The 'Fiddler' returns under yet another alias !

The place to comment on auctions or question authenticity.
Post Reply
User avatar
Seiko7A38
Site Admin
Posts: 2913
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:05 pm
Location: S.W. England

The 'Fiddler' returns under yet another alias !

Post by Seiko7A38 »

I don't think I've written about the German eBay seller fiedler-uhrenhandel (Lukas Fiedler) on this forum before, but I certainly remember starting a thread on the old archived forum, 13 years ago, about his devious underhanded activities: eBay Germany Re-Seller: 'The Fiddler' .... Caveat Emptor

He's a high volume re-seller who was buying up cheaper 7A38's off eBay Germany, often as not over-polishing them and marking up their prices significantly. Later he changed his tactics to blatantly using shill bidding to inflate their prices. Presumably he must have been reported to eBay, because that ID was banned a few years ago. Needless to say, he soon re-appeared under a new ID as Zeigerwelt. Although his stated location changed from Garbsen to Seeize, the two towns are just a couple of kilometers apart. Zeigerwelt's style of listings, with photos embedded in the description, was so similar to that of fiedler-uhrenhandel as to be almost unmistakable. Then of course there were the contact details:

eBay-Zeigerwelt-ContactInformation.png
eBay-Zeigerwelt-ContactInformation.png (10.89 KiB) Viewed 34919 times

Unless the search function isn't working properly, I don't appear to have mentioned Zeigerweit's activities on this forum before either. He's still dealing in lower end 7A38's - often over-polished, stripped of their plating, sometimes fitted with non-original replacement bracelets, or otherwise botched. This is the most recent listing I can remember seeing - a two-tone 7A38-7280, typically stripped of it's gold plating, which sold on 7th July for €124.42 Euros after 18 bids.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/136092217113

7A38-7280-Stainless+Gold-GreyFace-eBay(Germany)-July2025-(Re-seller)-Ended-Sold-124.42Euros.jpg
7A38-7280-Stainless+Gold-GreyFace-eBay(Germany)-July2025-(Re-seller)-Ended-Sold-124.42Euros.jpg (176.28 KiB) Viewed 34936 times

The price achieved didn't seem too outlandish. Although the winning bidder had placed 7 of the 18 bids, there was no real evidence of shill bidding, so I thought no more of it. That is until yesterday when it re-appeared on eBay Germany.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286724300408

7A38-7280-Stainless+Gold-GreyFace-eBay(Germany)-July2025-(Re-seller)-Listing.jpg
7A38-7280-Stainless+Gold-GreyFace-eBay(Germany)-July2025-(Re-seller)-Listing.jpg (170.14 KiB) Viewed 34929 times

Once again, it's a 5-day auction with a €1 Euro opening bid price, using the same set of photos. The obvious difference is a newly created zero-feedback seller ID - Zeithafen (as opposed to Zeigerweit). Presumably the new account is held in his wife's name. Note the reversion to a location of Garbsen (same as Fiedler-Uhrenhandel).

eBay-Zeithafen-details.png
eBay-Zeithafen-details.png (47.5 KiB) Viewed 34924 times

Post Reply