What to ask when buying used speakers?

@mtbiker29 cats can shred grilles. Friend of mine made chicken wire cages around his ESS speakers back in the 1970s because of that.  He spray painted them black so they didn't look all that bad with a stained hexagonal wooden base at the bottom.  Even worse are dogs that can piss on the speakers and leave a very bad lingering smell. Same with humans who smoke tobacco.  I bought a used laptop computer once that stunk of cigarette smoke for months.  I'll not make that same mistake again. 

For ported speakers, watch out for any bugs and spiders that might be lurking inside. Even new speakers can host such creatures. 

@grislybutter laid out a number of the well-known precautionary steps, all of which I agree with.

I’ve purchased 4 or 5 pairs of 2-way monitors/speakers and had very good luck. I followed those precautionary steps, plus one other that needs to be discussed: protected transactions. And that usually means either Paypal’s "Goods and Services" category of transactions; or using a credit card; or both.

I really dislike Paypal. It’s a parasitic organization that siphons off ~3% of each transaction, more than some credit cards. They also burn you down on currency transactions, which if/when you buy from another country (in my case, Canada); in such cases they make exchanging currency unavoidable and offer rates considerably worse (ie, more profitable to them) than any bank. .

Another factor must be mentioned regarding Paypal: there is an avalanche of ignorance out there about the IRS’ planned (not yet implemented) program to tax some (not all) of Paypal’s "G&S" transactions. The net result of this is a LOT of sellers proudly demanding Paypal payments only via "Friends & Family," which is an unprotected transaction with huge risk.

But I digress. When I buy speakers, I insist on using Paypal’s "Goods & Services" feature. If that’s not acceptable to the seller, I walk. I also save all Q&A in my transaction w/that seller as a pdf file so I can prove (if necessary) that, for example, they said the drivers were intact and functional, yet they arrived non-intact and non-functional.

Finally, I’m not a fan of face to face transactions--going to someone’s home, or them coming to mine. It feels risky to me. But the only time I made an exception for that was one time buying a pair of vintage speakers (mid-’80s vintage KEF 103.2s). I needed to see and hear them in the seller’s system.

I've had buyers drive from 400 to 900 miles to pick up a pair of used speakers and I've driven as much as 350 to buy a pair. Again, paypal is 4%, Agon is 4% shipping on a pair of floorstanding speakers on a pallet and insured will be expensive. Suppose we're shopping $20k speakers that we can find for $10k used, we're already at $800 in fees and say $1000 shipping curbside lift truck insured...now we're at $11800 or $8200 and still have to decide to trust the buyer/seller. If I want it I have a bank check drawn up and make the drive. If I'm not willing to make the drive I don't want it that bad or 1 of my local dealers comes down enough in price on the same product to get er done.

Just an update here, I did end up purchasing a used pair of KEF Reference 1's from TMR. The feedback here was very helpful and allowed me to proceed with confidence. Granted it was pretty low risk as they were certified pre-owned and backed up by their guarantees. I have had them in place for four days now and they are a great upgrade from my LS50's. 

Having been a KEF listener for some time now, I was confident that I would like the sound. I have a list of speaker brands that I still want to hear and will be attending a show, likely AXPONA, in the spring to get an idea of other house sounds.

The deal and the time were right with these speakers, and I am very happy with the results. Thanks again for all the feedback!

Congrats, great choice. What gear will you be using it with?