Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

Seiko7A38 at November 30, 2020 at 3:38 AM

This morning, bidding on that 7A38-6000 has already reached 650 Euros, albeit with a little help - goes without saying, the auction appears to be being blatantly shilled in the best Italian tradition.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303788587075

Checking the eBay Bidding History sorry, that should probably read shilling history shows an encrypted eBay ID 7***8, with a feedback of 1, who has placed 7 bids between 400 and 650 Euros and has 100% bidding activity with the seller. But far more blatant is the current high bidder d***7 (625), who's placed 13 of the 45 bids. Note the feedback number: 625, which coincidentally just happens to be the same as this seller's other eBay ID oysterdelarge728 (as he rather foolishly disclosed in his listing description).

The blatant shill-fest extravaganza didn't end there. Oh No, not by a long way. The bidding (if you can call it that) on that 7-day auction for a 7A38-6000 in no better than average worn condition, which ended a few moments ago, went on to reach a completely unrealistic 1000 Euros after a whopping 68 bids. Needless to say, not without further assistance from bidder ID 7***8 (feedback of 1), who went on to make a total of 18 bids, jacking the price up to 995 Euros, abetted by other accomplices, who also had 100% bidding activity with the seller. Disgusting.

Not exactly a susprise, in the light of the foregoing fiasco, yesterday evening, Italian eBay seller daria_21 (a.k.a. 'Giuseppe') re-listed his now infamous 7A38-6000 as another 7-day auction, with an opening bid price of 1 Euro. By this morning, the bidding had reached a rather more sedate 78 Euros.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303800050904

I winced at his brazen temerity in adding the following statement to his description:

I am relisting the item as the buyer has not completed the payment, so avoid buying if you are unable to complete the purchase.

Giuseppe still seems to be labouring under the illusion that his well-worn 7A38-6000 is worth 1000 Euros. This morning he listed it on Italian classifieds site Subito.

http://www.subito.it/abbigliamento-accessori/orologio-seiko-quartz-chronograph-panda-7a38-6000-reggio-calabria-364266848.htm

Myself and a few other Seiko 7A collectors and enthusiasts have been watching Giuseppe's re-listing for his 7A38-6000 with bemusement. It's noticeable how much slacker the bidding is this time. Yesterday, one commented that it had only reached 140 Euros. I retorted, Yes but not without the intervention of another Zero-feedback bidder. This morning I noticed bidding had crept up to 200 Euros, so out of curiosity, decided to quickly investigate.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303800050904

Checking the current eBay Bidding History shows that there are now 3 stacked bids, placed by bidder d***2, who has a feedback of 625, which as pointed out previously, coincidentally happens to be exactly the same as that of Giuseppe's other primary eBay ID oysterdelarge728 (as disclosed in his eBay description). It appears he couldn't resist giving it a little helping hand. Are we heading for another shill-fest ?

But of course it didn't stop there. Italian eBay seller 'Giuseppe's re-listed 7-day auction for his average worn condition 7A38-6000 ended a few moments ago, with the bidding @ 655 Euros after 41 bids. Though your guess as to how many were actually genuine bids as opposed to shills, is as good as mine. 'Giuseppe' brazenly bumped it as high as 650 Euros, utilizing his primary eBay ID oysterdelarge728 (feedback now 626). Whether the winning bidder realizes he's been blatantly shilled and subsequently pays up, remains to be seen.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303800050904

I'd forgotten to mention this earlier, but during the first phase of these shill-fests, at the end of November, ever the greedy opportunist, Italian eBay seller contintasca listed a NOS Seiko p/n 285W26GN00 crystal, with an extortionate Buy-it-Now price of 119 Euros.  At time of writing, with the listing coming to the end of its 30-day cycle in a couple of hours, nobody has yet felt that desperately in need of one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233802724265

Yes, obviously these genuine Seiko crystals are very hard to come by nowadays. The last time I can remember mentioning them (in this thread) was 4 years ago ....

Seiko7A38 at November 26, 2016 at 6:58 AM

There is a genuine Seiko p/n 285W26GN00 crystal on eBay at the moment, but the asking price is nothing short of extortionate !

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272230513503

That said, contintasca's current asking price is more than double what the greedy UK eBay seller watchprouk was asking back then. I guess that's inflation for you. No it's not. It's exploitation, extortion and utter unashamed avarice. 

Late last night, avid Filipino Seiko collector ditoy_eagle posted this tidy, but far from mint example of the sought after 7A38-6000 For Sale on Instagram to much acclaim and interest. His post has already attracted well over 300 likes in under 12 hours.

