Please give some examples.
sellers trying to sell used product for 10-20% off of list price
I don’t get it. Almost any item here can be bought brand new from a dealer with a full warranty for 20% off - virtually any and all high end product. Some can be bought for close to 30% percent off. Sellers trying to sell year old product for 20% off are delusional, perhaps hoping for someone to naively buy it at their price but I doubt it happens. If the product isn’t in the range of 40-50% off of MSRP I'm not sure why anyone would buy it as often the warranty doesn’t transfer. Factor in sellers asking for 5-6% extra for Paypal plus shipping charges and even a 30% percent discount really is more like 15% off of list- a non starter. Am I the only one doing this math ? I can buy brand new at 25-30% with no extra charge for using paypal or my credit card and minimal shipping. Asking for a friend lol.
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Or, if you do not like the asking price, make an offer. An item for sale on Audiogon is only worth what someone will pay for it. It has nothing to do with the list price or any discounted price. And, if your offer is not accepted, you pass on the item. I agree with the OP that If the product is not in the range of 40-50% off of MSRP, it probably will not get sold. Of course, it also depends on the brand and if the item is in high demand, etc. |
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Excuse me for saying so OP, but I am in retail and I can smell your type from a mile away. You are the type of difficult customer that no retailer wants, but sells to anyway for a couple of reasons. 1) They're having a bad week and it's a big ticket item, or it's been in the store too long anyway. 2) To shut you up an get rid of you, because there aren't too many like you, just a few percentage wise and you serve a purpose once in a while, however unpleasant. You're the type that wants to get the lowest price, fair or unfair, seller be damned. But of course you always will find a seller. The rest of us see it a little differently. |
Not really, and congrats on an amazing sense of smell too but you're wrong. I used to run a nine store high end audio chain in the northeast for 8 years and know the business well; including margins, demo pricing, B stock deals from the manufacturers etc. My comments were about sellers asking unreasonable or uninformed prices for their product that a buyer can buy brand new for similar money. Asking ten percent off of list price for a product that anyone can buy brand new for 10-15% off of list makes no sense. Most high end product can be bought at a discount just by asking- not being a "grinder" or being obnoxious. Most dealers will work with a serious buyer and put a deal together. I guess you don't. Thanks for sniffing me out though lol. |
facten1,101 posts Sure, Reno Hi fi in Nevada- great to buy from, pleasant, easy to deal with. Sells Pass brand new at healthy discounts. Several NYC dealers do the same with high end brands. Several in Delaware. A couple in Chicago I've bought Focal and REL from, brand new, authorized dealers. Pretty common, all easy to work with... |
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Lumping all gear together is a major mistake in terms of pricing. McIntosh discounts for new products are rare and their used gear holds its value better than the market for amps, pre amps and tube gear. There are high end products that sell at a discount to be sure, but not all so. The price of used gear is a good reference to the discount available for new gear. |
cowan217, "Glupson- do you want my resume or Linkedin profile, my marriage records, bank accounts, tax statements? lol- "Not at all. I was simply curious how come you have quit something that you still have very strong feelings about. To the point of starting a thread about something that is so simple. I am not sure there is any 9-store high-end equipment chain left in the Northeastern U.S.A. (if that is where your chain was) so the only conclusion we can draw is that business model was not that successful. Maybe resume would really be in order, now when I think about it. |
I agree with Ihasaguy, this topic is way to general. Some gear has good margin and some dealers are willing to give a decent discount. Others not so much, or pricing is policed heavily by manufacturers and their distributors. High end audio is much like cars. Drive it off the lot they lose value unless the car is highly sought after. That being said, much like cars, in audio there are ways to work something out with dealers, such as better trade in values etc. if you can get them to discount the item for various reasons. In my view, 10% on a used item that isn’t highly coveted seems a bit low, and at some point may make sense to just buy new to get full warranty. |
@cowan217 I empathize with your premise. On the flip side, there are plenty of low ballers who want to offer a seller 30-50% of their asking price. That is also frustrating. All of this is what makes a market. The Audiogon Bluebook is a handy tool. Also doing research as to sold sales on eBay and possibly elsewhere helps. If I run into a seller who is unrealistic as to their asking price, I try to educate them politely and provide evidence. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes not and I see their listing remaining unsold over time. |
