Audiogon Grading Scale - the gold standard?

Sarah (Sc53): Thanks much for your post. Lo and behold, where my auction merely had "...a bid" as you pointed out at the time of your writing, it NOW has (as of 11/1 - 12:27 PM EST) 7 bids, lol!

I have had two expierences on Ebay, both of which left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth. I bought a trombone that was described as in excellent playing condition ... long story short the horn is unplayable. I also bought an Adcom 585 amp. That unit was described as perfect. Not so. That unit was filthy and required an hour of careful cleaning to reveal that while in excellent condition it was not 'as new'.

Audiogon however has been a joy. I have met some of the most amazing people and have yet to be disappointed by the equipment I have purchased here. I use caution when dealing with a person without any feedback here, but if I am convinced of a persons integrity, will buy anyway.

As a community, Agon is a unique place on the web. I am very comfortable here and hope that we can keep it this nice always.

Your seller is a crook. I had a similar experience and filed a fraud complaint with the feds after buying cables rated a 9/10, but seriously scuffed and not even working. Audiogon was not willing to give me much information about the seller, but he was taken off Audiogon pretty quickly -- he may well have defrauded others. Fraud is pretty rare on Audiogon, where I would say 80% of my experiences have been good. More common, I think, is grade inflation. The AGS is a very strict standard -- one major scratch gives a 6/10, and a few minor scratches give a 7/10. Somehow, though, everything seems to be a 9/10 -- there's quite a bit of puffery that doesn't quite rise to the level of fraud. To try to deal with this, I don't rely solely on the scale, but try to contact the seller and ask directly whether there are any marks or scratches, etc. Also, to create a paper trail, I'll make email offers subject to the piece being cosmetically perfect and free of blemishes. Good luck, and happy listening.

Wow, cosmetically perfect!!! I guess you better buy new. I do agree that the AGS has objective stds, but you can also detect inflation pretty easily. If they rate it a 9 but its 2 years old, they obviously don't follow the scale closely. However, a minor scratch or two or even three on a used piece that is sitting on a rack in a corner, that you bought at 1/2 retail shouldn't be a big issue, as long as its functionally complete.

I'd like to take a different view and applaud at least some of the Audiogon sellers for their rigorous adherence to the grading system. I've purchased two items on Audiogon where the sellers mentioned that the equipment had "minor blemishes", and were both marked 8/10. After careful inspection of both pieces, I was very hard pressed to find any trace of these defects. When I asked about one of them, I was directed to examine the upper corner of the unit where there was about 1/4 inch of mild discoloration, Likely, this was just a normal variation in the color of the paint, but the seller felt compelled to point it out in his ad, and explain that the unit wasn't "perfect".

My hat goes off to those folks that are willing to raise the bar for honesty, and make us all feel a bit easier about doing business on the web. Certainly there will always be dishonest people out there, but its good to know that there's some balance.

Cheers, Ken