Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

This stainless 7A38-6020 was listed on Yahoo Japan earlier this afternoon (in fact, just before midnight local time), as a 7-day auction, with an opening bid price of 1000 Yen. It's in average worn condition, with typically faded bezel inlay, minute marker ring and dial printing. It is fitted with the correct original Seiko p/n Z1207S bracelet, but unfortunately one that's sadly bereft of its clasp assembly and most of the adjustment links. 

http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/s651648884

Google doesn't translate the seller's description particularly well, mostly due to lack of punctuation / capitalization in the original Japanese.:

Thank you for watching. Check carefully on the description, bid-ask

Seiko Chronograph Sports 100 Quartz 7A38-6020

case glass scratches, etc. deterioration is there

status quo exactly is operating chronograph also running

the start-stop button you need to press a little stronger

because we are missing is out of breath, check thank you

crown except a diameter of about 43mm

exhibition of the goods are all authentic to the status product does not have any guarantee

easy settlement should be within 2 days

to receive contact us within 24 hours after goods arrival thank you

if you can not check while the goods in advance please let us know that the

Please contact whether or not to the same packing case within the end of the auction after 12 hours, which is more successful bids. If the contact is not in the will be shipped separately

you might get stops the dealings of the future if you do not protect asks you for a bid on the consent of the above that

in the market Because of the stock of goods, it will be an exhibition at present. Overhaul is the premise of elegance, but you do the real guarantee, please consider the accuracy of the guarantee is that there is no even if such date feed has failed, if you heal the adjustment is not covered by warranty

changes the view of the degree by an individual in relation to state it so, the nervous person please refrain from the tender

bid cancellation is because it does not accept it, asks you for a bid well on you think

payment method / Yahoo simple settlement

Please note that the shipping method is "Yu-Pack shipping cash on delivery" only and can not correspond to any other shipping method.

※ Shipping will be shipped the day after payment is confirmed ※ Shipment on

Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays can not be made on the day of payment procedure

※ You will receive a reply within 24 hours, payment within 2 days after the end of the auction

※ Contact within the deadline date and time, if there is no payment procedure will advance

※ We will receive after the product arrives contact us promptly ask

the first 2413 issue Tetsuo Mori Osaka Public Safety Commission

is most of the goods are in the antique market and antique dealer's office to obtain goods. Therefore I do not know the repair history such as overhaul history at

all All the goods of the exhibition are real. The all if accessories are listed in or explanation copy the image

to the status product we do not have any guarantee.

Immobile, calendar (except when only adjustment is required) will be repaired or guaranteed if it can not be described or confirmed in the image.

Please judge from the basic image about the Redan dial.

Most business trips are at the time of a business trip when a large number of business trips are exhibited. Time difference, lag width Please do not think that you can not answer the question to confirm the actual item

☆If you have put an evaluation, will be evaluated within one month☆

☆If you do not need evaluation Evaluation to is unnecessary, too☆

Google translate frequently appears to confuse the Japanese word for 'Bracelet' with 'Breath' - sometimes with amusing results. 

The above 7-day Yahoo Japan auction for a stainless 7A38-6020, in average worn condition, but with only a partial bracelet, ended a few moments ago, selling for ¥29,500 Yen after 25 bids, equivalent to approx. $268.40 USD / £203.15 GBP.

http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/s651648884

Incidentally, in case whoever bought that stainless 7A38-6020 (bereft of clasp and adjustment links) off Yahoo Japan last weekend, happens to read this thread and are perhaps planning to try and re-build the original Z1207S bracelet, I may have found some stock of the original SQ clasp. I just stumbled across this US eBay listing for Seiko 18mm bracelet clasps:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113668586055

Although the seller's reference QCL03 doesn't tie in with what's shown on Seiko Oceania's database (Z1207S-BK1S and Z1207S-PB1) it does appear to be of the right dimensions and pattern. The underside of the Z-fold is also stamped the same - STAINLESS STEEL JAPAN Z. I've just bought one 'on spec' and assuming it is the correct part will be fitting it to my 'beater' to replace the deeply engraved clasp it came with.

Update - all 3 now sold. Checking my eBay watching page, I noticed the listing had ended. Somebody with private feedback bought the other 2 early this morning.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113668586055

Years ago, I used to post fairly regularly on the long-established Italian watch forum, Orologi & Passioni. It changed ownership a few years back and many of the old regular contributors left for pastures new. When I did go back on the odd occasion and signed in, I found myself bombarded with SPAM emails and PM's. Gradually, I stopped visiting it altogether. Unfortunately, in eschewing that forum, I appear to have missed a second opportunity to buy a very nice, almost mint example of a stainless 7A38-6020, for a reasonable price - and I'm belatedly kicking myself. 

