Are your used items selling?

Subaruguru,

"And the bushman hides his illegal tradings by starting a war"????? Come on now, don't be so vague and cute. Spit it out. Step up to the pump Mr. Car Salesman and tell us what's on your mind. Can we pronounce Nevill Chamberlain?

Jmcgrogan,

I put 'sale pending' on my last ad once I had a committed buyer. Offers didn't increase. I think your experience was coincidence.

Personally, if I see 'sale pending' on an ad I don't bother making an offer. Maybe I just haven't seen a deal I thought was worth it yet.

Finally... if I say I have a buyer but I don't, what does that make me?

Tobias,

I agree with you. I don't look at "sale pending" adds. I also agree that it would bother my conscience to say I had a sale when I did not. Plus, if I did, I don't think I would write it in a thread. I hate sales situations where the people or businesses are untrustworthy and manipulative.

On used equipment sales:
Industry retail sales are low for equipment and music. Both are frivolous purchases and people aren’t as free these days with their discretionary income. I have a friend who owns a high-end store who also does Home Theater Installations. Both are down tremendously.

Of course used sales would follow the same path…sort of. Because new sales of equipment is down, those who are buying are looking for better deals so it would seem logical that more people would turn to used equipment. Also, because people are hurting financially and more people are out-of-work (I have been since April until last Thursday) more people are selling equipment because they need money.

It seems there is more equipment for sale and that, in general, prices for the equipment is much better than it was before. A buyers market if there ever was one. Because sales prices are dropping competition is up so the gap between those who sell and those who don’t is getting wider.

There are so many variables in why an item does or does not sell.
1. Perceived value. The greater the perceived value the better chance for interest and ultimately the sale.
2. The Add. There is almost nothing I will buy anymore if there isn’t a picture. In fact, I won’t even look at a add if there aren’t pictures…unless I am already intimately aware of the product. I won’t look at equipment that doesn’t show the original retail. And, if the person inflates the original retail (like when new models come out at higher prices people will try and say their item is the NEW higher retail), I immediately close the add and would not consider buying from them.
3. Feedback. The lower the feedback the less comfortable I am to buy. And I would only consider 0 feedback under extreme circumstances.
4. Equipment model. How well known is the product? How much in demand is the type of equipment? How rare is the model? How diligent is the manufacture in protecting distribution and pricing? How good is the strategy for new model introductions by the company?
5. Availability. How easy is it to get, how many of them are out in circulation.

charles

Tobias, it didn't make sense to me either. I never look at items marked sale pending unless I'm very interested. Then I just tell the seller to let me know if the buyer backs out. This was very strange, I actually had more offers after the sale pending sign was put in place. Not only that, one gentleman went so far as to tell me he could get me the money quicker than the potential buyer I'm holding the item for, even after I explained the situation to him. He tried to tell me that old 'bird in the hand...' line. I still refused, as I have a sale pending. Which obviously means different things to different people.

Agree with the 'Sale Pending'-thing dissent; in fact, if your ad becomes stale after a couple of viewing weeks, you might want to add something along the lines of 'Still Available' to your title copy, so people won't assume that it's already gone or something.

I think a lot of what moves and what doesn't, particularly when it comes to digital and also cables, has to do with what has 'buzz' - what's perceived as being hot or not at the moment. I don't think price, except for something way out of the ballpark, will have too much to do with response, since people will still inquire with lower offers if you've only set it a little too high. Probably the worst thing for a quick sale is if your piece was the hottest thing going in its catagory and price range just a couple of years ago, and the resale market is now substantially saturated and depreciated. The other killer can be if the 'next big advancement' has just come along to render your gear now 'out of date', at least until the latest craze blows over.

Recently, a currently-manufactured, well-known and reviewed DAC I was selling took the whole 30 days of the ad to move, while just half a year ago when I bought it myself on the 'Gon, the unit at the same price had multiple quick responses with offers to buy arriving after mine, according to the first seller (whom I trust). Just persevere and you will probably be rewarded, but keep in mind that it is common for people generally to slow down a bit on making discretionary purchases for themselves as the gift-giving holidays approach. Also, I think it can be important as to when your gear is listed on the 'New Today' page before getting shuttled off to the catagorized listings; I began that ad I refered to on the Friday of a 3-day holiday weekend, not a smart idea in retrospect. I suspect that the best initial response is generated by ads posted at the beginning of the work week.