I would inspect them first and then the seller would have to guarantee them against defects. |
FWIW I had a terrible experience selling with with Escrow.com.I used them because I had no feedback and figured escrow would give the buyer some piece of mind. Awful instructions and poor customer service. Eventually the buyer canceled the transaction. Luckily he was willing to complete the sale using PayPal. |
Ditto, so many of the earlier posts.
This "deal" has DON'T DO IT screaming from it. |
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Another consideration/situation I ran into regarding UPS shipping Insurance.
I bought JVC TT81 in large Plinth, shipped from Canada. I requested and paid for enough insurance.
It came destroyed, seller had listed 'Vintage', and UPS said, oh, we don't insure Vintage (even though they sold the insurance, denied the claim. Luckily, seller gave full refund (he had packed it in an ols box, not double boxed.
And, because seller bought the insurance (even though I paid him that cost), he had to make the claim, and he coulsd not start that until it got back to Canada, even though UPS USA Damage Claim had inspected it in a regional office here.
New boxes, double box, no description 'vintage'. |
The only time I ever paid with a cashier's check was to someone with a lot of feedback, who lives in a city where I have good friend who's be able to track that person down if we need to. And I spoke to him on the phone many times. I wouldn't do it. |
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@elliottbnewcombjr , I am sure it was not easy to go through the whole shipping damage issue. As you pointed out, the insurance is with the seller/shipper and is like a contract between them and the shipping company. As a buyer, you really have little protection and are somewhat at the mercy of how the seller handles shipping issues, which goes back to feedback and dealing with honest and reasonable people. Just another risk of buying used. IMO, big speakers should be strapped to a pallet.
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Recruit a guy local to the seller. Search for a nearby high end shop and offer to pay someone knowledgeable a fee (whether or not you end up buying the speakers) for them to go and inspect the speakers and hopefully hear them function. Could cost between a case of beer and maybe a couple of hundred bucks.
Another one I have used is to place the money in escrow with a lawyer and have the gear shipped to them (if the speakers are 6' high and weigh several hundred pounds this may not work). They send the seller a letter saying that they have the money and will forward the money when the gear arrives and has been inspected, the only alternative being to send the speakers back. Probably a similar cost with the lawyer if they do other stuff for you.
I wouldn't buy from a person with zero feedback without using some sort of escrow. |
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Jimmy, He might get tired Negotiating with you and move on i don't have time to play around with pinchers Good Luck |
Jimmy, Look at Products in person if its not a store
or walk to many good deals going on today
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Don't try to pay him. Just ignore him. There's something wrong here.
I've done many transactions with relative strangers. In all cases I was aided by 2 things:
-- their feedback on relevant audio boards (if zero feedback, watch out)
-- the transactions were protected by Paypal.
Paypal is an invasive species of a company. I kind of detest them. Their rates are confiscatory/borderline silly. BUT...I rely on them to save my ass during arms' length audio transactions. |
mitch2
It was a very bad experience. a long story, and took a few weeks. I got the full refund. It easily could have finished poorly.
I found another TT81 in 2 arm plinth, in great shape, discussed packaging with seller. Vlad from Canada packed it amazingly. Bill later bought another setup from Vlad. We highly recommend him.
Aside from everything else, what a shame to see such a rare beautiful plinth and dust cover destroyed. The 7082 tonearm and spinner TT81 survived the shipping.
While waiting, I spoke to my credit card company. they said:
1. they put the charge on hold
2. I did not have to pay the charge until resolved
3. started a countdown in their system, then they would open a case against PayPal.
4. PayPal will notify the seller: resolve it, or we will close your PayPal account.
5. informed of this, the seller hurriedly processed the refund.
6. of course anyone could just open another PayPal account, so seller has to be given credit for accepting responsibility, especially when UPS clarified the improper packaging.
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I've done something similar to this 3 times but all with respected dealers, i had to send a bank wire transfer because i live in Canada and all the dealers were in California. once to Robert Lee (Acoustic Zen) for Absolute speaker and interconnect cables, once to Scott Walker (Scott Walker Audio) Synergistic Research powercell10 UEF power conditioner and once to David Weinhart (Weinhart Design) a pair of REL G1 subs, these were all expensive transactions and they all went smoothly and everything arrived as if it was brand new (actually cables were) but i would have never in a million years done this with a private party sale. |
the problem with buying used is often between shipping, PayPal and sometimes listing fees there’s no incentive. Personally if the value is enough to include PayPal fees offer it otherwise wait for a local sale.
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