Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

What was probably the bargain buy of the year, at least in terms of Yema N8's, was listed briefly this morning by a US eBay seller - a N81X26, in almost new condition, on its original Yema tan leather strap, with a Buy-it-Now price of only $57. Even with the Global Shipping Program charges added on, for European buyers, that still works out at just a shade over $90.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174058864548

By the time I read my email notification and saw the listing, it had already been sold.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174058864548

WatchCount.com shows the listing was live for just under 3 hours, during which time it received only 16 views, before a canny buyer inevitably hit the Buy-it-Now button.

As confirmed by the eBay Purchase History:

If I'm not mistaken, the canny buyer appears to be our resident bargain hunter, forum member Jonas from Lithuania. Congratulations on the nice pick-up. 

Thanks! That was me.

Seiko7A38 at October 5, 2019 at 9:00 AM

I was half expecting him to re-list it, but then this remarkably similar looking Yema N8 Flygraf, also in average worn condition, fitted with an aftermarket 2-piece nylon strap, was listed in the early hours of this morning, by 'another' Indonesian eBay seller irmairma1987 (oddly enough, also located in Depok, West Java), as a 5-day auction, with an opening bid price of $149.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323938125304

That 5-day auction for a Yema N8 Flygraf, fitted with an aftermarket 2-piece nylon strap, re-listed by 'another' Indonesian eBay seller, ended in the early hours of this morning, selling for $151.50 after 2 bids.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323938125304

This Yema Spationaute III, in average worn condition, fitted with a replacement leather strap and missing its 4 o'clock pusher button, was listed yesterday evening by an Italian eBay seller, as a 10-day auction, with an opening bid price of 1 Euro.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254387099003

OROLOGIO YEMA SPATIONAUTE III CCCP FRANCE CRONOGRAFO QUARTZ SEIKO 7A38

STESSO MOVIMENTO SEIKO 7A38

STESSO MOVIMENTO FERRARI CARTIER CHE COSTAVA QUASI 2 MILIONI DELLE VECCHIE LIRE

OROLOGIO ANNI 80 FRA I PRIMI CRONOGRAFI QUARTZ AL MONDO INSIEME AL SEIKO 7A28 JAMES BOND E SEIKO 7A38

MODELLO CRONOGRAFO DA COLLEZIONE

RICERCATISSIMO DAGLI APPASSIONATI

CASSA 43 MM SENZA CORONA

STAINLESS STEEL

QUADRANTE DI UNA BELLEZZA RARA

Manca un pulsante cassa ore 16

IN CONDIZIONI ESTETICHE COME DA FOTO

VENDUTO PER RICAMBI

BUONA ASTA!

A Partire DA 1 EURO

SPEDIZIONE TRACCIABILE

PAGAMENTO SICURO

This Italian eBay seller is a blatant keyword spammer (I've seen him do this before), so I deliberately haven't copied over the last paragraph of his description. 

Seiko7A38 at August 4, 2019 at 6:01 AM

Seiko7A38 at July 4, 2019 at 4:01 AM

Seiko7A38 at June 8, 2019 at 1:30 PM

Is it really worth bothering to mention (yet again) ?  Early this morning, deluded would-be French eBay seller rosangui78 ended his latest re-listing for his grossly over-priced Yema Spationaute III, now fitted with a NATO strap, as allegedly being no longer available.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223526655000

Needless to say, it was back on eBay again this afternoon, re-listed yet again - the 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price reduced to 'only' 760 Euros. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223545207256

Just for the record ....

The following day after he'd re-listed it for the nth time, deluded would-be French eBay seller rosangui78 reduced his 'pie-in-the-sky Buy-it-Now price from 760 Euros down to 'only' 699 Euros. Presumably there were still no takers. Yesterday evening he ended that latest re-listing, once again as allegedly item no longer available.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223545207256

With apologies. once again, for the double quote carried forward from the previous page. I'd overlooked to post an update on the long-running saga of deluded French eBay seller rosangui78 and his grossly over-priced Yema Spationaute III. He did of course re-list it yet again, as I'd expected - on 23rd July. This time he's reduced his 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price down from 699 Euros to 'only' 610 Euros. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223598266247

Time for another quarterly update on the seemingly never-ending saga of deluded French eBay seller rosangui78 and his risibly over-priced Yema Spationaute III. 

