Members without scruples- a continuation

Feedback is only a start. You have to use common sense too. Can the person write a listing? Good Photos? Check the feedback if your buying an expensive piece. Do they respond promptly and intelligently to questions. And not finally Call the seller and talk to them ! Most sellers on audiogon are great! But you still have to do your homework and ask all the right questions.

Comment to Natalie: I have no personal or business connection with Audiogon, but I think your characterization of the Audiogon staff as "boneheads" is unfair and unwarranted. I also disagree with your comment that the feedback feature is "one of the largest jokes on the Internet" (can you quote some specific data to support this view?).

From my perspective, I think the audiophile community has been very well served by this site and by the staff who run it. Over the past several years, the A-gon staff has made a number of improvements to the site, often in response to requests from members.

Further, there are many members of Audiogon who have been diligent in building a positive reputation as both buyers and sellers, and to characterize the resulting feedback as essentially pointless is neither useful no accurate. I agree that there is certainly room for abuse in the feedback system, and perhaps 10-15% of the feedback is inflated, so I'd like to hear your specific ideas about how it can be improved (without instituting an additional fee). It's much too easy to simply be negative without offering a better alternative.

Sdcampbell, perhaps Audiogon can set up the feedback system so only the seller and buyer can input comments after both close the transaction. The feedback links could be contained in the transaction history page. Another thing Audiogon could do is insert a link to previous auctions, so members could gauge based on what was previously bought and sold. E-bay has a function like this.

Greatpooba: Good suggestions, and ones that Audiogon should consider.

I agree that there would be value added in being able to view another member's transaction history. I've built a couple of systems from Audiogon transactions as a buyer and have spent big chuncks of money in doing so. More recently, I've bought a lot of CD's and SACD's in small transactions (in some cases $10 or less) that rate equally in the feedback system with large dollar purchases ($4k was my biggest). The Ebay system allows one to delve further into the details of transactions, which is helpful in evaluatng members without much feedback.