one (1) to forty-eight (48) hours. You may change or withdraw the offer while the Seller has not answered it.
6.2 The Seller’s answer. The Seller may accept, decline, or counter. A counter is an offer from the Seller on the same terms, open for the period it states; you may accept it, decline it, or counter back while it is open.
6.3 Binding on acceptance. When the Seller accepts your offer, or you accept the Seller’s counter, you are bound to buy the watch at that Price, plus the amounts in Section 3.2.
6.4 Paying an accepted offer. You must pay within twenty-four (24) hours of acceptance. If you do not, the acceptance lapses, the post returns to sale, and you receive a strike under Section 11 of the Terms.
7.1 You may buy an Exchange post at its asking price. Pressing Pay holds the post for you for ten (10) minutes while you complete checkout. Your card is then authorized, not charged, and the purchase waits for the Seller to confirm the watch is still theirs and as listed. The Seller has twenty-four (24) hours. If the Seller confirms, your card is charged and the purchase is made; if the Seller declines or does not respond, the authorization is released, nothing is charged, and we tell you.
7.2 If you pay by wire, you place the order at checkout and receive wire instructions once the Seller confirms; the wire is due by 5:00 PM Eastern on the second business day after that. Your payment becomes Held Funds when it is charged or, for a wire, when it lands.
8.1 When you make an offer or buy on the Exchange you choose whether to add Verification, and you may add it at checkout. Nothing is chosen for you.
8.2 With Verification, the Seller ships the watch to the Verifier, who inspects it against the post before it ships to you, and Sections 10 and 12 apply as they do to an auction. Verification can add up to five (5) days to delivery.
8.3 Without Verification, the Seller ships the watch directly to you and no one inspects it before it reaches you. A Direct Sale is final: you may not return the watch for any reason, and Grey Market makes no promise about its authenticity, parts or condition. This does not limit a right you have under applicable law that cannot be waived. You accept that you are the first person to inspect the watch after the Seller. Your protections are limited to Section 11.6 (lost, not received or damaged in transit). You confirm you understand this before you make an offer or pay. Any warranty a Seller offers on a watch is the Seller’s alone, between you and the Seller.
9.1 Grey Market scores the delivery address for every purchase with its carriers’ address-confidence service before you pay, and again before a shipping label is made.
9.2 If the address scores below Grey Market’s threshold, or the carrier flags it as restricted, the watch will not ship there. You may (a) have it held at a carrier-run pickup location (a UPS Store, UPS Customer Center, FedEx Office or FedEx Ship Center) and collect it with photo ID, (b) choose another address that passes, or (c) ask Grey Market to review the address for that purchase. Only Grey Market can allow a blocked address; you cannot override the check.
9.3 If the carrier cannot score an address at checkout, it is checked again before the label.
9.4 You are responsible for keeping your address current, complete and suitable for receiving a high-value parcel that needs a signature.
10.1 Auctions and Exchange with Verification. After the Verifier passes the watch, the Verifier fits a Grey Market tamper-evident return seal and ships the watch to you by insured, tracked courier.
10.2 Exchange without Verification. The Seller must ship within two (2) business days of your payment being held, on the insured, tracked label Grey Market provides.
10.3 Shipping to you is part of the total shown before you pay.
11.1 The window. On a Verified Sale, you have the Delivery Window to accept the watch or ask to return it on the Platform. On a sealed watch, removing the return seal is acceptance. If you do neither, the watch is treated as accepted when the window closes and the sale is complete. On a Direct Sale, the Delivery Window is only for reporting a parcel that arrived damaged or that you did not receive (Section 11.6); accepting the watch ends it, and the sale completes when it closes.
11.2 A return is a request. Returns are available only on Verified Sales. You may ask to return the watch within the Delivery Window, as long as any return seal is intact and the watch is complete and as it arrived. Grey Market may first contact you and the Seller to resolve the issue without a return. If Grey Market approves the return, it sends you a prepaid label to Grey Market’s office. Proceeds are not released to the Seller while a request is open.
11.3 Intake. At Grey Market’s office the returned watch, its seal and its condition are checked against the records and photographs the Verifier made when it was sealed.
11.4 Refunds.
11.5 Problems at intake. A broken or removed seal, a different watch, or a watch damaged or altered since delivery places the sale on hold and is handled under Sections 6.6, 11 and 13 of the Terms; no refund is made while it is investigated. Misusing the return process is a severe offense under Section 11.2 of the Terms.