He actually allowed that last previous re-listing to run for a full two months: from 23rd July to 23rd September, before ending it in his usual manner as allegedly being no longer available.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223598266247

He re-listed it again on 25th September, with his 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price quite dramatically reduced (by his standards) down to 'only' 540 Euros. I thought we might actually be progressing towards the realms of common sense, at last.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223680324490

He's obviously losing it all together, because he still hasn't ended that re-listing (it's still scheduled to end on 25th October), because this afternoon he re-listed it once again, with the price increased back up to 590 Euros !!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223705590045

Ah I see the difference now. He's not only changed the title around and tweaked his description once again, he's also added a few more new photos. Looks like he's also chucking in a cheap Commie watch - one of the blingier variants of Vostok Komandirskie and a CNES poster, in an effort to try and sweeten the deal.

ON Y AJOUTE LA MONTRE VOSTOK DES PILOTES DE CHASSE RUSSES. AVEC SON CERTIFICAT.

ET LE POSTER CNES VOLS HABITES DEPUIS 1982. 80 X 60.

The 10-day Italian eBay auction for a Yema Spationaute III, which was missing a pusher button, ended a few moments ago, selling for 90 Euros after 35 bids.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254387099003

90€ was a decent price for a Spationaute III in this condition.

I spotted this Kamatz last week, listed by a US eBay seller as a 7-day auction with an opening bid price of $10. It's not as if I really needed another, but having passed on a few over the years, I still didn't have a 517000 with the blue dial / gold sub-dials in my collection. This example looked to be in fairly decent condition, apart from a few battery and strap changing marks, so I decided to take a punt at it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123949247466

Most of the details were included in the Item Specifics:

The description simply read:

Shipped with USPS First Class Package. Running! Feel free to ask questions.

On the first day, I played 'tit for tat' with another bidder. Then I noticed they had 100% bidding activity with the seller. Suspecting it might be a shill, I stopped there. Instead I just set up a 'throwaway' automated snipe bid (of $67.89). The auction ended in the early hours of this morning, after 14 bids - won by me for $66 !! 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123949247466

Here's an opportunity for someone to buy a reasonably priced Yema Spationaute III (I really don't need another) ! This example, in average / well-worn condition was listed early this morning, by an Australian eBay seller, with a Buy-it-Now price of $220 Au., or the option to make an offer. Unfortunately, according to his description, the seller appears to be restricting it to domestic sales only.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264516691799

Vintage Yema "paris" of France Spationaute111 commemorative watch, in very nice working condition. All pushers operate as they should, keeps very good time,all chronograph hands including the large second sweephand function correctly and reset as they should. The pushers feel smooth with no sticking. The day date function turns over correctly. This watch uses the Seiko 7A38 12 jewel quartz analogue movement, the first ever quartz analogue movement was the seiko 7A28, without day/date function. There were also other variations of this movement including a moonphase version. This watch has been worn and used and does show wear around the case with scratches to the rear cover and front rotating bezel also shows signs of wear with small scratches around the bezel. The crystal looks clear and clean. The movement is very clean with no signs of any battery leakage as i always replace batteries when they need to be. This watch is the "paris" model, being the first version! Overall a nice collectors watch and still large enough at 42mm (without crown or pushers) as a daily wearer! It is very important to note that with this movement the date/time should not be changed manually between the hours of 9.pm-3am as this is when automatic changeover occurs and damage may occur if manually setting the time/date between these hours!! Also the crown is the screw in type. The watch will come with original box. The band is not original but in nice condition.For setting instructions there is plenty of information available on the internet if you want to know more about this watch. Selling within Australia only, postage will be free by Express Post with tracking. Last photo for reference only,copied from 1982 magazine article. Thanks for looking.

I do have to take exception to one of the incorrect statements in his description:

This watch is the "paris" model, being the first version!

It may have 'PARIS' on the dial (under YEMA), but it is missing 'QUARTZ' from above the constant seconds sub-dial. It is also fitted with the later style polished hands (rather than silver painted). Those factors and the 4-xxx prefix serial number point to it being an interim mid-production model, manufactured in 1992.

