It is absolutely a dream buyers market.
Those with a fair amount of disposable income and no job security worries should be in for a treat.
Food and toilet paper??
I have enough reserves of blubber to last me a month... Lol.
And if you do not eat, well ergo you do not need much toilet paper...... |
Not sure but it's a good dream....... |
I believe you are correct snapsc.
I recently sold a lot of items on eBay but ONLY because I started them all off at 99 cents and no reserve.
Kidology still can work at times.
Some fetched less , some went higher so overall pretty happy.
Of course it's a risk that way but at least I got some coin in the bank. |
Pretty much deadsville on any sales platform right now no matter HOW cheap you make it.
Good luck to anybody who desperately needs to sell something to raise cash.
The flipside is that if you do have some spare cash to burn it truly is a dream buyers market!
|
|
Good for you Prof.
Glad still some life out there.
Tbh I have not really had any wasters or tyre kickers of late.
Been slow but those who have bought have been great members with sensible questions and fair offers. |
Must have been a boring weekend sports wise....
Nada then 2 sales within 15 minutes of each other.
More funds for the addiction....... |
And therein lies the ever decreasing vicious circle.
The more as buyers we offer less and better down prices then our other side as the seller is only going to suffer more.
It's a tough world! |
Not always true EBM but usually an end result.
I hate when they then just disappear without the manners to at least say not interested.
Maybe I expect too much of my fellow man..... |
Mahgister.
You did not partake of same meds as Geoff by any chance?
🍄 |
Somebody slip something good in your meds this morning Geoff?
😁😁 |
Anybody seeing any uptick in sales here or eBay or usaudiomart?
Unfortunately even with good pricing (imho) it still appears to be a very troubled market.
Only way I have sold many items is to let them go at very low pricing and even then still a fair amount of tyre kicking going on.
There are some items I have used that I can do this with if I feel I have had my monies worth out of.
However some other goods where I need to sell to fund new projects I just cannot do so it has to stay at what I consider a fair price.
To rate sales on the big three I would have to say in this order.
eBay if I sell at a no reserve auction but then you run the risk of not getting close to what you really want but at least it will go.
Audiogon if I price a desired item very keenly.
USAAudiomart bottom of the pile, usually only had silly questions from there but hey its free so there you go.
|
@grannyring
When you have a great product at a great price like you most certainly do then sales will follow!
Unfortunately tire kickers are prevalent in every walk of life and online sales of what can be viewed as "luxury goods" is especially susceptible.
I know we consider hifi essential though but Joe Public can have a differing view.
Autospec.
Hang in there,buyers are out there, just some minor turbulence along the way. |
Bob
It does seem some of the eBay mentality towards new users is creeping in but it's crazy.
Example is that 3 of 4 sales made in last couple of months were made to new users with zero feedback. Now if I had turned my nose up because they were new it is possible I may still be sitting on those items now! All went perfectly.
Autospec.
Just selling in one's and twos and it is all my own personal gear from upgrade or change of plans etc.
I refuse to give the stuff away just to make a sale but always open to negotiate on price or a deal to a point.
Unlike one strange seller I dealt with recently who told me i needed to learn to read as if he was open to any offers he would not have limited his listing to a buy it now price only. That's a winning attitude if ever i met one! |
Thoughts on the market so far?
Anybody having good or bad business?
Have done pretty well over last couple months on sales at what I term fair to me prices both here and on the Bay.
However some sellers still need to work on their negotiating tactics a little as I found out today. But that's life.
|
Thought I would give an update based on sales price of gear of late.
it appears vinyl is pretty healthy, sold three tt and four carts fairly quickly for fair money.
cables and the ilk also fairly easy sales again at fair prices.
good speakers always sell it seems.
amps if a well renowned brand and In good order also moving ok
the kicker to the selling trend is more modern tech like DACs and streaming devices. Does not matter how highly regarded they were, the tech is so fast moving these are definitely a hard sell at decent fair money . Even priced way below market is still a slow sell.
thats my take on it from this year so far.
overall not terrible imho |
My most recent experience on here suggests that some members just do not truly want to sell their item at all.
Without naming I found an integrated amp very interested in here at a fair price, cross checking on eBay showed same amp/seller but $200 LESS than he had on here.
I sent a message asking if he could do a better price right here as an eBay sale would cost him near $300 in fees alone and as he was already $200 less there they could afford to cut a break on price here AND still net more for their item.
Their reply was terse and simply said they thought my negotiating tactics were very strange!
Say what? I was trying to get the guy some more money, and save myself a few dollars I admit, but how odd!
Some people just cannot be reached it seems!
|
Hope that works Jerry.
Although tbh I have come across sellers on here who just do not seem to care about selling at all.
I have had instances where messages not replied to and even ignored with the public nudge, then it is just time to say bye!
Good luck!
|
I guess there could be an email issue although I have not had any problems, have been getting emails regular.
Jerry, if he has a email problem then you could just try just replying direct to their ad with a public reply so that they and everybody should see it, be polite but state your facts.
Good luck
|
jerrysfinger
The only dumb questions are the ones not asked imho.