It was posted at the end of March, with a slightly negotiable asking price of  € 500.

http://orologi.forumfree.it/?t=76537465  Vendo raro Seiko 7a38 6020

This is of course, the very same stainless 7A38-6020, case-back serial # 510799, then NOS, which was listed on Kijiji.it and another Italian classified site in October 2016. See my posts dated 4th and 5th February 2017 at top of the previous page.

http://www.clasf.it/seiko-cronografo-diver-sports-100-uomo-cal7a38-ref-saa41j-a-milano-26919802/

Athough the Orologi & Passioni FS post still hasn't been updated as 'SOLD', by the time I accidentally stumbled across it, the watch was long gone (again). 

Vintage SEIKO 7A38-6020

WATCH IS TOP CONDITION 9,5 TO 10

perfect working

USED 2 3 TIME ONLY NO DEFECT

ORIGINAL STRAP

ONE THE BEST RARITY VERSION

very very rare

shipping to world

for other pics ask me

GOOD LUKE FOR BID ONLY SERIUS EBAYER

PAYMENT 1 DAYS MAX TO FINISH AUCTION

It may not look quite so pristine in Alberto's typically slapdash hand-held photos, but the last shot of the case-back shows that same serial # 510799. His English doesn't get any better either. But joking at his expense aside, it saddens me to see this lovely example has fallen into his hands. Another victim of his blatant profiteering.

Some 2 years on, my dark premonition seems to have become reality ....

Seiko7A38 at February 4, 2017 at 10:33 AM

Note the date of the advert (possibly the day it sold) - 19/10/2016 - one day after my previous post.

I really wish I hadn't bothered now. Not only had I completely missed seeing it (this the 4th NOS stainless 7A38-6020 in the last 10 years), but it sold for 550 Euros (or possibly less) - a very reasonable price, which I'd quite happily have paid  - particularly when compared to the last couple of examples on eBay, that I was soundly outbid on.  Hopefully it's gone to a fellow collector who will cherish it, but I have a horrible feeling it may have been grabbed up by one of the usual profiteering Italian re-sellers - if so, then it'll likely re-emerge on eBay in due course, probably with a Buy-it-Now price of double that.

Except Alberto Ulmi's Buy-it-Now price isn't just double, but over three times ! 

I happened to take another look at this listing for a stainless 7A38-6020 and noticed that greedy profiteering Italian eBay re-seller oldantiquestyle (a.k.a. Allberto Ulmi), had revised his listing at the weekend, drastically reducing his original extortionate 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price of $2000 to a marginally less ridiculous $1350. However, in doing so, he has also removed the option to make an offer.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183782006143

Checking my eBay watching page, the above stainless 7A38-6020, first listed just over a month ago, with a ludicrous 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price of $2000, by greedy profiteering Italian eBay re-seller oldantiquestyle, appears to have sold earlier this morning for that 'reduced' Buy-it-Now price of $1350.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183782006143

As confirmed by the eBay Purchase History:

Belated Edit:

In an amusing twist, who should turn out to be the buyer of that grossly over-priced stainless 7A38-6020, but none other than our deranged 'friend', Australian eBayer aussiewatches.  He of well-worn brown-coated 7A38-6020, bold red printed hate fueled rants and numerous bogus listings notoriety. I inadvertently discovered this, when I looked at the listing a couple of weeks later, checked and saw someone had left oldantiquestyle a glowing feedback against this item. It reads as follows:

Very honest trustworthy seller happy with this item thank you!

Anybody who believes Alberto Ulmi to be even marginally honest or trustworthy, most definitely has a screw loose. 

Oddly, at the time of writing, oldantiquestyle still hasn't reciprocated with a similarly glowing feedback for aussiewatches, expressing his mutual admiration. Instead, to prove it was him, if you check aussiewatches feedback left for others, it's there:

No doubt, Alberto was delighted to take this fool's money. Others don't appear quite so keen to deal with aussiewatches. Note the recent comment I've arrowed in red.

Did Not Wish To Do Business W This Jerk - He Is Nasty & Belligerent - A Jackass

It's not as if any further confirmation were needed ....

But yesterday, Italian eBay seller oldantiquestyle (a.k.a. Alberto Ulmi) eventually got around to leaving a positive feedback for buyer aussiewatches against his purchase of that almost mint stainless 7A38-6020.

Except he's not aussiewatches any more. Two days ago, presumably in an attempt to draw more attention to his one-man hate campaign, he changed his eBay user ID to seiko7a38forum.