Speaking of my not really needing another Yema Spationaute III (nor for that matter another Yema N8 Flygraf  ) - I'll admit to already having 17 of the 43mm model # N80P76 in my collection.  So any additional watches that I might consider buying have to be something a 'bit special'.

Earlier today, I posted () in another thread in this section about a 'NOS' Yema Spationaute III which I'd seen discussed in a thread on the Italian watch forum Orologi & Passioni last month. Here's two of the photos from that thread:

The watch was (once) NOS but had evidently spent the last 30 years in an Italian jeweller's shop window - hence the very badly faded (non-original) leather strap.

A little intuitive online detective work reveals it was this shop, in Frosinone, Lazio, which happened to be closed at the time the Google Street View car passed by:

Aureli Oro 1991 di Aureli Giovanni & Salvatore S.n.c., 439 Via Aldo Moro, Frosinone

But what aroused my interest was its case-back serial number: 1 004, identifying it as a very early production model from 1989 (the first year of production for retail sale - as opposed to the space flown prototypes of 1988).

This morning, I traded a few PM's with the owner, via O&P. He asked me to make him an offer, which I did and turned out to be well below his expectations. I hadn't spotted it before, but he's had it listed on the Italian classifieds site Subito.it, since 8th October, with a 'pie-in-the-sky' asking price of 520 Euros. 

http://www.subito.it/yema-spationaute-iii-nos-frosinone-313807343.htm

He did make me a counter offer, but I've since established that not only is the badly faded strap definitely not original, but it's held on by springbars. The original Yema pin and tube strap fixings were presumably discarded. Not only that, but whoever changed the strap, years ago, has marked one of the lugs. So it's hardly 'NOS' in the true sense of the word. Given his reduced, but still fairly ambitious, counter-offer price, my initial interest (purely for the low serial number) is rapidly waning.

Seiko7A38 at July 18, 2019 at 6:05 AM

With one thing and another, I'd neglected to run any searches for Yema N8's on LeBonCoin.fr recently. Not that I've found many on there lately. So I scrolled back through the first 4 pages to the beginning of the month and found these two which were listed by the same French seller on 5th July.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/montres_bijoux/1641938430.htm

Yema flygraf

Description

Magnifique Yema flygraf, très très rare dans cette état...

Bracelet d'origine

Vendu avec boîte d'origine pile remise il y a 15 jours.

Pas d'offre dérisoire, modèle introuvable.

Faire offre.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/1641929861.htm

Yema spationaute 3

Description

Magnifique spationaute 3 de chez Yema....

Dans un état neuf, bracelet d'origine, boîte d'origine.... La montre fonctionne parfaitement, pile remise il y a 15 jours.

Modèle très très rare, une rareté dans cette état sur le marché de la montre d'occasion vintage.

Pas de proposition dérisoire... Montre extrêmement rare de la série spationaute.

Faire proposition.

There's only one photo of each watch. Studying them, the leather strap fitted to the Flygraf is not the original Yema fitment (as claimed) and the dark blue inlays on the Spationaute III's bezel look suspiciously like they may have been re-painted (badly). There's no price stated on either, simply: 'No Derisory Offers' and 'Make Offer'.

Well finally, 4 months later, we now have prices on those two - both Derisory ! 

This blingy Yema N81W63 Breguet Classique clone, fitted with an equally blingy non-original bracelet, in place of the Yema leather strap, came up in one of my saved search notifications from LiveAuctioneers.com this morning.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/77772463_yema-paris-gold-plated-wristwatch 

The auctioneer's estimate is a conservative $100 - $200. The opening bid price is $20, with a buyer's premium of 25% payable on top. The auction goes 'live' and ends on Saturday, November 16th @ 5:00 PM GMT.

