Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

The USA is in on the bid! Gosh, I hope I'm not banned! 

bmwboris at March 6, 2013 at 8:24 PM

I think the Aussies have been banned from bidding on this item

Oopppsss- I wonder how that happened? 

Nope, looks like you Aussies are okay  (for the time being) Con.  But the seller is obviously now p!ssed at the French !! 

Listing # 29: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261181127206

This is all laughable and such, but I saw in this thread that Paul reported prices from $355 up to $790... and I wonder how much would this particular watch really be worth... since I do not think it is made of platinum, or solid white gold.... and have a diamond crystal...

This is plain nonsense, since I found somewhere else for as low as $157.50.... this is just crazy....

Sorry if this was linked before, but couldn't resist:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150985598635

$157.50... someone should point this auction to her...

The Ebay crazies continue. Great thread. I continue to learn everyday. 

@ George.

That auction you linked for the stainless 7A38-7000, which sold in January 2013 for $157.50 has indeed been mentioned before ....

In the respective thread in the 7A38-xxxx Model Specific section (quite a long way down the page):

http://www.seiko7a38.com/apps/forums/topics/show/7203858-7a38-7000-saa007j-stainless

In the meantime, here's a couple more recent eBay auctions for stainless 7A38-7000's at rather more realistic prices:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150985598635

What I try do do, once I've got any such threads up and running, is keep them updated with current recently ended auctions. 

Indeed, I did start to document the 7A38-7000 subject of this thread in that main thread, but then it started getting crazy ....

So rather than ruin the 'Model Specific' thread, I started this one. Just as well, as it turns out. 

True worth of Manic Martina's 7A38-7000 ?

I'd say, given the condition shown in her current set of photos, in a normal 7 or 10 day no reserve auction listing, starting at 99 cents

it would probably make $200 - possibly $250 if she got lucky.

However, knowing this seller, IF they were ever likely to use an auction, instead of a Buy-it-Now listing, I suspect it would more likely be a private listing - bidders identities protected style auction and shill bidding would be rife, in her efforts to inflate the selling price.

Wow, what a surprise the same serial number! $157.50 was a fair price. 

Damn, how did I manage to miss that !! You're perfectly correct, Paul - it's the very same 7A38-7000 serial number 3O2564 !!!

Indeed, now that you've kindly pointed out my oversight, Paul  .... it's not too hard to spot. 

Which, now that we know they only paid $157.50 for it - thanks to George and Paul ....

Makes listing # 30 at an all time high price to date of $800 even more ridiculous. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251241014963

May I suggest that a few offers of $157.50 might be in order .... from those potential buyers who haven't already been banned. 

Well, listing # 30 ended about 15 minutes ago, in the usual manner (this time before anybody had made an offer) ....

So I'm refreshing my search, looking for listing # 31 for the 7A38-7000, which I'd expect to be replacing it, but what did I find instead ??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251241214156

Yup - a common-or-garden 7A38-7289 gold-tone offered by the same seller 'Manic Mad Martina' with a B-I-N price of $700 !!! 

By the time I'd finished writing that post, listing # 31 for the 7A38-7000 had subsequently appeared .....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261181398575 .... still priced at the same ludicrous $800. 

But with the introduction of their 'pie-in-the-sky-high' priced beater 7A38-7289, it looks like this thread just got a new lease of life ! 

PS - Would anybody like to try pointing out to them that they've got the date wrong again ? It's obviously November 1987, not 1982 

Now I may not have written a topic about the gold-tone 7A38-7289 in the 7A38-xxxx Model Specific section yet ....

But that doesn't mean I don't track them - I do indeed, just like all and any other Seiko 7A38's and derivatives. 

In fact, I did start a topic about them in the 7Axx General Discussion area. It's now dropped onto the second page of the section:

www.seiko7a38.com/apps/forums/topics/show/7921957-the-commonest-7a38-xxxx-variant-of-all-unless-you-know-different

I just haven't bothered updating it, since last July (the only month I did write up) - quite frankly it would keep me in a full time job !! 

February 2013 was a typical 'fairly busy' month for gold-tone 7A38-7289's on eBay in the States: there were 4 of them (that I saw).

Funnily enough, I captioned the photos I saved from the 4th auction listing: '7A38-7289-Gold-eBay-Feb2013-AndYetAnother' .....

