NOS 7A38-6000 SAA039J as an investment ? @ €4K ??

[Seiko7A38]

I may as well tack this onto this existing thread, rather than start another about the 7A38-6000 SAA039J. Last weekend an example in decent used cosmetic condition, was listed on Yahoo Japan as a 4-day auction, with a confident opening bid price of ¥70,000 Yen. I didn't think much about it at the time and added it to my Buyee watching page. At lunchtime today, I received an 'Ending Soon' notification email from Buyee, advising the auction had 15 minutes left to run (per the original scheduled finishing time). At that point, the bidding had reached ¥76,999 Yen.

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Of course as these things often do, when the YJ automatic extension facility is used, it went into 'overtime'. I watched the final few minutes of the auction, in disbelief, to see it bid to more than double that price - a whopping ¥163,001 Yen, equivalent to $1170 USD or over £1000 Sterling (according to Buyee exchange rates).

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/c1071865031

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Seems the World has gone mad for the 7A38 Panda.

[Seiko7A38]

I hadn't remembered to update this thread with another Yahoo Japan listing for a 7A38-6000, which first appeared in December last year. I found the Buyee 'Ending Soon' notification in my email inbox. When it was first listed as a 5-day auction, on 11th December, the opening bid price was a rather optimistic ¥150,000 Yen.

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It didn't sell first time around and was re-listed a few times, with the opening bid price decreasing by ¥10K each time.
The seller's primary image was of a 'head only', but as shown in another image below, it did come fitted with a leather strap with the original (but very short) p/n G1157S bracelet supplied loose. It eventually sold just over a week ago for ¥120,000 Yen (equivalent to approx $925 USD / £750 GBP) - still a very respectable figure.

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/x1075131869

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[Seiko7A38]

Although straying slightly from the original topic title, what prompted me to update this thread was the appearance of another used 7A38-6000 rather closer to home. A French Seiko collector, who posts on Instagram as martialrynd has recently been selling off his collection of 7A38's on eBay. Yesterday he listed his 7A38-6000 (which appears a couple of times in his Instagram feed) as a 7-day auction with an opening bid price of €399 Euros. The listing already has garnered over 3 dozen watchers. Presuming the auction runs the full duration, it'll be interesting to see what this one makes.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-SEIKO-7 ... 5514959155

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[Seiko7A38]

Given the popularity of this model, I had my doubts whether the auction would actually last the 7-day duration, or if the seller might succumb to a back-door offer. I have it on good authority that he was looking for €900 Euros.
I hadn't spotted it before now, but I see the seller ended the listing this morning, as item no longer available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325514959155

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[Seiko7A38]

The greed and stupidity surrounding the 7A38-6000 SAA039J continues abated. Late yesterday evening, another deluded Italian eBay seller listed this no better than average worn example with a ludicrous Buy-it-Now price of €2190 Euros.
As for the 'Paul Newman Dial' keyword spamming, if nothing else, it shows he has a vivid sense of imagination.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Quartz ... 5336425916

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That deluded Italian eBay seller still hasn't managed to find a mug punter buyer for his grossly over-priced 7A38-6000. I hadn't previously bothered with an update, but in October last year, he'd re-listed it with the Buy-it-Now priced reduced to €1890 Euros, still without success, because this morning he ended the re-listing as allegedly no longer available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175439253802

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Needless to say, it was back on eBay again, re-listed less than a minute later with the Buy-it-Now price further reduced by another €300 to €1590 Euros. If common sense prevails, it still needs to come down considerably more.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Quartz ... 5624393048

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Belated Edit: That re-listing was replaced by another (at the same risible asking price of €1590 Euros) on 7th May 2023:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Quartz ... 5716814663

[Seiko7A38]

The latest example of the greed and stupidity surrounding the 7A38-6000 SAA039J appeared on eBay late last night. It was listed by profiteering German re-seller m.a.k.2979 (who's already appeared in at least one thread in the eBay section). His Buy-it-Now asking price is a ludicrous €3300 Euros !! As he often does, he's added a rather secondhand looking Seiko presentation box and 7A38 user manual to the package. Although the watch head is presentable, what makes his price so laughable is the watch is fitted with a non-original Seiko bracelet - or as he so delicately puts it:

The bracelet is not model-exact but also fits this watch from Seiko.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5293368344

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As you can see from his photos, other than being 18mm wide, the bracelet end pieces aren't a particularly good fit and it's completely the wrong design. In another of his photos the ears of the end pieces appear to be stamped Z1206, but I'm none the wiser as to what may have donated the bracelet.

[Seiko7A38]

I must admit I hadn't been watching his laughably over-priced 7A38-6000 that closely, but it appears that profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 has been busy lately. He's made numerous revisions to the listing over the last couple of weeks - most recently and significantly earlier this lunchtime:

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Hardly anything remains unadulterated. He even managed to surreptitiously sneak 'NOS' into the title. Pathetic lie.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5293368344

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He even edited that line in his description which I quoted in my previous post:

The bracelet is not model-exact but very similar to the original, also suitable for this Seiko watch.

The significant changes are to the Buy-it-Now price, reduced from €3300 to €2900 Euros but still with a long way to go. He's also replaced the previous non-original bracelet with another, which looks like it's been re-brushed. At least it appears to be a slightly better fit. Hence the need to replace almost all his photos.

