I'm a little perplexed/surprised by TMR and who sells to them.....


TMR has become a significant player in used high end gear. Their pitch is "we pay you top dollar hassle free for your used gear" . 

OK, what's their idea of top dollar? It's 25% to 30% of MSRP minus more $ for blemishes that lower value. I know. I called them. 

The same sellers who list their used gear for 30 or 40% under MSRP and refuse legitimate offers from qualified buyers with proven buying or selling history who offer 1/2 or so of retail are roundly ignored or even insulted. Weeks later the same item shows up at TMR at 50% of retail and you know TMR paid half of that for it. 

What makes sellers do such a crazy thing?

yesiam_a_pirate

Profit?

My father once said to me that a business which never makes a profit soon ceases to be a business.

TMR is excellent and no-hassle; just within the past few weeks, I bought and amp, lived with it for a few weeks, decided it wasn't for me, and sent it back for a refund (minus 5% restocking fee). I also sold an item to them that I'm shipping out today; sure I could have sold it on the used marketplace (if it had sold), but this way they arrange for the pickup and pre-pay the shipping for it.

The people there are great to work with, too, and really do try their best for you to be satisfied with whatever transaction you're doing. 

Recently sold car, choice of selling via consignment, sell to dealer or private sale. I chose private sale, got $4300 more than dealer/Carvana  offered. One has to measure hassle of private sale vs ease going with dealer/buying service, in my case $4300 worth it. With audio equipment, a smaller price differential may favor sale to dealer. I've only had good experiences with TMR.

What about avoiding the 1099 that now is issued by Paypal for every item you sell where payment was handled by them from the buyer? Do you still see a 1099?  It's not fun when you are selling gear via Paypal that you paid for in the first place but for which you have no proof of purchase price.

You just need to know your basis cost (including transaction costs) and approximate purchase date. I don't know how others do this hobby, but I'm in the red for every component I turnover so it's simple matter of recording the lines for your "loss, no net profit" on your taxes. Had to finally deal with a PayPal 1099K from last year, and will again this year. A little hassle, but not too hard, and impacted my return 0 dollars. What was hard was deadling with crypto trades for 3 or 4 tax years. Even just a few trades can generate a LOT of transactions at slightly different basis costs. Then you have to do the accounting consistently from year to year (FIFO, LIFO etc). Short term versus long-term cap gains. Ugh, never again. Some people also got into very ugly scenarios specifically on coin trades - liable to a huge tax bill that you never harvested the paper gains for, then the market crashes and you're screwed. Anyways, the Paypal 1099 is easy. I kind of wince when a seller says "no PayaPal G&S because of taxes". I don't do that. 

OK, what's their idea of top dollar? It's 25% to 30% of MSRP minus more $ for blemishes that lower value. I know. I called them. 

Depending on item, that's not toooo far off market prices sometimes. Sometimes it's really hard to sell an item for more than that - especially once it's 10 - 15+ years old and superseded by newer versions. The "at least 50% MSRP on anything used" days are long gone, if they ever existed. For a new "hot" item, yes 25-30% is an awful lowball (very low). And sure, TMR does turn around and charge on the very top end of market, and then some. I was wondering if you might get a better "deal" on trades, but never tried.