The five typically abusive, fraudulent listings for various Seiko 7A38's, which he'd created over the last two days, were thankfully removed by eBay Trust & Safety yesterday afternoon, at my request. In the early hours of this morning he created a new listing, for his recently acquired stainless 7A38-6020. He's not taken any new photos himself, just uploaded the same set from Alberto's eBay listing, in a slightly different order. It's supposedly a 7-day auction, with an absolutely ludicrous opening bid price of $4999.95 Au., so he clearly has no real intention of actually selling it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/123809743270

The current description bears no relation to the watch itself. Check it for yourselves.

Or should I more correctly say, check it while it lasts. 

The above listing was ended by the deranged embittered Australian eBay seller a couple of hours later, in his usual manner - as allegedly being no longer available. It was replaced soon afterwards with a Buy-it-Now listing for 'only' $2000 Au., which if taken at face value, had it sold, would have netted him virtually zero profit on the $1350 US he'd paid for it, less than a month ago. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123809871689

However, the listing description, if you can call it that, contained slanderous (and might I add completely false) allegations about my sexual preferences and was promptly removed in its entirety by eBay Trust & Safety, along with his other four bogus listings for Seiko 7A38's, that he'd also created this morning. Overstepped the mark this time, aussiewatches. Well offside. Game almost over. 

They think it's all over - It is now !

Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to write anything about these unsavoury goings on. After his last string of bogus listings were removed aussiewatches (masquerading as seiko7a38forum) had a 7-day restriction placed on his account, preventing him from listing any more items. But then there was also the issue of his revised reviled eBay profile, which not only used a stolen copy of this website's banner as a background, but included a link to it and yet more slanderous text.

He was given 48 hours to remove the offending material and change his eBay ID. He only partially complied and was given another warning and another 24 hours, during which time he listed another watch (a Rolex Oysterquartz Datejust) thereby flagrantly ignoring eBay Trust & Safety's instructions. Bad move as it turned out.

This afternoon, despite my requests to the contrary, eBay banned him permanently.

In another remarkably ironic twist, this morning I was checking back through some old emails and found this Webs contact form message dated 12th April 2018:

From none other than that nasty little piece of work, sewer rat Dempsey W*****.

Whom you've probably seen from some other threads that I've updated recently is the same embittered, deranged (and now banned) ex-eBayer aussiewatches.  

Transpires that he'd been the 4th person who'd unsuccessfully attempted to register as a new forum member in April 2018, not very long after I'd discovered the Webs (expired V1) Captcha problem. Thankfully, he doesn't appear to have tried again (using the same name and email address) after the problem was finally properly resolved, over 6 months later in November 2018.

The real irony being the eerily creepy first sentence of his message:

Hello, firstly I really like your work here, it is incredibly comprehensive.

Evidently he only really liked it up to the point where I had the temerity to dare to quite innocently mention one of his watches that he'd listed for sale on eBay.

This stainless 7A38-6020, in average worn condition, with typical faded bezel inlay numbering and dial printing, was listed, albeit rather briefly, at lunchtime today, by an Italian eBay seller, with a surprisingly reasonable Buy-it-Now price of 199 Euros, or the option to make an offer.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402179991662

VINTAGE PERFETTAMENTE FUNZIONANTE GHIERA GIREVOLE PICCOLISSIMI GRAFFI DOVUTI ALL'USO TUTTO ORIGINALE 100 X 100 ACCIAIO INOX MODELLO CRONOMETRO CALIBRO 7A38-6020 MONTA MOVIMENTO ORIGINALE SEIKO CALIBRO 7A38A PRODOTTO PRIMI ANNI 80.

The listing was live for less than 10 minutes, during which time it received only 9 views, before I spotted it and almost without hesitation, hit the Buy-it-Now button.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402179991662

This stainless 7A38-6020 was listed earlier this morning, by a Singaporean eBay seller, as a 5-day auction, with an opening bid price of $1 SGD. It's in fairly well-worn condition, with manky dial ▽ mark and hands lume. The short bracelet has been repaired and is fitted with a clasp extender.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133380441993

vintage seiko 7a38 gold plated quartz chronograph

measures at a whopping 43mm

rare item for sale

condition as pictured

functionally keeping good time, all chronograph functions and subdials function as they should 

the bracelet appears to have been repaired. please study the photos carefully

fits 6.5inch wrist to about 7inches 

no returns

The first line of the description above appears to have been erroneously copied and pasted from that of another 7A38 which the seller has also listed earlier this morning (a horrid gold-tone Franken). I'll write that up presently, in the respective thread.

