Your seller is a crook. I had a similar experience and filed a fraud complaint with the feds after buying cables rated a 9/10, but seriously scuffed and not even working. Audiogon was not willing to give me much information about the seller, but he was taken off Audiogon pretty quickly -- he may well have defrauded others. Fraud is pretty rare on Audiogon, where I would say 80% of my experiences have been good. More common, I think, is grade inflation. The AGS is a very strict standard -- one major scratch gives a 6/10, and a few minor scratches give a 7/10. Somehow, though, everything seems to be a 9/10 -- there's quite a bit of puffery that doesn't quite rise to the level of fraud. To try to deal with this, I don't rely solely on the scale, but try to contact the seller and ask directly whether there are any marks or scratches, etc. Also, to create a paper trail, I'll make email offers subject to the piece being cosmetically perfect and free of blemishes. Good luck, and happy listening.
Audiogon Grading Scale - the gold standard?
I recently got duped by an eBay seller's item representation, "...excellent cosmetically." Seller offers no equitable restitution, maintaining we merely have a difference of "opinion" as to the meaning of "excellent." My question is, how effective do you feel the "Audiogon Grading Scale" has been in eliminating misunderstandings/misrepresentations that would otherwise arise by way of subjective characterizations? I am pleased to say it's been working quite well thus far for me. Any suggestions as to how it might be further improved upon? BTW, for those interested, why not get a laugh out of this at my expense (literally). Check out http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1291871809