NOS 7A38-7020 SAA009J listed on eBay Italy

[Seiko7A38]

This NOS stainless 7A38-7020, listed yesterday evening by an Italian eBay seller, is certainly worthy of mention, if only in regard to the asking price of 1500 Euros ! Given his asking price, one would have thought he might have put a bit more effort into the composition of his photos. Still, with the current rampant 'Royal Oak' fervour, it'll be interesting to see if anyone's prepared to stump up that kind of money, for the privilege of becoming the new owner.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 3394277416

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Part of the Italian seller's description translates as: always kept in a box without battery ... I'm not sure if that's entirely a good thing. Depending how long it's been kept in that condition, without any movement to agitate, the old oil in the jewels may have become viscosified and it may need a complete movement strip and re-lube, to get it running again.

[Seiko7A38]

Not the first genuinely NOS stainless 7A38-7020 (as opposed to so many other lesser examples) I've seen over the years. One that I specifically remember was posted on SCWF, by Spanish member Covita (Paco), to possibly less acclaim than it might have received today, way back in September 2013 (long before the 'Royal Oak' hype started). It wasn't being offered for sale - just shown. The linked photos in that thread were hosted by TinyPic, owned by PhotoBucket, who discontinued their free hosting services in September 2019. Fortunately I'd already saved them.

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Something noteworthy in that later example (from July 1984) are the much larger 'dummy rivets' cast into the bezel.

[Seiko7A38]

Checking my eBay watching page, I note that later last week, the Italian eBay seller had revised his listing, arbitrarily increasing the already ambitious Buy-it-Now price from 1500 to 2000 Euros. Probably goes without saying: that now makes it the most expensive Seiko 7A38 currently listed on eBay, by some margin.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 3394277416

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[Seiko7A38]

Yesterday evening, the Italian eBay seller, who seems rather confused as to it's true value, re-listed his NOS stainless 7A38-7020 SAA009J, with a reduced Buy-it-Now price of 1300 Euros.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 3423476838

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At the time of writing, he hasn't ended his previous listing, which still has two days of the 30-day listing period to run.

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I guess you could call that a pricing anomaly.

[Seiko7A38]

I've no idea what's going on in the Italian eBay seller's evidently confused mind, but late yesterday evening he listed his NOS stainless 7A38-7020 for a third time, with another slightly different Buy-it-Now price of 1350 Euros.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 3430527747

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The other difference is that this newest listing gave the option of payment by PayPal (or credit card), whereas the two previous listings showed only Bank Transfer accepted. It appears to have sold for the Buy-it-Now price of 1350 Euros.
WatchCount.com's Look-up tool shows this listing was live for little over 5 minutes, during which it received 3 views.

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What's unusual (and rather suspicious) is that 12 hours later the seller still hasn't ended the two previous listings.

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[Seiko7A38]

Checking my eBay watching page, I notice that yesterday evening the Italian seller duly ended his original (revised) listing as no longer available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7 ... 3394277416

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It took another 24 hours before he finally got round to ending the other re-listing in a similar manner.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-7a38-7020-Spor ... 3423476838

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Note that the Italian eBay seller's feedback has increased between those two screenshots. The buyer seems happy.

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[Seiko7A38]

I'm not sure if this is the same NOS 7A38-7020 SAA009J, but I am certain that I've seen this particular example listed on the Italian classifieds site Subito at least once before. It came up in my saved search notifications again this lunchtime.

https://www.subito.it/abbigliamento-acc ... 116588.htm

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[Seiko7A38]

By an amusing coincidence, yesterday morning I started another parallel thread in this forum section, specifically about a NOS 7A38-7029 SAA013J which had been listed on eBay. Naturally I cross-referenced this existing thread. Then, what should come up on eBay Italy yesterday afternoon, but another NOS 7A38-7020 SAA009J ! It goes without saying, it's typically ridiculously over-priced, with an opening bid price of €1699 Euros. It's only a one-day auction listing too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEIKO-ROYAL- ... 5906514586

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Translating the seller's description, there's a protective firm on the crystal (apart from all the dust). The listing doesn't include 7A38-7020 anywhere. I chanced across the listing simply because 'SAA009J' was included in the item specifics.

[Seiko7A38]

Not surprisingly, that one-day Italian eBay auction ended a few moments ago, without a single bid being placed.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265906514586

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It was back on eBay again, re-listed less than a minute later; this time as a 7-day auction listing.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEIKO-ROYAL- ... 5908156628

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[Seiko7A38]

The Italian eBay seller continued to re-list that NOS 7A38-7020 - twice more after that, for 7 day duration, followed by three one-day listings, sometimes using slightly different opening bid prices (the lowest was €1550 Euros). It finally sold yesterday evening; not for the €1650 Euro Buy-it-Now price, but for an undisclosed best offer. The mind still boggles.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265948046376

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