Is it too much to ask....

I didn't realize that we were choosing sides here. I tend to side with Viridian and Onhwy61. I'm still used to the old Audiogon days, when we had educated consumers. Audiogon has changed, there are many more uneducated consumers and even scammers here now. Too many tire kickers and low ballers now. Who decides what the most imporatant spec is? If I'm selling speakers, is it the speakers size or efficiency that is more important?
I've found it easier to just sell on other sites now. There is not nearly as much traffic, but I haven't dealt with an uneducated buyer yet.

My question to RW is... who is lazier? The seller who does not post specs on his product, or the buyer who is not interested enough to look up the specs on his own?

I have never bought anything without doing my due diligence or homework on a product. I've found many ads that have posted misleading specifications. Some will post fake photos too. Are you going to blindly trust a salesman's word??? I suggest that you investigate a potential purchase fully yourself. If you are interested, look up the numbers yourself, after all, you are spending YOUR money.

Whine and whine...

In a post-apocalyptic world, this thread provides good clues as to who would survive vs. who would perish.

Buyers need to do their OWN homework about anything they are considering purchasing! It is a LUXURY to me if the seller is kind enough to provide features and specs, but in this cyberweb era none of us has ANY excuse for not doing the requisite research before purchasing ANYTHING.

Hey, be a true audiophile and be self taught about this activity and hobby. You have to pay to play.

Do as President Lincoln did, READ!

Enough said, and stop whining people!

"My question to RW is... who is lazier? The seller who does not post specs on his product, or the buyer who is not interested enough to look up the specs on his own? "

They are both lazy IMHO.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

A url reference that the buyer can copy and paste to the reference site with the correct specs can suffice. That is probably the approach I would take to provide teh most information possible efficiently.

WHen the buyer checks, having some correct specs available via the add adds seller credibility, which matters.

Sellers can publish what they want or not for whatever reason. If it works it works. But more information is usually better than none, especially with expensive items.

What if a buyer asks a question about specs? Do you bother to help them out then or tell them to do their homework elsewhere first before inquiring?

Seeing an ad for an expensive esoteric item in particular with nothing at all to justify the cost other than the cost itself is a major negative to me. If I were the seller, I would not assume the buyer has the high opinion of the product needed to justify the cost.

Touting expensive gear with nothing measurable to justify the cost is a common practice of audiophiles that is often criticized. I guess if only another audiophile can appreciate what a product offers due to factors that are not measurable or reportable, then why bother publishing any facts? The enlightened audiophile will know? Or is this just a way to market a product whose asking price cannot be justified quantitatively? Its a valid question.

What if a buyer asks a question about specs? Do you bother to help them out then or tell them to do their homework elsewhere first before inquiring?

Mapman, I answer any questions a buyer may have. As to how much numbers mean to anyone in this hobby, I suppose you would have to decide if you feel that music is an objective listening experience or a subjective listening experience.
Personally, I do not get hung up on numbers, they tell you nothing about how a product sounds. They may be of some use when trying to integrate a system though, matching impedences and efficiency requirements, etc. For the objective, who listen by the numbers, I suppose numbers mean more. I lost interest in numbers during the THD wars of the 70's and 80's when global feedback was used to artificially decrease the THD. Amps had "better" specs and sounded worse.

As always in this hobby, YMMV.

"They (specs/numbers) may be of some use when trying to integrate a system though, matching impedences and efficiency requirements, etc."

Exactly! That's why some numbers are important!

A seller that knows which ones matter most impresses me and establishes credibility that helps with all the rest.

You know the more "murky" stuff that might help actually distinguish a product from its numerical peers or just be a lot of BS.