At the beginning of April, Italian eBay seller vintagebluearmy listed this far from 'top condition' stainless 7A38-7000 as a 10-day auction with an opening bid price of 1 Euro. I didn't bother taking a screenshot of the listing at the time, but I did right-click and save the photos, of which I've uploaded 4 of the 9 below. Note the non-original sweep hand fitted (there are two different ones shown - one is unpainted), the partially obliterated Tachymeter scale printing, the discoloured lume on most of the hour batons and the small dings on the bottom R.H. corner of the watch case.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 4074636343
Seiko 7a38 -7000 vintage chronograph panda dial royal oak vintage top conditions
- rsz_7a38-7000-stainless-black-ebay-april2021-1.jpg (228.44 KiB) Viewed 1984 times
- rsz_7a38-7000-stainless-black-ebay-april2021-5.jpg (213.06 KiB) Viewed 1984 times
- rsz_7a38-7000-stainless-black-ebay-april2021-8.jpg (231.63 KiB) Viewed 1984 times
- rsz_7a38-7000-stainless-black-ebay-april2021-9.jpg (185.61 KiB) Viewed 1984 times
As readers will no doubt be aware, I have a good eye (and memory) for a photo, particularly when a watch has certain distinguishing features like that. It didn't take me long to remember where I'd seen it before.
This Instagram search on hashtag #seiko7A387000 returns a couple of wrist shot photos which are very similar to the seller's primary image.
It had been posted (a few times) by Vietnamese watch dealer thongpham_vintage_watch, as far back as August 2020.
As most of the Italian eBay seller's photos showed a South-East Asian skin tone, very similar to Thong Pham's and it was clearly the same (less than top condition) 7A38-7000, naturally I smelled a rat. So I sent him a message through eBay. Admittedly, my question was worded a bit cheekily, but I didn't quite expect the profane response that I received.
- 7A38-7000-Stainless+Black-eBay-April2021-vintagebluearmy-message.png (118.94 KiB) Viewed 1960 times
I probably should have reported him to eBay, but it's unlikely they'd have done anything. Instead I just added it to my eBay watching page, expecting the almost inevitable predictable outcome. The 10-day auction ended this afternoon, with bidding reaching a dizzy 403 Euros after 47 bids - a frankly ridiculous figure for a watch in this poor a condition.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 4074636343
- 7A38-7000-Stainless+Black-eBay-April2021-Ended-Sold(Not)-403Euros.png (53.47 KiB) Viewed 2012 times
Needless to say, as revealed by the eBay Bidding History the auction appears to have been properly shilled in the best time-honoured Italian tradition.
The alleged winning bidder has 67% activity with this seller and has bid on 13 of his other auctions within the last 30 days. The losing bidder, who placed 18 of the 47 bids has 100% activity with the seller.
Please excuse the lack of ? punctuation mark. 