If the seller cannot or will not give you a very close real shipping cost provided you have given him your address or at least zip to get in the ballpark then there may be some reasons.
Could be busy or maybe does not want to deal with a new member?
However in my opinion you should probably just move on as yes sales are darn hard to come by and sounds like they do not deserve your business.
There is NO excuse for just ignoring anybody no matter what their train of thought maybe, I have sold items to a number of new members with zero feedback and had no issues at all.
Good luck.
|
Agreed Mitch
And everyone is going to have a different viewpoint of what is fair.
Sometimes the right buyer for the right item can appear instantly. Other times it may be 6 months IF you are holding firm on what you consider fair.
Still back to the initial OP.
Sales are still VERY slow on the gon more is the pity!
I have sold way more gear on eBay than here which as duly noted carries a 10% fee AND 2.9% PayPal fee.
But at least they have sold although I was successful in some clandestine pm exchanges to direct a couple of interested parties from eBay to here instead.
However you cannot count that as a success story for Audiogon, rather my tactics.... Lol. |
Unfortunately I have to disagree on that the majority are asking too much.
It is only the poor market that is driving prices down.
I do not consider at all that 55% of new price for a popular in demand item that is only 3 months old is greedy.
But the amount of either lowball offers received or just plain apathy was an eye opener.
Sure if you list it cheap enough then it will sell and if you do not have much money in it or you just REALLY need the money right away then fine.
But the vast majority I believe are in similar position to myself at upgrade time in that I need a fair price for my old items to go towards my new items.
And we could argue all day on what constitutes fair price.....
|
I agree that the 10% on shipping fees sounds wrong until you stop and think just why eBay did it.
Because of greedy people who found a loophole in eBay's selling system.
They found they could list an item they wanted say $15 total for shipped as $0.01 buy it now and $14.99 shipping and pay basically nothing in fees.
So now all the honest sellers are penalised for their actions and you need to add 10% onto your actual shipping cost to cover this.
As an ebayer of 20 years plus I have seen all their changes for good and bad.
Still if you want a worldwide audience it is the place to be.
They used to cap fees at $250 max but changed that about 3 years ago to $750 max.
So Agon the cheapest place to sell high dollar hifi items still but you do not have the audience of eBay by far. |
It has been 10% fees for years unfortunately.
Only items I know that are less are musical instruments and accessories at 3.5% to match Reverb.com.
It's the price of having worldwide advertising and as far as eBay is concerned all they say is if you don't like it don't use it! |
Yes fair priced cables still sell,just made first Agon sale in some time today, and it was very fairly priced interconnect pair.
But at least a new owner is getting a great deal. |
Grannyring.
In response to your post I can say a resounding YES, and a possible NO.
To explain.
If you have gear from the old regime then yes you are going to suffer large losses selling now ( tell me about it) and its slow and painful and definitely not a chop and change market any longer.
However if you now own gear you bought in the new regime at lot lower cost then it is still feasible to do the flip flop of trying gear out. The cost of entry is much lower so the cost of you selling is much lower and the loss a lot lower. So its potentially still doable.
Its absolutely a buyers market for sure. |
I am afraid I would have to respectfully completely disagree on your eBay assessment tbh.
I have been using ebay for over 20 years, since before they even had pictures and yes it has evolved and become much more expensive to sell but look at the potential customer base!
I still see a LOT of private sellers, especially in the audio and pro audio side and have bought and sold to many like minded enthusiasts over the years and still of late.
Do I like paying 10% commission? Of course not but if the alternative is that or it sits and grows mold in my room then it will have to do.
Yes the whole hifi market is stagnant but it does appear to be worse right here than anywhere else right now.
Just my 3 cents.....
|
Its not just higher priced items, the bottom has definitely fell out of the Agon market.
Another example.
I have some modestly priced cables for sale here and on eBay both same description and price.
Here a lot of views but not one question or offer.
EBay, 4 questions and 7 offers, none of which were seriously out of order or offensive although I chose to hold out for a little closer to my asking price.
Perspective.
|
I seriously doubt it tbh as same items are open to offers on ebay too.
Just one example, there are a pair of speakers for sale by same seller here and on ebay. ebay price 2500, audiogon price 3000.
Now a 500 difference likely means in todays climate that potential buyers are going to skip right past his 3k add and go for the one on ebay at 2500 anyway.
But let us say he made the sale on ebay.
That is going to cost them 250 in ebay fees, so net 2250 ( lets ignore paypal fees for now!)
Sold here at 2500 would cost them 50 in fees, net 2450.
Makes ZERO sense to list with such huge disparate prices or if you are going to I would expect exactly the reverse so more on ebay to help pay for the much higher fees.
And as a 20 year plus ebay seller I do know a small thing or two about the art of selling...lol.
|
Actually I am really not that surprised that a lot of sales have stopped on Agon tbh.
Past few days I have found a number of sellers who have same item on here and ebay ( as do I) BUT.....
They are all asking MORE for the item here than on ebay which is plain STUPID! Some in the order of 300 to 500! Ebay fees are considerably higher than here especially for higher priced goods as they are 10% right up to a max of $750.
