Authentic 7a38-7120 sports 150?

[Ag5]

Hi all, I’m new here and to the 7a38 watch… I see this posting on eBay but don’t see anything backing if this color way came out for a non titanium sports 150.

Thoughts?




https://www.ebay.com/itm/325291575825? ... %7Ciid%3A1

[Seiko7A38]

Yes that's the normal dial colour / finish for a stainless 7A38-7120 SAA091J. That looks a decent example, but is rather expensive for a less popular model. It was first listed beginning of August last year and has remained unsold since then.
I can't remember for certain what the original Buy-it-Now price was, but I think it was something ridiculous like $598.
If you check the revision history, you'll see the Serbian seller has recently reduced it twice (to the current $479).

This model mostly turns up on eBay Germany. Here's another lesser example that was listed in December last year: https://www.ebay.de/itm/144847853013

[Seiko7A38]

The dial colour of the 7A38-7120 SAA091J is documented on Seiko's database as BLACK (7210XB14) , but as you can see from those two examples, the true colour is more of a dirty dark brown. Here's an old wrist shot of my own example:

rsz_p1750021-crop.jpg (243.88 KiB) Viewed 7983 times

I bought it off eBay Germany more than 10 years ago, in August 2012, winning an auction for €111 Euros. Here's another much older wrist shot in 'as received' condition. I replaced the scratched crystal and gave the bezel rim a light polish.

rsz_7a38-7120-stainless-blackface-mine-wristshot-p1100895.jpg (239.38 KiB) Viewed 7982 times

[Ag5]

Thank you for the response, details, and opinion on that price.

I found someone on Instagram who has the titanium 7a38-7130 version that wants (£799) 1,000 dollars!

That seems way up there for it, or is it that valuable?

[Seiko7A38]

Back in the mid 1980's, the use of Titanium was still a novelty, so Seiko's marketing people jumped on the opportunity and charged accordingly. The most expensive Seiko 7Axx ever made was the all-titanium JDM 7A38-7030 SJS018, which had a list price of ¥100,000 Yen in 1985. This filtered down to other titanium models. The titanium 7A38-7130 SAA046J appeared in the 1986 German catalogue, with a retail price of 1295 DM:

7A38-7130-Titanium-SAA046J-SeikoGermanCatalogue1986.jpg (132.91 KiB) Viewed 7964 times

Using this inflation calculator, 1295 DM in 1986 is equivalent to almost the same figure in Euros today !!

GermanInflation-1295DM-1986.png (6.55 KiB) Viewed 7963 times

That said, because of their smaller size and dated styling, the 7A38-7120 / -7130 family of watches aren't particularly popular nowadays and can often be picked up relatively cheaply off eBay Germany. The problem you have to contend with is that a number of profiteering re-sellers are are active on eBay Germany, who will snap them up and sell them for grossly inflated prices. For example m.a.k.2979, who I've written about elsewhere in this forum section, in that precise context. I suggest you may want to read this thread.

By not so funny coincidence, he managed to sell another ludicrously over-priced titanium 7A38-7130 only two days ago:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285111023230

7A38-7130-Titanium+Gold-BlackFace-eBay(Germany)-Dec2022-(Re-listed)-Ended-Sold-595Euros.png (66.85 KiB) Viewed 7961 times

Like I said, eBay Germany is the logical place to search for them, but sometimes they can be picked up a LOT cheaper, closer to (your) home. That one was in pretty decent condition too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255796044583

7A38-7130-Titanium+Gold-BlackFace-eBay-Oct2022-Ended-Sold-$155.png (69.32 KiB) Viewed 7961 times

That seems way up there for it, or is it that valuable?

I trust that answers your question.

[Seiko7A38]

I found someone on Instagram who has the titanium 7a38-7130 version that wants (£799) 1,000 dollars!

I couldn't say I'd seen that one (yet), but a quick search on Instagram (not using my usual #7A38 hashtags) found it here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnjsrgFLU_W/?hl=en



It looks a very nice little worn almost mint example. But £799 is typical over-ambitious dealer pricing. Ask yourself: it's been up there one day, received over 800 likes, but nobody's bought it yet - it's way too expensive. Had it been a more desirable model it would have been gone in a flash.

[Ag5]

Thank you again for the insight! And as always, internet hype can drive prices of vintage items so high these days. I’ll take a look at eBay Germany in the future.

[Seiko7A38]

Hype indeed. His previous Instagram post has now garnered over 1200 likes in 2 days. Evidently that's not enough. He posted it again this morning: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnrIl6uLn1M/?hl=en (using a slightly different photo).



Edit: That second post has since been deleted.

[Seiko7A38]

I’ll take a look at eBay Germany in the future.

Like I said, it's the best place to search for 7A38-7120's and 7A38-7130's. You'll always find a couple on there (like these two 7A38-7130's, listed without model number in the title or description) but unfortunately it's not always possible to persuade German sellers to ship 'Ausland'.

7A38-7130-Titanium+Gold-BlackFace-eBay(Germany)-Jan2023-SummaryX2.png (83.04 KiB) Viewed 7923 times

[Ag5]

Yeah wow those prices are great. Asked both sellers and they said no to usa ship though.