Spotted this Jaz N8YZ669 Panda 'Head Only', included in a job lot of mostly ladies Jaz quartz watches, listed in the early hours of this morning by a US eBay seller, as a 7-day auction, with an opening bid price of just $0.01 Cent.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264522977279

5 Jaz Paris Watches Quartz Watch Lot #100 Untested As Is.

Seiko7A38 at October 31, 2019 at 6:12 AM

Here's an opportunity for someone to buy a reasonably priced Yema Spationaute III (I really don't need another) ! This example, in average / well-worn condition was listed early this morning, by an Australian eBay seller, with a Buy-it-Now price of $220 Au., or the option to make an offer. Unfortunately, according to his description, the seller appears to be restricting it to domestic sales only.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264516691799

I hadn't bothered to pass comment before, but the Australian eBay seller (who also happens to be a member of this forum) subsequently made a number of revisions to his original eBay listing.

He replaced most of the original photos, so by the second day, it looked like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264516691799

Not content with that, he ended the listing as allegedly being no longer available:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264516691799

He re-listed it 5 minutes later, looking almost identical to before (so similar, in fact, I didn't bother taking another screen print). He then embarked on another spate of revisions to the re-listing over the last few days.

Perhaps I missed something, but best I can tell, he only added one new photo:

After all that effort, it sold yesterday evening for his $220 Au. Buy-it-Now price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//264519103163

Given that it has 'Seiko 7A28' included in the title, I'm sure anybody who might be interested has already spotted this blingy Yema N71X33. It was listed a couple of days ago, by a keyword spamming Italian eBay seller, as a 10-day auction, with an opening bid price of 1 Euro. Do I hear 4 Euros, anybody ? 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254411988529

OROLOGIO YEMA PARIS

RICERCATISSIMO DAI COLLEZIONISTI

STESSO MOVIMENTO MONTATO DAL SEIKO 7A28 JAMES BOND

QUINDI PRIMO CRONOGRAFO QUARTZ DELLA STORIA MONDIALE

MODELLO VINTAGE

MOVIMENTO QUARTZ DI ALTISSIMA AFFIDABILITÀ

CASSA COLOR ORO MISURA 38 MM SENZA CORONA

FONDELLO SERRATO A VITE

QUADRANTE PARTICOLARISSIMO DI COLORE BIANCO CON INDICI BEN VISIBILI, LOGO YEMA PARIS ORE 12

WATER RESISTANT

L'OROLOGIO FUNZIONA BENISSIMO IN TUTTO

MANTIENE PERFETTAMENTE IL TEMPO vedi foto

CINTURINO COMPATIBILE DI QUALITÀ NUOVO MAI INDOSSATO

BUONA ASTA!

SPEDIZIONE TRACCIABILE

PAGAMENTO SICURO.

The 7-day US eBay auction for a job lot of 5 Jaz ladies watches, which included a Jaz N8YZ669 Panda 'Head Only', ended in the early hours of this morning, selling for the opening bid price of just $0.01 Cent. They may not be to everybody's taste, but that's got to be the bargain basement N8 buy of the year. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264522977279

The 10-day Italian eBay auction for a blingy Yema N71X33 ended a few moments ago, selling for 70 Euros after 63 bids. Incidentally, 23 of those 63 bids were placed by the winning bidder. But Hey Ho, it was an Italian eBay auction after all. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254411988529

The LiveAuctioneers auction for a blingy Yema N81W63 Breguet Classique clone, fitted with a non-original bracelet ended a few minutes ago, selling for $80 (plus 25% Buyer's Premium) after 3 bids - totalling $100. I'd already bid it to $80, this afternoon, prior to the auction going live, expecting to be outbid. I wasn't. 

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/77772463_yema-paris-gold-plated-wristwatch

Still, it does include the Yema presentation box ....

.... and with the ridiculous prices some people are asking for these lately ....

$100, including the box, must be something of a bargain. 

I like to think there isn't much that escapes my notice - particularly when it comes to 'dodgy dealings'. Trouble is, with so many speculatively over-priced items being re-listed, sometimes for months on end, and with eBay now actively deleting all ended listings after 60 days, it's hard to keep track of everything on my watching page.

Occasionally things slip under the radar, un-noticed. What doesn't help matters is that a number of eBay sellers deliberately leave gaps of days or sometimes weeks between an item ending unsold, before re-listing. Then you've also got to contend with those annoying sellers who are constantly screwing around with their photos, in an effort to confuse punters into thinking the re-listing is a newly listed item. Enough of the excuses. Here's an example of one that nearly slipped under my radar.

