What happened to the "club atmosphere" of Audiogon?

I still love AG!  

Only recently have I given my voice to it and yes, I am grateful for the help, insights, product knowledge and occasional wheeling and dealing, buying and selling for great items from knowledgable people… had some great conversations even when things didn't work out…   I did buy a pair speakers here recently and it was a good purchase for me, the seller seemed happy…  Love em!  Could not have purchased such quality new… I enjoy the music as much or more than the gear chase… the HiFi madness !

I have noticed more negative tones form some voices… so far as AG history and future goes… I will defer to the wisdom of Charlie Brown and Snoopy… 

Scene:   Watching the sun go down… Charlie Brown states…

"Some day we are all going to die"….
Snoopy responds " Yes!  But every other day we are not!"   ;-)

If one is offended by extremely low offers, you are probably too attached to your equipment and shouldn't be selling it (OK, only kidding! ;~)  But there are two solutions:  either ignore the offending offer (and put it out of your mind!) or don't offer to entertain offers (you'll probably get some anyway  --  and they'll be serious, not lowballs!)

While I agree the current culture seems to me somewhat less congenial than in the 'old days' I think it may be partly due to the internet culture in general, and it doesn't bother me that much.  The two main reasons I don't shop here much anymore (well three actually, but I'll get to that) are:

1.)  The overwhelming presence of commercial sellers and retailers on the present site.  Every time I do a casual tally, it comes to just about 50%.  So the likelihood that something you're looking for is for sale by a private individual is about 50/50.  Or to put it another way, half the items you searched for, and half the time you spend browsing, will be a waste of your time (unless of course you're looking to pay 'retail'.)   Although not specifically banned, commercial sellers were never encouraged to use the original site, as it was clearly meant for private classified listings.  I don't mind that the current site has both, but they should definitely be kept separate.  Especially since these commercial users enjoy privileges/features not offered to private sellers.
2.)  Due to the cost of listing and selling on Audiogon, (and on eBay too) prices run a little higher than on free sites like USAudio, AA Trader, etc.

The "third" reason (which has nothing to do with Audiogon) is that it's become unnecessary to browse individual 'audio classified' sites anymore.  I use HiFi Shark exclusively.  It's free, and it scans every audio classified site in the world (plus eBay and Yahoo) and sends me an email (with links!) the minute an item I'm looking for gets listed.  It also provides up-to-date information on all recently sold or expired listings, which is a big help if I'm planning to sell something  --  check it out
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I am so tired of reading how someone got offended by a low-ball offer. The notion of being "offended" by low-ball offers is such a crock. Why not call it what it really is? You are simply mad (like a little whining baby) that someone won't give you the amount of money you want. It has nothing to do with anyone offending anyone.(My comments are not directed at any one person in this thread as I've not read it through. Just at those who've felt "offended". Such a silly notion.)

What I really miss is how crazy people’s systems were and how active the buying/selling used to be. Prior to the economic turn down, people in this forum used to swap out gear regularly which resulted in a very active marketplace for some awesome, high end gear. To put it in perspective, I had no problem selling some pricey gear like Esoteric X-01, Esoteric P3/D5 transport and dac, B&W 805/804/802 speakers, ARC Ref preamp, MBL preamp, Ayre MX-R monoblocks, Pass Labs XA-160 monoblocks. Needless to say given our new normal in the audio world, these items would have a hard time selling now. Dont get me wrong, I fully understand and even appreciate the more "responsible" audiophile world we live in now, but I do miss when we were all spending crazy amounts of money and just pushing the envelope of our whacky hobby.

+1 tboooe, I remember those days well Tommy!

The constant rotation of gear got me dizzy sometimes. I still recall a time, probably around +/- 10 years ago, when I had (4) high end preamplifiers in my home for a shoot out. List prices ranged from around $7K to $10K each, and I had bought them all and was using my patented Audiogon "Buy N' Try" methodology. I kept one, sold the other 3 within a month. Nothing like trying gear for your own ears, in your own room.

Crazy days when I look back on it. Sometimes I do miss it, but for the most part I'm happier settling down these days. I think the higher advertising prices, as well as the economy, has slowed down the market. It was easier flipping gear around when an ad was only $2.