I’m not sure why our hobby seems to attract (in certain locales) the occasional indifferent dealer or the occassional hyper-sensitive customer.
When I was younger, there were a fair number of electronic techs who had slowly evolved into stocking new gear for retail sale. Many of those shops were dusty, cluttered and required from the customer the commitment to endear yourself to the typically crusty WWII vet electronics guru. Those are mostly a distant memory but on occasion, they mentored someone to take over that particular business who were satisfied with the status quo. I remember on one occasion years ago when someone brought in a Japanese table radio for repair and he ripped them a new one and told them to get out of his store and to never come back. I aksed him what they had done to offend him and he went on to tell me the story of how he was a radio guy in the Navy and as a POW in WWII he had endured the Bataan forced march.
He just decided when liberated and back home he would never do anything he didn’t want to do ever again. Oh, and he said he had nothing against the Japanese people, he was just offended at the post WWII electronics they built and the people who bought them. LOL.
In short, if you are going to buy “throw away” gear, buy it from the dealer you want to build a relationship with…those shelves you saw were populated with entry level gear they sold to their customers who upgraded. Thats about the only time you can trade in that stuff is from the person who originally told you how good it was…they have to take it in on trade (if they take trades) or risk being viewed as disingenuous.