Wait, are you saying that someone actually objected to those girls with album covers?
Showing 15 responses by glupson
Market price is what a seller can get for the goods, not what that seller feels she/he should get for those goods. We should stop thinking about equipment as some sort of a safe investment and accept that our gear is worth close to nothing to most of the people out there. Apparently, even to people similar to us. If they do not want to buy it at a given price, it is too expensive. garebear, Have you tried to split the difference between what dealer was willing to give you for your gear and what dealer would be advertising it for and sell it yourself? Maybe that would work. |
geoffkait, At this time of the year, there are many short-term-thinking heroes cutting through on the left. It really gets scary. Not to mention that bears are awake. Otherwise, as far as turning the steering wheel goes, it is as close as you will ever get to the bumper cars. It is interesting, for sure. Just Google "The Dragon", there are a few websites and there must be lots of pictures on them although they do not make you realize how unusual it is. |
moto_man, From what I can see, kids ten years younger of his generation are not willing to spend anything on some audio equipment. Not even when given to them and installed in their room. No real interest there. They will not think twice about spending $1000 on a phone, though. This idea of "listening" to music is probably just some little short notch in the history. How long did it even last? Fifty years, maybe a little more? One generation or, at most, two. I am not talking all reproduction of music, but this idea of "finer" reproduction, whatever we decide to call it (hi-fi, HEA, anything else). As you said, it is dying with us. If I may ask, how did you pick your moto_man name? |
moto_man, Do not get disappointed if your attempt to instill appreciation for better sound does not work out to be all that you hoped for. I did something similar, even downgraded along the way to make it simpler, and the outcome has been...iPhone speakers. With a little luck, your stepson may appreciate the sound of movies through his new set-up. Maybe you are more successful, but I am afraid... |
It seems that many are dismayed, for lack of better description, that equipment loses value so fast. That is understandable to some extent. Tens of percent in a very short time may be hard to swallow. However, for most, this is a hobby. Unless you are in this to make money, investing for a great return. Hobbies are just like this. Waste of time and money. Hobbies give you satisfaction in some other way and you pay for it by buying stamps, amplifiers, paintings, or simply by spending your time doing macrame. If we think of this as a hobby, we should accept that we lose money and that is all. If we cannot sustain it without getting frustrated with our purchases losing value, we have picked wrong hobby. That all has not much to do with the title of this thread, but with some sentiment voiced in it. |
These two posts above combined easily make an explanation for half of the used market, or market altogether, troubles. Add other distractions (computers, phones, etc.) and who is left to buy an amplifier that costs, used, as much as a quarter of an average USA family income? Ok, that may be exaggeration, but prices of new, and consequentially used, equipment are repelling to anybody but die-hards. The part to emphasize from the posts above is that there may be lots of people (maybe really hundreds of thousands) out there who have decent systems, but have no interest in carrying around new speakers and amplifiers bi-monthly, and probably losing money while doing it. They settle with what they have, sometimes even quite expensive, and live with it for 15 years. They go through 4-5 amplifiers in life and do not feel they have missed much. The crowd that changes things often, chasing some special sound, must be very small. If for no other reason, then because college tuition is going up, it seems like, daily. |
An Audiogon buyer may not be exactly a Stereophile reader, but there must be some similarity. For whatever it is worth, 71% of Stereophile readers are planning to purchase audio equipment within next 12 months. They are planning to spend an average of $2400 on those purchases. $2400 really does not get you very far on Audiogon listings. No wonder sales are slow. http://www.avtechmediausa.com/mediakit.stph.pdf |
60% does seem like a huge discount (for a few months old item), but if nobody wants to buy it, it is too expensive for some reason. If it were something I wanted, I would jump on it for sure, but 60% off of something I am not desperate for is just 40% of wasted money no matter how fantastic the item is. I think people see it that way. |
pcrhkr, I am also puzzled who and why would buy used $400 000 speakers on a website like this, but it does not hurt that they exist here. On the other hand, not everything is in that stratosphere on Audiogon. There are amplifiers for $150 and a number of things in that, relatively low, range. Granted, it may not be what you really want at that moment, but it does exist. And if someone in the USA wants to have $60 000 amplifier running on wrong voltage shipped from Europe, so be it. He probably knows why. |
"Maybe everyone else is like me, too much gear and generally happy with their sound." Reading these posts, I doubt it is everyone, but at least there is two of us. It is interesting to see that people are actually buying and selling a lot (relatively). A poster with a dozen speakers bought in just a few years. That is wonderful and dedication to the hobby, but the pool of people that do that is probably limited. It would be a new pair of speakers every few months. I dread moving mine even for vacuuming the floor around them, much less carrying them somewhere and bringing new ones in. When it comes to prices we should not forget that this hobby is really about equipment. As much as we can drool over some piece and have emotional attachment to it with all the lovely words attached, once we decide to sell it, it is nothing but a piece of junk we are trying to get rid of. It may be sad, but it is how the rest of the world sees it. If nobody wants to pay more than 33% for it, those who may appreciate our lovely piece may not be in love with it quite yet. Unless they buy it for that 33%, they will never fall in love. Maybe the "fair" price level has simply been reset from, let’s say, 50% to 30%. There is a new kid in town and he does not care about our feelings. |
If someone offers less than what we think the item we are selling is worth, keep it. Obviously, it is more worth to us than to the potential buyer. Why would those buyers offering less be talked bad about? They simply know what something is worth to them. No harm done. We can always wait for a buyer that will think higher about the item we are selling. Maybe she/he does come along. If not, well, maybe $1500 was actually not that bad two years ago when we got that offer. Also, how many of us go to the grocery store and give an offer on milk? Why do we expect that a buyer has to make an offer? Isn’t it the seller who has to know what she/he is willing to part from the possession for? What do people do with old cars? Keep them? |