Nice clear serial number on this one (unlike the 7A38-7000) - 7N1354, which just happens to match that of 'Manic Mad Martina's:

Here's where they bought it, a little over a week ago .... for a mere $61 !! 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181091225352

No feedback has been left either way yet, but it's not difficult to recognize the scrambled version of their 'martinachertok' user ID:

Feedback was subsequently left, later that day, by the original seller 'penmainer':

So this woman (provided she is a woman...) is buying cheap / regular priced watches, takes nice (!) pictures of them and subsequently puts them on "buy-it-now" auctions for 5x -10x the price... now wouldn't you call that profit!

Following this logic, I could put my 7T32-6A50 I built out of 2 watches up for 1600€... I mean, it's 2 watches, so double the price!!! 

BTW: I personally like the new description of the 7A38-7000:

"Stupid offers will just put you on my "no bid" list forever"....

Man I am scared...

George ref: So this woman (provided she is a woman...)

I suspect this is a husband and wife team (with her sat at the PC much of the day, doing the multiple eBay re-listings).

I've done a little preliminary digging - you can find this information quite easily yourself from the online US White Pages:

Hilken are possibly her children from a previous marriage. The names Pavel and Haide are probably of Slovak / East European origin.

Note their use of a PO Box address. Should this sound vaguely familiar, think of another notorious UK-based husband and wife team of profiteering eBay re-sellers who use misleading descriptions to flog their wares: www.seiko7a38.com/apps/forums/topics/show/7813518

Coming to think of it, haven't a high proportion of their past eBay auction listing titles for 7Axx's also included the word 'STUNNING' ?

Mad Martina's initial listing for their dog-eared gold-tone 7A38-7289 has already had its first revision - a complete new set of photos:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251241214156

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemRevisionDetails&_trksid=p2047675.l2569&rt=nc&item=251241214156

Oddly enough, in both photos in the new set, which show the back of the watch, the serial number is obscured. Too late I'm afraid. 

As with the first change of photos on their initial listing for the 7A38-7000, the watch generally looks better than in the previous set ....

But look closely, particularly at the bezel and pusher cups and you'll see how scabby the gold plating actually is. A poor example. 

It may have other issues besides. 

I was just checking a few incoming google searches on the forum's control panel statistics package and came across this one:

Now, Fogelsville is near Allentown, PA and a fair distance from York, PA .... but could the timing of this visit be just a coincidence ? 

Mind you, some ISP's like AOL, for example, use proxy IP addresses, which can 'place' a user 50-100 miles from their true location. 

Those two listings ended about 8:00pm UK time. The 7A38-7000 is back for the 32nd time of listing with another price hike to $850:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261181768995

In keeping with the levels of incompetence (besides sheer greed) of this seller, we've come to expect, they've also included two shots of the movement of the gold-tone 7A38-7289 amongst the photos in the 7A38-7000 listing. (These were added in the previous listing.)

But their second listing for the gold-tone 7A38-7289 absolutely beggars belief, with a corresponding $50 increase to $750 !! 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261181769683

What can you say ?   I'll just let the smileys  do the talking ....

$750 ??                                 

martinachertok ought to read the thread on batteries, I would not trust using "Tianqiu" brand.  

http://www.seiko7a38.com/apps/forums/topics/show/8289775-a-salutory-warning-about-checking-which-watch-batteries-you-re-using-

I would like to point out the the postage to England, not that she's gonna send it here, is probably equivalent to the true value of the gold tone one. [Maybe even a little high?!]

@ Chris.

Yes agreed. I'd noticed that myself, when I saved the photos of the 7A38-7289 movement (from both listings) yesterday evening. 

Just couldn't be bothered to point it out at the time. I didn't want to be seen to be too nit-picky - given this 'superb example' (not). 

@ James.

Certainly correct - in part.  Althought 'Mad Martina' was still stating in the seller's comment of the earlier revisions of her first listing for the gold-tone 7A38-7289: 'NO SALE OR SHIPPING TO GREAT BRITAIN' .... by yesterday evening I noticed that the actual shipping exclusions had disappeared. Obviously she'd added me to her barred list some time ago; thus was I unable to make a wind-up offer.

So I collared a work colleague and got him to make an offer of $61 (the price they'd paid) on it - regardless of the $79 shipping. 

She replied straight away with a counter offer of $700, and then immediately retracted that. Which is why the offer looks like this:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&_trksid=p2047675.l2564&rt=nc&item=251241214156

So it is currently possible for UK 'potential buyers' to make reasonable offers - of course at the risk of being barred for your troubles.

Needless to say, my friend got added to her 'No Bid' list:

It also goes without saying, he was quite pleased with that outcome.