Wow, this was an entertaining and enlightening thread. OP, I'm sorry you dealt with the loss of time and some money, it sucks. If I may; three years ago, I was served in a lawsuit by a client's client I HAD HELPED OUT OF A BIG JAM, as a 3rd party defendant (project owner was sued and in turn sued people "below" him. My involvement with the project was at the very absolute end, helping with some bureaucratic issues. EVERYTHING I was involved with was still great, easy dismissal right? Wrong. My all in was $7,500 in lawyers fees, ~30 professional hours (could have billed 4500), all for issues between D & P that I had literally ZERO to do with. I was eventually dismissed (court forced them to do so) with prejudice, meaning they reserved the right to "re sue" me should I try to recoup MY legal expenses from my client's client. THAT effin' sucked, and like banging your head while working on a car, there's not a darn thing I could do about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not made of money, that is literally all the profit my little one-man-show makes in a year. Just a bit of perspective: a little over a grand on the table, for what is technically an illicit trade just isn't that much to get worked up about. Just step back for a minute (not saying don't be upset) but try to look at it from a different view. There are POTLOADS of people who would wonder WTF is wrong with people spending more than a $20 on a watch let alone 100s, 1000s or 10000s.
Man, that was a wall o' text. My only purchase concerning anything on this forum is on its way from the new USA TD, a discounted watch 'cause it seems to have a silly large pip on it. I'm not even "experienced" but figure I down that much in cheap scotch in a month, I can stand to lose it or drop my bad habit until I refill my coffers.
Oh, and the enlightening part: my imagined expectations in this market have always been highly tempered. With this thread I am now more sure of the path and steps to take when when I get into "bigger boy" game. I hope you enjoy the watches you did get, and eventually get some more; seems like a great hobby to have.
Take care all.