Is Agon becoming the eBay of audio?

I respond that I am interested in items being accurately graded.  
If that makes me an Audiogon cop, then fine...send me a badge.

+1...I do the same thing.

The OP is so correct about the lack of compliance with the grading system in the last couple of years. I get so annoyed that I leave them a message on their ad making sure that it is visible...not private. In fairness, sometimes they thank me and correct their ads. I always say it courteously, but there are others who get nasty and ask me if I'm the Audiogon police, or if I'm actually interested in buying the item. I respond that I am interested in items being accurately graded.   
If that makes me an Audiogon cop, then fine...send me a badge.

I haven't sold anything on here for awhile but never ran into issues selling, or for that matter buying on A'gon. That said, lately I've been more inclined like trelja and have given amps , speakers, cd players , cables to friends (my age group or younger) to hopefully have them enjoy a better listening experience 

Laughing...

On a serious tip, eBay, will always draw the larger population.
At present, there are equal numbers of Professional and amateur sellers.

Audiogon will always play a smaller role as it does not have the high-visibility factor.

One creep sold me a different Amp than the one pictured and ten years
older . Told me I should have checked the pic myself .
All A-gon did was erase the neg feedback I gave him with zero reply
to my e-mails .

+1 tooblue.

I've been selling off a bunch, here, AA, USA Audio Mart, and ebay.  Things definitely seem different these days from when I've bought and sold from 1999 - 2016.

For one, it seems there are more folks who flake out than I ever previously experienced.  Next, you list a component at $2000, and receive more and lower (like $350) lowball offers than you'd ever expect or believe.  In all honesty, I'd prefer finding a younger person or someone of more modest means to give these things to for free than some of the people I've received emails from.

And not wanting to disappoint anyone, I rate everything conservatively.  Unless it's new and only had the box opened to check it, I don't rate anything a 9.  An 8/10 to me is something used, but otherwise in very good to excellent condition, something our partners would feel proud of, cosmetically.  These day I rate most things one step lower (maybe I'm in the wrong?) at 7/10, which brings a thousand questions ala, "there's a 9/10 that looks worse than yours...what are you trying to pull here / is this the right person / are these the actual pictures / how did you acquire this item / does the thing even work???"

Best is a guy with ZERO feedback on several sites and I'd never encountered previously who gave me that uh oh feeling from jump street.  I've been on this site, AA, and ebay since 1999, and in the end, he insults me yet again, claiming my "stellar feedback" must have come from people I've fooled (or shilled?)- sorry, Michael / Swampwalker, his words, not mine...  Thankfully, in the end, this one didn't get done with him.  Let's just say sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make

Well said, tooblue. 

I honestly look at these misrepresented adds as a good indicator of who I am dealing with or might I say, not dealing with.

I agree it's annoying that many sellers don't seem to bother reading through the Audiogon Grading Scale rules (also annoying when buyers ask "why the 8/10 rating? are there scratches?"), but is it really that big a deal? 7/10 and 9/10 are mostly the same for my purposes. If it's rated 9/10+, and seller didn't list "first owner, bought yyyy-mm-dd", and it doesn't have great pics that show a pristine unit with packing, then be suspicious and ask questions.

Audiogon is no different from ebay in many regards.

Audiogon is smaller, audio focused and the average customer is more interested in audio and sound and probably has more disposable income than the average ebay customer.

Not sure Audiogon does anything special from a quality assurance or customer satisfaction perspective to distinguish itself?   Seems like pretty much anything goes.   

I was looking at a power amplifier on Audiogon. The amp looked okay in the photos, but the boxes looked like they had been shipped numerous times. I asked the seller if he knew how many owners it had. He answered that he was the original owner. When I enquired about the box that looked like it had been in a war, the seller had no answer, but repeated he was the original owner. Bye-bye