too bad Audiogon seems to have morphed to fussy, picky buyers


For years I've bought and sold here with no drama but that seems to have been changing. Now sellers seem to want retail pricing for their products while wanting to low ball on anything they want to buy.

At the same time I see more and more fussy buyers nitpicking the purchase, requiring tons of hand holding and concessions after they buy a fairly represented good working order item. 

No longer fun for me unfortunately.
128x128cowan217
My initial point was really related to the numbers of flaky buyers and then lowballing and or ones who negotiate down the price and despite seeing several photos and having a very clear and fair description of the item then nit pick and threaten to try to return or negotiate further.
I was scammed by a dealer about a year ago.  I purchased a Kiseki Blue NS cartridge from him and felt confident in his feedback.  The Cartridge was listed in North Dakota, the member was in Cyprus, yes, Cyprus as in the Mediterranean Sea.  He had me call him and assured me that the cartridge would ship immediately after I paid, so I paid with my Visa card.   His add stated he only had ONE at that price, a day later he still had the add posted and received a higher price than mine, keep in mind, I already paid.  I called him and left several messages, no response.  Then I contacted my credit card company to stop payment suspecting a scam.  He was rude, and full of excuses and when I was credited from him he shorted me $6 because of the exchange rate.   He was NEVER located in North Dakota, and Audiogon sided with him when I left him negative feedback.   So I get screwed for $6 and I'm unable to at least warn other members to stay away from him.    Im starting to just keep my old equipment and will build a second system. 
@whiskeypirate, I have seen ads from a guy in Cyprus . . . don't know if its the same guy, but how many people from Cyprus advertise equipment on here? I always thought that it was weird, and, although all seemed legit, I wasn't interested in dealing with someone in Cyprus, no matter how good a deal or his feedback.  At least you got your money back.  I would have disputed the exchange rate charge with Visa.  The change in rates is not your problem.
granted there are lowballers trying to get lucky.  If they succeed one out of 300 times, they will forever keep trying to recreate that high.
Sellers are at the mercy of how much of a market there is for their particular product.  For example, if you browse multiple selling sites, there are Revel Salon's selling for $5800, $11,000 and $14,000.  As of today, all 3 have been listed for months.  All 3 sellers have different motivations for selling and different reasons for pricing.  Usually the sellers who are in love with the system they bought think everyone else should be equally in love with it and pay accordingly.  While buyers live in a world where most of what is sold as used is no longer the model being sold and has been updated - therefor making it obsolete and worth less. 
My quality 20 year old speakers sound no worse than any new high end speaker in the same price range.  I sympathize with those saying they would rather keep it than dump it for almost nothing. after all, quality doesn't (shouldn't?) go out of style.
But here are realities I wrestle with: try buying an expensive speaker only to have a newer version released 6 months later. If you try to exchange it at the dealer you will get 25% to 40% less than what you paid. WHY?


There are many jerks out there however this being said there are still many good buyers.