[Seiko7A38]

Meanwhile, the price-hiking madness continues unabated elsewhere. Late yesterday evening, one of the regular would-be profiteering Japanese cross-platform 'proxy' re-sellers japan_pre-owned_vintage listed this no better than average worn condition 7A38-6000, with a typically ludicrous Buy-it-Now price of $5031.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Speed- ... 5239996412

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Overnight, they went on to list it another 5 times, in parallel, across various other eBay domains. I'm a little frustrated at the moment. As I tried to explain last year, in this thread in the eBay section, these Japanese cross-platform 'proxy' re-sellers usually don't own the items they are offering for sale. They wait until they've snared a mug punter buyer and then purchase it from the original bona fide seller and pocket the difference for a quick profit. Highly unethical, but clearly not illegal in Japan. Normally such instances are easy to prove, by finding the original seller's listing on Amazon.jp, Mercari.jp, Rakuten or Yahoo Japan auctions. Unfortunately I've so far failed to locate this one.

It had been quietly bugging me that I hadn't been able to find the original source of that risibly over-priced 7A38-6000.
The Japanese 'proxy' re-seller's eBay listing is still live nearly a year later, although it's been revised half a dozen times.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Speed- ... 5239996412

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The noticeable difference is that the Buy-it-Now price has been reduced by 20% from the original ludicrous $5031 to a marginally less ridiculous $4025. I became more determined to find the source of the watch. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I googled the Japanese text down the right-hand side of the primary image. That led me to ....

https://antiwatchman.com/products/detai ... t_id=10045

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Note Antiwatchman's current price is ¥298,000 Yen (equivalent to $2137 USD) reduced from ¥350,000 Yen ($2510 USD).

[Seiko7A38]

The latest example of the greed and stupidity surrounding the 7A38-6000 SAA039J appeared on eBay late last night. It was listed by profiteering German re-seller m.a.k.2979 (who's already appeared in at least one thread in the eBay section). His Buy-it-Now asking price is a ludicrous €3300 Euros !! As he often does, he's added a rather secondhand looking Seiko presentation box and 7A38 user manual to the package. Although the watch head is presentable, what makes his price so laughable is the watch is fitted with a non-original Seiko bracelet - or as he so delicately puts it:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5293368344

I had to chuckle to myself over my morning coffee. I see that profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 re-listed his laughably over-priced 7A38-6000 yesterday evening. He's reverted to using his original primary image. This time the Buy-it-Now price is further reduced to €2500 Euros. Only another 2000 to go then.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5346364768

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[Seiko7A38]

Profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 continues to provide amusement. Yesterday evening, he re-listed all five of his currently listed 7A38's. This time he's trying a different tack with the 7A38-6000, re-listing it as a 7-day auction with an opening bid price of 'only' €1990 Euros. Somewhat less than his original 'pie-in-the sky' €3300 Buy-it-Now price, back in May, but still a long way to go. Note that he's dropped the 'NOS' from the title this time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5426847204

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[Seiko7A38]

Greedy profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 re-listed his risibly over-priced 7A38-6000 once again yesterday afternoon. This time he's dropped the price to 'only' €1650 Euros - a far cry from the ludicrous €3300 he was asking back in May, but still a long way to go, if common sense prevails.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5471055343

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[Seiko7A38]

Would-be profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 re-listed his 7A38-6000, fitted with a non-original replacement bracelet, again yesterday evening. This time as a 7-day auction, with the opening bid price reduced to €1250 Euros.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7A38-6 ... 5498158524

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[Seiko7A38]

Devious profiteering German eBay re-seller m.a.k.2979 had ended and re-listed that 7A38-6000 fitted with an incorrect replacement bracelet, another 3 more times this month, but still not dropping his asking price below the previous €1250 Euros. Belatedly checking my eBay watching page, it looks like he may finally, after 5 months, have found a mug punter with more money than sense. It sold late last Friday morning.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285517835314

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[Seiko7A38]

Well, it didn't take long for that bad penny to reappear. The ex-m.a.k.2979 7A38-6000, fitted with an incorrect replacement bracelet, was listed on Chrono24 yesterday, by a would-be profiteering Spanish re-seller, with a greedily marked-up asking price of €3500 Euros - €200 more than m.a.k.2979 was originally asking back in May !!

https://www.chrono24.com/seiko/7a38-600 ... 353496.htm

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It's definitely the same watch ....

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Although m.a.k.2979 was careful not to give a clear shot of the case-back in his more recent re-listings, he did post one with the bracelet draped across it, showing 97.E stamped on one of the bracelet end piece tags. Sight of the other tag identifies the bracelet as a p/n B1497S, normally found on a Seiko 5, 7S26-0480 SNXS79K1. The end pieces have been filed down (from 19mm) to match the 18mm lug width and it's been fitted with a re-brushed 7-hole adjustable SQ clasp, in lieu of the 5-hole item, to complete the illusion.

[Seiko7A38]

We have a new record for greed and stupidity by a keyword spamming Italian eBay seller. This morning, they listed a NOS 7A38-6000, which genuinely (for a change) appears to be a full set, complete with box, tags and manuals, with an eye-watering Buy-it-Now price of €5000 Euros. No messing about with 4999.99 and suchlike - a round €5000 Euros.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-6 ... 6139986009

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The seller is not based in mainland Italy, but in Cagliari, the former capital of Sardinia. The fresh-looking guarantee was stamped by a jewellers in Senorbi (CA), about 20 Kms away. Presumably he bought it from there. The case-back still has a hand-written paper sticker attached, showing a price of €293.00 Euros. I wonder if that's what he actually paid.