So let us say you are selling an item at $3000, on ebay you will pay $300 fees, here you prepay and it is $50, where is the problem in doing the math that selling here will save you $250 in fees alone.
So WTF are they doing asking for MORE on here?
Greedy?
Hoping as it is more a niche website, members will stupidly pay more than on ebay?
You got me!
My last 3 items I sold on ebay at no reserve auctions and best offer and every item ended up selling for MORE than I had them on here for, not the other way round! Yes I still lost more in fees and I would have preferred them to have sold here but if its a dead market here what can you do?
|
I sold all of my gear
But not one single item through Audiogon!
All via eBay and even Craigslist!
Total waste of prepaid fees!
Not happening again.
May be higher fees on eBay but at least stuff is moving at a fair price to me.
Here only stupid offers. |
Nicely said.
Good points imho
|
@tomcarr
I agree it has to be priced right to even stand a chance but there are levels to which you can go.
If for example a 4 month old unit of a very popular and current item costing 4300 cannot fetch even any offers when priced at 2995 then there is something wrong with the market imho.
Maybe just my perspective but I know if I was in the market for that unit 4 months ago when I bought a new one and I had seen one at 2995 that was only 4 months old I would have snapped it up.
Saying that I have just sold within the last week 2 decent price items on fleabay unfortunately with their higher fees of 10% but at least they sold AND at same price I was asking for them here where they received not even one inquiry or offer.
So I am of the opinion that the "lens" look of Audiogon has hurt lets say casual browsers and sales.
At present time I do not think I be listing any more articles here, yes commission is a lot less but if not even going to get an offer it is pointless. Sad state right now.
|
It could be just the time of the year but I do not think so. I mean this is not the first July to December period I have sold gear in and its truly never been like this.
Now small ticket items that are keenly priced are still moving fairly well headphones, cables etc.
However higher priced items have either got to be the absolute flavour of the day or priced stupidly low to sell quickly.
Now if, as some have intimated, that means I need to sell an item that is truly 9.5 out of 10 at 65% off mrsp then its never going to happen! Not here. I would like to sell my items sure but I am darn well not going to give them away.
I do not mind meeting at a fair compromise but right now people are not even talking any numbers.
Imho it is pretty sure out there. |
So a 60% discount from new even if you think the new price was too much is NOT a decent discount?!?!?!
God help us all.......
I'm out of this pointless thread
|
Maybe speaking for myself but I am not talking about older " vintage" gear at all.
I am seeing equipment that is less than 4 months old not even getting a look in at 40% of new. Crazy.
Its a great time to be a buyer and I am also a very shrewd shopper so I know I did not pay over the odds for anything I have. But in the last couple months it has tanked so badly I truly think is not worth listing anything here any more.
Audiogon latest site rehash may have adversely effected sales but it is same on eBay and audiomart for hifi. |
I don't buy into the statement that digital has killed sales, heck we have had digital for years or would you have us believe it has only snapped into focus the last couple of months?
Also while I agree people ate more cautious with their discretionary spending its not gone altogether just not going on hifi.
I have been at this game a long time and it has never been as dire as the last few months, nothing to do with pricing it right unless your idea of pricing it right is 33% of new for a 9/10 status item which is just crazy.
People are spending in other areas.
I listed all my daughters pro audio gear on eBay, everything sold within 3 days inc some expensive guitars and amps.
Now did I sell at give away pricing?
Heck no, more like just above fair market value, something that is not existing in the current used hifi market right now.
Sad state of affairs. |
I am afraid I would have to disagree about pricing it right, I am sure a LOT of people here already have priced their items at less than they are traditionally worth and still not even tirekickers are coming out.
Now I did have a good laugh this morning, my 9.5 out of 10, $3600 speakers I have listed at $1499 got an offer.....of $500.Sort of says it all really.
If that is the state then you can gladly add me to the list of "i wont sell at X"
|
Unfortunately I thought entirely the opposite of pbn ad.
All it seems to have done is to confirm the lunacy rampant in this hobby right now as afar as idiot "buyers" are concerned.
I would say that while yes it garnered a lot of views it did not generate a sale and just dragged the crazies out of hiding and wasted a day of his time with nothing to show for it besides sadness at the state of things.
Just me view.....
|
You only have to do one search and then follow my instructions and then every search after will be in classic view |
Tonykay.
Yes it is very simple to turn off those silly peepholes.
Over on right hand side of page you will see a little box to the right of the sort by drop down choices.
Click it and it will give you choice of classic or grid view, click classic view, now you are all set as site will remember you preference for all subsequent visits and searches.
Try it
|
With that being said I have very quickly sold nearly all my daughters pro music equipment on ebay, meaning guitar, guitar amps and effects pedals, that market is not hurting at all it seems.
|
Never seen anything like the market right now, its a buyers dream come true but that is it.
I actually have an item I would describe as 9.5 out of 10, have it listed here and audiomart at 42% of new price and not even ONE inquiry!
Yes price it low enough and somebody will buy but I am not about to give it away just to make a sale.
That being said for those people who do have some spare money there has probably never been a better time to buy good equipment and I must admit even though I have some items for sale I have still taken advantage and bought items at bargain prices that I really did not have to need...lol. |
