Is Agon becoming the eBay of audio?

Friends,
I used to buy on Audiogon forever-ago, stopped 10-12 years ago for reasons already mentioned.  The last straw was when Agon dropped my very positive ratings as a buyer when they updated the site a few years back. 

What I want to offer is:  IMHO there is no substitute for making the effort to build good relationships with a few authorized dealers who carry the kinds of gear you are interested in.  I tell them what I want, set my parameters clearly and practically and tell them I can wait awhile.  They have always come through for me.  Some of them I met on Agon and have never met in person.

I have not bought new in many years and I have gotten great (sometimes unexpectedly great!) values on high end gear either demos or trade-ins of current products or even new in factory sealed box.  Sometimes they come up with it, sometimes they get a get a great deal from their supplier or another dealer who is a friend of theirs supplies it.

They follow up very conscientiously with their sales to me because they know that sooner or later I will be back for more goodies.  I now also sell off my old gear through dealers.  They handle all the details and send me my $.  For me the transactions have to be win-win and it is well worth the few % if costs me so i do not have to be involved in any of the details of selling.

For someone who has spent their life looking for deals (and honed their haggling skills), now that I am older (quite a bit), I'd rather spend my time listening to my system, tweaking what I have, planning what I want to upgrade next when the $ shows up, and window shopping Agon and occasionally researching its forums.  And I'd rather invest my time, energy and attention into rewarding and satisfying areas other than the connection between my ears, brain & heart.

Please respect and support dealers.  Some have gotten big and very successful at the business side of things, many of then just make a living at something they love. The same thing that has us all on Agon.
Leon

The community needs to take an interest in policing itself to be sure but counting on that kind of policing is not practical or appropriate.  I remember the audio scamming on eBay being so extraordinary once that dozens of ads for high-end gear (often with authentic serial numbers) going for unrealistically bargain prices would be displayed. These sellers would always steal 100% of the money sent. They did something eBay calls "takeovers"  (when scammers would appropriate the feedback from highly rated sellers as theirs). When reported they were kicked off & back up within days. When I complained the audio section needed to be actively policed by eBay they replied they only appreciated my telling them & they only responded to customer complaints.  They were never proactive. I responded that naturally, they were thankful to me, given it was free labour. I asked how happy they would be to work 1 day a week for free in return for such non-compensated thanks. No immediate response but within a few months, I received a hand-signed letter from an eBay VP that informed me that new security procedures were being put in place in certain sections.  I'm sure it was sent out to some others as well. The massive scamming was then absent & only individual items were potentially suspect from then on.

The question then becomes to what extent is eBay responsible for being proactive? Did they have the problems complained about in this thread, to nearly the same extent before they charged more than commercial users?  Also to what degree are there similar issues on US Audiomart? 

I'd like to hear from other AGers on this.

I remember when AG proudly had a manifesto on the site (Directly analogous to the Constitution with the engraved in stone rules & principles of AG).  When they started charging regular audiophiles (& perhaps other infringements) in direct contravention of these published rights, I asked why they were violating their charter which was not changed as they did so? I received a phone call from the owner of AG who couldn't be bothered either to read or change it - to ask where it was in the manifesto/constitution.  I showed him and he then said, "We cannot be expected to know every detail of what's in there ! "  I was so flabbergasted that I was too taken back to reply/ask, "How well would that argument go over in a court of law regarding the actual constitution & metaphorically is there any kind of difference here?  I was then  told, "AG was never meant to be free !" (presumably for non-commercial audiophiles)  - as if that was somehow self-evident.  There was as far as I know no evidence at all for this conveyed.  Perhaps other AGers can more knowledgeably comment. 

Does AG's attitude in any way. shape or form encourage issues to arise?  I know that clicking on what appears to be ads from regular folks selling used gear too often takes one to new that is advertised at retail.  Is this right & proper  & create the feeling of integrity many/most (one hopes) aspires to?  Does it affect the issues complained about here? I'm sure others have valuable experiences & opinions on all of the above.

Are we talking about Arnie?  Arnie owned a bricks and mortar shop in Ann Arbor, Accutronics, high end upstairs, used in the basement.  He started selling more and more stuff on ebay.  Audio selling on ebay was the model that, as I understood it, he adapted to launch A'gon.  Was anybody else around back then?  I was a frequent customer of his at the b&m establishment.

All right, something both salient and interesting to this conversation...

I put an ad up this afternoon, and specifically chose 7/10 rating for this listing. After checking it when it went live, still 7/10. Tonight, come back home to give it another look, and it’s now NEW. Go into the EDIT screen, and that’s the current condition. Demoted back to 7/10, and will keep an eye out to see what happens.

As sure as I’m sitting here, I KNOW I initially listed the item as 7/10. So perhaps some of the sellers have not actually done what we’ve discussed here, just the victim of a bug in the system. I’m sure grade inflation still occurs more than it should, but wanted to let everyone know what happened to me today

john1 - eBay apparently is powerless to permanently stop that scammer(s) that you mentioned. Those bogus listings get put up almost everyday, eBay soon removes them, the bad guys re-list (with the same damn photos of high-end gear every time) - rinse, lather, and Repeat....