11.6 Lost or damaged in transit. If the parcel arrives damaged, or the courier marked it delivered but you did not receive it, tell Grey Market within the Delivery Window. For a delivered-but-not-received claim, file a police report with your local law enforcement agency within seven (7) days and send Grey Market a copy (or the report number and agency). Grey Market handles the carrier claim and resolves the matter with you directly. A claim of this kind without a timely police report is not eligible for a remedy, unless filing one was impossible for reasons outside your control and you tell Grey Market so in writing promptly. On a Direct Sale, a parcel lost before delivery is handled the same way. Once the carrier confirms the loss or damage, you are refunded everything you paid, from the Held Funds. A damaged watch comes back to Grey Market for the carrier’s claim first, and where the damage can be repaired Grey Market may instead pay for the repair and return the watch to you. Accepting the watch ends your Delivery Window and these reports. If you believe the Seller acted fraudulently on a Direct Sale, for example by shipping a different watch, tell Grey Market; Grey Market may investigate and, where it finds Seller fraud, refund you on the watch’s return to Grey Market, from the Held Funds or, once they are released, from amounts recovered from the Seller. A report alone does not entitle you to a refund.
11.7 Final sale. A Direct Sale is final when you pay, subject to Section 11.6, to any refund Grey Market makes for Seller fraud, and to rights you have under applicable law that cannot be waived. Once you accept the watch, or the Delivery Window closes without a return request, the sale is final and the Held Funds are released to the Seller. You waive further claims against Grey Market and the Seller about the watch, except where the law does not allow that waiver (including your non-waivable rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act and similar consumer-protection laws).
If the Verifier fails the watch for any reason (including a counterfeit, a material misrepresentation, or material damage that was not disclosed), the sale is canceled and you are refunded everything you paid, including the Buyer premium or buyer fee, any Verification fee, taxes and shipping. The watch goes back to the Seller.
Everything you pay is held by Grey Market (Held Funds) and released to the Seller only when you accept the watch or the Delivery Window closes without a return request (on a Direct Sale, without a report under Section 11.6), and no hold or dispute is open. If the sale is canceled or a return is refunded, the refund comes from the Held Funds.
14.1 Nothing in this Agreement waives or limits your non-waivable rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act (15 U.S.C. 1666 et seq.), Regulation Z (12 C.F.R. Part 1026), the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E), or any similar consumer-protection law, including your right to dispute a transaction with your card issuer or bank.
14.2 You agree that the Delivery Window, the return process on a Verified Sale, the reports in Section 11.6, and the refunds in this Agreement and in Sections 6.4 and 6.6 of the Terms are your first remedy for problems with a purchase. Before you file a chargeback or payment dispute about a Grey Market purchase, you agree to: (a) tell Grey Market about the problem in writing; (b) work with Grey Market’s dispute process in good faith for at least fifteen (15) calendar days, or a shorter period if the law requires it to preserve your rights; and (c) give Grey Market a reasonable chance to investigate and resolve it.
14.3 A chargeback filed in bad faith, or filed to get around the process above where the law does not require immediate filing, breaches this Agreement and is a severe offense under Section 11.2 of the Terms. Grey Market may seek to recover the disputed amount, with reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees, through arbitration under Section 13 of the Terms. This Section does not discourage or penalize any chargeback the law entitles you to file.
You will not solicit, accept or complete a purchase of a watch listed on the Platform outside the Platform, or exchange contact details with a Seller to do so. Doing so is a severe offense resulting in a permanent ban.
Failing to meet your obligations as a Buyer, including late or missed payment, letting an accepted offer lapse unpaid, filing chargebacks in bad faith, or misusing the return process, may lead to strikes, suspension or a permanent ban under Section 11 of the Terms. Bans attach to the person, not the email address.
You accept this Agreement, the Terms and the Privacy Policy by checking the acceptance box when you first bid or make an offer, and each time you place a bid, make or accept an offer, or pay for a purchase next to a notice that says so. Grey Market keeps a record of the version you accepted and when. If Grey Market changes this Agreement in a way that requires your agreement, you will be asked to accept the new version before your next bid, offer or purchase, and you can keep using the rest of the Platform in the meantime.
The Terms and Privacy Policy are part of this Agreement, including the provisions on identity verification and identity-based enforcement, the strike system, dispute resolution (binding AAA arbitration, with a small-claims carve-out and class action waiver), limitation of liability, indemnification and governing law. Section 1.2 sets out which document controls if they conflict.
Grey Market · grymrkt.co · hello@grymrkt.co