“Apart from the stain”… well, that’s a major thing, really. It’s a thick, ugly stain in the middle of the dial. And it won’t go away. Neither will the polished lugs find their way back to shape. A service, if done well, might insure it runs alright - but it’ll always be an ugly duckling. That’s why the question “how much would you pay for it?” doesnt really lead anywhere. What we’re saying is that we don’t really want it regardless of the price.
Sure, if you can get it for 500$ it might be “worth it”, as in “you can get more money back for the gold value and the movement”. But then, that’s just trying to make a few $ and doesn’t bring you a nice watch and the seller certainly won’t sell it for that kind of money.
Those cases aren’t heavy, so the gold value isn’t that much, they can regularly be found for ~1500$ or a bit more. Here’s a 14k example I sold I think about 2 years ago for 1450$:
Now, I’m not saying this to make you jealous, but to show you good ones are out there for reasonable amounts. And by the way, I sold it on Chrono24 and it took 10 days or so to find a buyer. It’s not like it was gone within seconds and I was overwhelmed by interested parties…