I'm not going to bother with what could be quite sizeable partial quotes. If you want to see the full story, you'll need to go back to the beginning of June, and page 34 of this thread, where the French eBay seller navycaptain56 started listing his various Yema Spationautes. One of those listings (which has long since disappeared into the ether), was for a job lot of 5 various Spationautes, which included a fairly worn looking Spationaute III 38mm 'reduced', white dial model # N80A696, fitted with a Fossil branded leather strap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223558810497

At the same time, he was separately listing another N80A696, in better cosmetic condition, fitted with a burgundy coloured shark strap. That came supplied with a generic two-tone stainless bracelet and a blue Yema presentation box. However, it was suffering from a recalcitrant sweep second hand. Needless to say, given his risible asking price, it remained unsold (or so I thought).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223545965483

When I wrote this (on the previous page) on 12th September:

The French eBay seller subsequently re-listed it 4 times, though not continuously, sometimes leaving a gap of a couple of weeks between re-listings. He gradually reduced his opening bid price each time: 999 Euros; 895 Euros; 831 Euros. His most recent 10-day auction re-listing started on the 1st September, with an opening bid price of 750 Euros (half his original 'pie-in-the-sky' figure of 1500 Euros). The job lot of 5 various Yema Spationautes, including two N8 Spationaute III's finally sold yesterday evening, for 855 Euros after 6 bids.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223647137008

I hadn't noticed that during the course of those re-listings, the French eBay had, at some point, substituted the Spationaute III 38mm reduced fitted with the Fossil strap, which was originally included in the job lot, for the one with the recalitrant sweep second hand - as shown by these revised photos:

I only realized that he'd switched the two 38mm reduced Spationaute III's between listings, months after the fact - in fact only about an hour before the re-listed auction was due to end. So better late than never, here are the details of that previously revised re-listing:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//223739522928

Je vends une montre chrono pilote vintage Yema spationaute III, modèle blanc et doré, en très bon état.

Elle est livrée montée sur un superbe bracelet neuf en cuir Fossil, et un second en acier bicolore à boucle déployante, dans une boite originale Yema.

Toutes les montres que je mets en vente sont des montres de collection, n'ayant pour la plupart, pas fait l'objet d'une révision récente, pouvant comporte quelques petites traces d'usage.

Testée sur un cycle de fonctionnement habituel, elle fonctionne normalement, toutefois, n'étant pas horloger, son fonctionnement ne saurait être garanti dans le temps.

Elle peut être envoyée en France métro pour 7,8€.

I sell a vintage chrono pilot watch Yema spationaute III, white and gold model, in very good condition.

It is delivered mounted on a superb new leather Fossil strap, and a second two-tone steel folding clasp one, in an original Yema box.

All the watches I put on sold are collector ones, most of which haven't been recently revised, and that may have some small traces of use.

Tested on a normal working cycle, it works normally, however, not being watchmaker, its working can't be guaranteed in time.

It can be sent worldwide for €27,1

It ended a few moments ago, selling for the opening bid price of 225 Euros.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223739522928

Like I say, it's not often I miss stuff, but a Watchcount Completed Items search shows that I'd failed to spot it first time around, when he previously listed this watch singly, in the last week of October.

I've been posting in catch-up mode after being away from my home PC for 3 days, earlier this week. I think I've finally caught up with the backlog.  What better way to finish off the bottom of the page of this thread, albeit a few days late, than this ?

I'm not going to reiterate at length nor bother with another multiple quote of earlier posts, but the allegedly NOS Yema Spationaute III, which had been re-listed ad nauseam, multiple times, since the beginning of November last year, by deluded French eBay seller rosangui78 (initially with a ludicrous 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now price of 1200 Euros - see lower down page 31 of this thread) has finally sold !!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223680324490

Not as eBay would have you believe, for his recently reduced Buy-it-Now price of 'only' 540 Euros, but as revealed by the alternative 'true selling price' link, for an offer of 450 Euros.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=223680324490

PS - academic, now it's sold, but last November, mostly in an effort to drum some common sense into him, rather than actually buy it, I had traded a few messages with deluded would-be French eBay seller rosangui78. At one point, he actually made me a counter-offer of 'only' 400 Euros, before reneging and retracting it.