Lying is not right, but I’m far more concerned about the merits of the piece itself, condition, function, price, and availability.
Previous Ownership...does it matter to you?
I'm curious as to how others feel about knowing the previous ownership history when purchasing used audio equipment. Not necessarily who specifically owned as that's usually not possible but how many owners.
It might give you a glimpse into whether the item has been shipped back and forth from coast to coast in the US, Canada, or another country and if there's something not as advertised with the item since it continues to change hands too frequently.
I recently exchanged messages with a seller of a previous set of very nice speakers I previously owned. I knew the complete history, the buyer listed himself as the third owner when in fact he was the fifth owner. When I shared the details, his response was "could care less about ownership and how many times it's changed hands....".
I was surprised by the response. The obvious reason to understand ownership it's one of the listing rules from both Audiogon and US Audiomart in regards to the rating scale. Both Audiogon and US Audiomart are specific that anything a 9 or above must be single owner. In the case I reference above, the seller lists as a 9 even knowing he's the fifth owner.
What is your approach to knowing ownership history? Does it matter or not to you?
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- 47 posts total
Hmmm …. Okay, ….BUT ……this simple and basic exercise is generally expected and presumed as a key binary choice question to every Seller upfront for 99+% of AGON / CAM / USAM fellow members; “are you the original owner , Yay or Nay? If not, please explain,” IMO: Any current SELLER now listing his pre-owned piece, and alleging that he doesn’t know about its past history in an admission that it was never asked for, …predicates: - (a) the unit is immediately slotted into a “fast pass” for me on the unit, and - (b) Seller’s surprising and disappointing prior cavalier attitude about ignoring basic tenets to establish a unit’s provenance, now pushes them into my “must-to-avoid” list and blocked . Sayonara. |
@knotscott , @coralkong
Absolutely , without quarrel, sir. but rhetorically, how much trust are you going to develop on its condition and functionality on a potential blind purchase now saddled by a purposeful (emphasis added) provenance/ history omission that was called out to be a lie ( and not an error) and casually shrugged off now as “who cares”.?. For me that is an insulting arrogance on a fatal event that terminates the discussion . for me : nada, zippo, zilch, NFW. the only thing we have to rely on the unit reported condition properly and rely on the credibility of Seller is his prior feedback, AND current conduct |
- 47 posts total