His asking price, possibly following recent trends is a hefty $1250 US (shipped). Ditoy has owned this 7A38-6000 since December 2017. I remember when he first posted photos on SCWF, most of which can also be found by scrolling (a long way) through his impressive Instagram feed. However, at the time it didn't occur to me to ask where he'd bought it. I think I'm correct in saying that prior to the one above, he'd not posted any photo of its case-back. That serial number 4N1790 provides all the answers. This 7A38-6000 has featured a number times before earlier in this thread. It first appears way back on page 3, when it was first listed by Australian eBay seller marcspix in March 2015, with an asking price of $850 Au. Numerous re-listings and more than 2½ years later, it eventually sold at the end of November 2017, for a considerably higher best offer. Here follows a multi-quote of my post from the top of page 8 of this thread ....

Seiko7A38 at November 30, 2017 at 10:38 AM

Seiko7A38 at November 29, 2017 at 11:02 AM

It's that time of year again - 'Tis the Silly Season apparently. 

Anyone who has read all the way through this thread cannot fail to have noticed the numerous mentions of a certain 7A38-6000 listed by an Austailian eBay seller marcspix, who asked various silly 'pie-in-the-sky' prices for it between 2015 and 2016. It was last seen in February 2016, when it theoretically sold against a best offer of $750 Au, to a member of this forum. I guess that sale must have fallen through, because it's back on eBay once again today, this time with a Buy-it-Now price of $1499 Au. - double the figure it supposedly sold for. If you don't want to read back through the whole thread, just see some of the previous posts, run a search on marcspix 7A38-6000. That brings up a good few. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302547139411

'Tis definitely the Silly Season. 

The last time this grossly over-priced 7A38-6000 was listed on eBay, it took numerous re-listings and 11 months, between March 2015 and the beginning of February 2016, for it to eventually allegedly sell for a best offer of $750 Au. Yesterday it took only 11 hours for someone else to get suckered. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302547139411

According to WatchCount.com's Look-up tool, this time around for $1350 Au.

Confirmed by the eBay Offer / Purchase History.

Note the offer price accepted - $1350 Au. 

Seiko7A38 at August 10, 2019 at 10:10 AM

Funnily enough, while I was scrolling through the images on pikdo.online, this wrist shot, uploaded by another Italian Instagrammer, using the handle @instawatchman, popped up showing as '3 hours ago' - but if you check the dates of the comments, it's clearly obviously from October last year.

https://www.pikdo.online/media/Bov83awCWLQ

Here's a few more of his wrist shots from earlier this year:

I'll be the first to admit that my own wrist shots are very conventional - boring even. That's because they're intended to show just the watch, rather than show off the brogues I'm (not) wearing, my breakfast, coffee machine, dog, garden furniture, swimming pool or anything else irrelevant in the background.

That said, having perused Instagram for 18 months or so, I still come across the occasional photo by another poster whose composition impresses me. Yesterday, that same Italian poster instawatchman uploaded another photo of his 7A38-6000.

Gotta give him 10/10 for colour coordination. 

This extremely well-worn 7A38-6000, fitted with a skinny rubber strap, was listed earlier this evening by an Italian eBay seller, as a 7-day auction with an opening bid price of 1 Euro. It may be 'funzionante', but bellissimo it most certainly is not.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164642318568

Seiko 7A38-6000 molto raro, vintage anni ‘70 con cinturino in gomma marcato SWISS WATERPROOF. Orologio Diver’s Chronograph SPORTS 100 funzionante, ghiera e vetro presentano alcuni segni del tempo, la ghiera ruota nei due sensi, quadrante impeccabile e cassa in acciaio in ottime condizioni. Diametro 38mm.

To the casual observer, it might appear that I revel in bitching about speculative over-pricing of Seiko 7A38's by dealers and profiteering re-sellers alike. Quite the contrary - I'm fed up to the back teeth and thoroughly sick and tired of doing so.

Early this morning, US eBay seller naja-simon, whom I've already cited before in another thread in this forum section, listed a 7A38-6000, in no better than average well-worn condition, with a ridiculous 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price of $1500. It's being offered to potential buyers outside USA through eBay's dysfunctional GSP programme, which (were it not for the covert embargo agreement between eBay and Seiko and it actually worked), would add a further $410 in charges on top ! Evidently everything is working. I should bloody well hope so for that price !!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124530217837

RARE Seiko 7A38 6000 Panda From 1984 Quartz Everything Authentic And Working. Condition is "Pre-owned". Shipped with FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery.

Needless to say it's already been given the obligatory pre-sale plugs on Instagram.

http://www.instagram.com/voskiwatch/

The left and right hand thumbnails are simply crops of 2 of the eBay listing photos.

The centre post with 7 more of the cropped eBay listing images also includes a rather shaky hand-held video showing the chronograph running.

The 7-day Italian eBay auction for an extremely well-worn 7A38-6000, fitted with a skinny rubber strap, ended a few moments ago, selling for 351 Euros after 68 bids. Quite an astonishing figure, given the very poor condition. Was the auction shilled ? Probably - it was on eBay Italy after all. The determined winning bidder, who placed 15 of those 68 bids has 100% bidding activity with the seller.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164642318568

For comparison, I checked my records and I paid 306 Euros for my almost mint example in December 2015. Perhaps it's just a sign of the crazy times we live in.