"Can always go down but not up as a seller."That is what I thought until recently. A friend of mine was selling a car asking $6000. It was, by all accounts, as low as anyone could ask for it. The car was nothing fancy and is relatively rare on the streets. To make it even more unusual, it had manual transmission. If you wanted that kind, you really had to look for it and wait until one showed up. He posted ads somewhere, Internet and some print. Three phone calls. Everybody wanted a discount, offering $5000 or so. He did not budge and gave up the idea of selling it. A couple of weeks later, another friend, more experienced with car sales, told him to list it for $7200. "Barely anyone was interested for $6000 and nobody wanted to give that much, who would be interested at $7200?" Still, he listened and listed for $7200. He was overwhelmed with calls. People were insisting to buy it, sight unseen. In the end, he told three first callers/prospective buyers that the first one to come to pick it up will get it. The buyer said he had been looking for that kind of car for a while. It sold for $6500 and the buyer was very happy to have gotten a discount. |
I completely agree with the OP. The B&M shops I frequent I'm up front with so I don't waste their time and they can show me the products I can afford, floor models etc. When I see used items here for -20% I just assume they're new to the game and the lowballers will straighten them out. Shipping, paypal, and AG fees will add at least 10% and around here most dealers charge exactly 50% list for used trade ins. |
iv'e been trying to buy second hand nighthawks for a few months most sellers asking 200-300 for a used pair when they are 250 new with free shipping. so i gave up and bought an open box item with warranty for 200 . i like the audiogon board since i can always make an offer. when i bought my guitar amp it took me 8 months (almost everyday at reverb and ebay)to find the right amp at the right price .be patient and make offers if you really should have it will be there at the right condition and price eventually(i hope...). loved that guy who said he could smell you....too many years serving costumers so when they are outside the store they can unleash that pure hate that's been building up |
following my watched list, I'm often shocked how high some used gear sells for, as well as how many low ball offers are accepted...there is a surprising amount of year old gear at super high prices...but there are also a lot of amateur sellers as well as sellers simply expecting an offer well below their asking price...as said above, make an offer or pass it by... |
I do not buy or sell on Audiogon, as I live in Canada. I do buy and sell on Canuck Audio Mart though, and have noticed a spiraling trend lately. I used to always list my gear at what I considered a reasonable resale price. Most of the time I would get, or close to my asking price. These days though, I find that lowballing is the norm. I tend to get ridiculous offers that I do not bother responding to. So now I tend to advertise at a price point that is too high, and negotiate down from there. |
We have entered an age of marketing in which every seller expects that the buyer will offer them 25%-30% lower than the posted price. So they jack up the price to ridiculous number and when they drop down to a reasonable price the customer is supposed to think he got a bargain. Its not just here. Go into retail store. Everything is on sale with 25%, 30. 40% off. Its not really a sale nor is the MSRP the real price. But everyone loves a bargain. So you play the game. Look at the advertised msrp. Most of the time its exorbitant. No one would pay that price. But when you get the 25-30% off you can brag about how good a deal you got on that Item. |
artemus_5 Absolutely. That is exactly how it is nowadays. It's a known fact in retail, and even in reseller circles. That putting something on "sale", even if it's available elsewhere (or even the same site, think Ebay/Amazon) for less, will sell your item. People jump at the word sale, even if it's not really. How many people actually look at the unit price on a supermarket for instance? And since they now expect a deal on everything, and it's considerably easier for people to be brave with negotiating tactics online, as opposed to in person or even on the phone. Now everyone throws out low balls all day, and beat up the sellers. How many ads have you seen that say "low ballers will be ignored" on Craigslist for instance? My point here is that those people are most surely not selling their gear at their asking price, and it's only a starting point. Unless they get lucky that is. |
I've stopped listing things at reasonable prices since the bottom feeders will offer me 50% of what I'm asking. Frankly Audiogon has become a toilet bowl of lowballers. Part of this pricing BS is I'm sorry to say folks that want to steal stuff to ship to Asia to make a profit. Back in the day people were happy to get a mint item for half price.. I wish I could buy a nice 2 year old 911 for half price HAHAHAHAHA! |
@teo-audio...……………. Then I got one hell of a bargain! It is a decent tuner but no where as good as my MR88.. I replaced a Magnum Dynalab MD90 and Signal Sleuth with the MR85. The MR 85 doesn't sound quite as good, but close to the Magnum combo. I only bought it to match the rest of the McIntosh stack in my other system. I guess I should call Mike Sastra @ AC and thank him for such a great deal! I stand corrected from my above post. Never in a million years would I have thought that tuner is still worth that kind of money. |
