One such was listed by a London-based UK eBay seller, with an Italian sounding username, rotori-e-circuiti on Sunday evening with a ludicrous Buy-it-Now price of £499. I didn't take a screen print of it at the time. I just added it to my eBay watching page. When I looked at the listing again on Monday morning, the seller had ended the listing late on Sunday evening, because of an error in the listing - presumably in the pricing.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166433654018
- 7A38-6090-Stainless+Gold-WhiteFace-eBay-Nov2023-(Re-Seller)-Ended-Error.jpg (180.47 KiB) Viewed 1491 times
Notice that the seller has started the title of the listing 'NEAR NOS RARE'. A cursory examination of the seller's photos revealed that it was far from NOS - there was a considerable area of gold plating on the bezel worn away and you could see the ingrained filth between the bracelet links. Two tone 7A38-6090's aren't particulary rare - they mostly turn up on the continent (Germany and Italy) and the USA, rather than UK. Which got me thinking. I'd seen one fairly recently.
It was listed in the last week of October by UK eBay seller vintagehoneypots as a 7-day auction with an opening bid price of £0.99. That ended a week ago Sunday, with it selling for £122.01, commensurate with the worn condition.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175995572631
- 7A38-6090-Stainless+Gold-WhiteFace-eBay-Oct2023-Ended-Sold-122.png (156.09 KiB) Viewed 1487 times
The eBay Bidding History shows an encrypted winning bidder with a feedback of 116 - the same as rotori-e-circuiti.
- 7A38-6090-Stainless+Gold-WhiteFace-eBay-Oct2023-BiddingHistory.png (32.47 KiB) Viewed 1483 times
Although this is the first 7A38 I remember seeing, their feedback reveals that vintagehoneypots is their primary source:
- eBay-Feedback-rotori-e-circuiti.png (79.29 KiB) Viewed 1455 times
I was wondering whether they'd have the gall to re-list it, which is the reason I'd refrained from posting anything before. Sure enough they did, yesterday evening. The 9 photos, some conveniently soft focused, are all new for this re-listing. They've dropped the words 'NEAR NOS RARE' from the title, but strangely inserted 'Panda Dial' - which it obviously isn't. This time, their Buy-it-Now price is reduced to 'only' £339 - still a considerable potential profit on the £122 they paid.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Chrono ... 6435723928
- 7A38-6090-Stainless+Gold-WhiteFace-eBay-Nov2023-(Re-Seller)-Re-Listing.jpg (179.54 KiB) Viewed 1479 times
They appear to have copied their re-listing's title verbatim, from this listing by a Moroccan eBay seller, which (not surprisingly, given the price) has gone unsold since December 2021 ! 