Seiko7A38 at July 28, 2014 at 6:28 AM

The re-listed eBay auction for that less-than-ideal condition stainless 7A38-6020 ended about half an hour ago.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301250794382

It sold for 251 Euros (approx £199) after 49 bids (of those 36 were placed in small increments by one of the losing bidders).

I thought it looked familiar, but it didn't click straight away. The ding in the bezel near the '23' mark and the clasp extender fitted were the obvious 'giveaways'. This same stainless 7A38-6020, listed by the Singaporean eBay seller, was featured on page 2 of this thread, back in July 2014, when it sold for 251 Euros. Needless to say, the case-back serial number 510725 matches.

The 5-day auction, by a Singapore eBay seller, for a well-worn stainless 7A38-6020, fitted with a clasp extender, ended a few moments ago, selling for $353 SGD after 35 bids - that's equivalent to approx. $249 USD / £199.70 GBP or €227.50 Euros.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133380441993

This rather tired well-worn stainless 7A38-6020 was listed in the early hours of this morning, by a Venezuelan eBay seller, with a fanciful 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price of $250 US and no option to make an offer. It doesn't have a great deal going for it - other than possibly an unscratched crystal. The bezel inlay numbering and red dial printing are bleached to off-white. The bezel inlay is split through the lume pip. It's fitted with a non-original sweep second hand and crown, and the bracelet pins look badly worn. That all said, it appears to be attracting a fair bit of interest. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274336892730

SEIKO 7A38-6020 SPORTS 100 CHRONOGRAPH QUARTZ WORKING, KEEP TIME, PLEASE SEE THE PICTURES. 

SEE THE PICTURES FOR DETAILS 

SHIPPING BY DHL EXPRESS

BUYER TAKES CARE ABOUT ANY CUSTOM FEES IT MAY INCUR. 

PAYPAL CONFIRMED ADDRESS ONLY.

It took slightly more than a week, during which time the listing received over 1000 views, before that well-worn stainless 7A38-6020 sold earlier this evening, for the $250 Buy-it-Now price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//274336892730

With the shipping delays caused by COVID-19 restrictions, it probably took another three weeks for that well-worn stainless 7A38-6020 to travel from Venezuela to Italy. The would-be profiteering Italian eBay re-seller didn't waste any time. He listed it at lunchtime today, with a greedily marked-up Buy-it-Now price of 480 Euros !

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184290507821

SEIKO 7A38 6020 CHRONOGRAPH VINTAGE RARO

TUTTO ORIGINALE CASSA 43MM ESCLUSA CORONA 

Oggetto proveniente da fondo di magazzino di orologeria, orologio venduto come FUNZIONANTE, le condizioni generali sono quelle che potete costatare nella foto, OROLOGIO USATO FUNZIONANTE, MOLTO RARO 

° ° ° SPEDIZIONI IN TUTTO IL MONDO ° ° °

 ° ° ° PAYPAL ACCETTATO ° ° °

AVVERTENZE:

ARTICOLO DI MIA PROPRIETA' E DETENUTO AI FINI COLLEZIONISTICI E/O DI RESTAURO

GARANTISCO QUANTO DESCRITTO E FOTOGRAFATO, NULLA PIU' DI CIO'

NON SONO UN COMMERCIANTE NE UN CONCESSIONARIO DI CIO' CHE VENDO, DI CONSEGUENZA NON HO UN PUNTO VENDITA E NON FACCIO VENDITA AL BANCO

NON HO RAPPORTI CON NESSUN MACHIO CHE PROPONGO IN VENDITA, NE FORNITORI DA QUI MI FORNISCO, DI CONSEGUENZA CIO' CHE VENDO E' FRUTTO DI ACQUISTI TRA PRIVATI E APPASSIONATI DEL SETTORE

OGGETTI CHE VENDO SONO USATI E VENDUTI CON FORMULA VISTO E PIACIUTO

SPEDISCO SOLO AD INDIRIZZI REGISTRATI SU EBAY

NON SI EFFETTUANO SPEDIZIONI COMBINATE MA VERRA' EFFETTUATO UNO SCONTO PARI AL 5% SUL TOTALE DAL SECONDO OGGETTO ACQUISTATO, IL 7% SUL TERZO E IL 10% SE ACQUISTATE PIU' DI 4 PEZZI

Hard to credit, but it took the profiteering Italian eBay re-seller less than 2½ hours to find a mug punter. That tired well-worn stainless 7A38-6020, which had struggled to sell for $250 three weeks ago, sold again, but much quicker this time, earlier this afternoon. Not for the 450 Euros Buy-it-Now price, but ....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184290507821

As revealed by the alternative true selling price link, for a best offer of 400 Euros.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=184290507821