It’s gotten around to that time again when I’m selling something old and buying something new, and so I put in an enquiry with my local HiFi shop (in the UK for context).
They’ve offered me £1,300 off the item I want to buy if I trade-in my speakers. Speakers I paid the same shop £4,300 for 18 months ago and currently retail for over £6k. They’re in perfect cosmetic condition, and I’ve retained the massive boxes for the speakers and stands, at some (!) inconvenience to my long-suffering better half.
My first reaction was: that’s just offensive. This hobby is just not sustainable for me if I can’t get at least 50% back of what I paid for an item, and that doesn’t seem too much to ask considering the condition they’re in, and the fact that I spent over £8k in total at the same shop for my whole system. Isn’t a good long-term relationship between shop and enthusiast something they would want?
I hope this doesn’t come across as too rant-y, but I am a bit frustrated that I have to go through eBay every time just to get a reasonable price for my gear. I’m interested in others’ thoughts - is your local store better at trade-in offers than mine, or do you also avoid them and sell by other means?
[I was going to post this in the Audio Gear category, but since I’m not really talking about a specific piece of equipment I’ve left it here. Happy for the mods to move it if they want to.]
That’s not unusual for trade-ins (I’m in the US, BTW). Remember that the retail price has a fairly high markup for a bricks-and-mortar shop, so the way the shop is looking at the trade-in is in terms of what they’ll pay relative to their new wholesale cost for the same item. As for whether they’d want to cut you a special deal to maintain a long-term relationship, it’s their business decision whether the deal now will be more advantageous to them than customer acquisition/retention later. Given how many HiFi buyers are moving away from physical shopping to online, giving a deal now in the hopes of later business may not be such a great choice for the shop.
I buy everything off the likes of your good self when you dispose of it on ebay. Stuff definitely makes more money on ebay if it’s a dealer selling it so they do seem to make a profit on your gear.
Either in house resale or offloading.
You are not being ranty at all. It is a painful experience when your selling dealer feels comfirtable making profit a second time. E-bay is not a comfortable place. There is Audiogon.
I’m in Canada and as both buyer and seller I’ve had more success on Canuck Audio Mart.
There are reliable sellers and buyers there but as always caveat emptor and exercise caution. Most sellers are enthusiasts trading and upgrading gear and the community provides ratings.
Traded my Hegel H190 for a H390 about a year ago - very fair deal indeed from my dealer, no complaints. Maybe I could have got another $100 or so by selling online, but I don’t need that hassle TBH.
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AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
8
The only dealers I have inquired of taking gear in trade here in Florida have been of a similar disposition, very low trade offers.
And you know it cost them my business as I then shifted gear via Usaudiomart even though I hate shipping delicate hifi gear and then bought my gear in same place.
Good luck.
eBay I try to avoid for selling as 15% commission is rather greedy too.
I’m in Washington state and have been working with my local dealer for 15 years. He either gives me a good trade, or tells me honestly he can’t give me what it’s worth and I should sell myself. More often than not, I trade. If it’s current product and within a year or so, he’ll often give me what I paid if I’m upgrading in the same brand.
Well I’ve just been through a fairly radical and expensive upgrade of my system. Amp and pre-amp I bought new. And apart from most of my cables everything else was bought through the Australian Stereonet website (classifieds). Works really well and is by and large populated with genuine audiophile hobbyists. Tried to negotiate with my local dealer on a trade-in at one stage but had similar experience to yours in it wasn’t financially worth it. Did much better selling on Stereonet and its a much better platform for moving audio gear than EBay mainly because it specialises in audio and home theatre and you’re dealing directly with other audio enthusiasts. Stereonet is also in Asia and the UK although I think the Aus site is probably the busiest. Worth checking out.
Yep, eBay is what I’ve always used as well. But it is a hassle, particularly with 30kg speakers (of course HiFi shops know this which is partly why their offers are so low).
When I sold my Luxman gear I had 25 or so ‘watchers’ but no offers or enquiries for about two months - I later realised most of those were probably HiFi shops just interested in the current market value.
This is a bit of a vicious circle, isn’t it? I WANT to support my local HiFi shop. I love going to the listening sessions they put on, and as I don’t go to shows it’s the only way to hear things that I could never afford, like the new £30k Linn Klimax DSM.
But an offer like 30% of what I paid such a short time ago almost makes me feel they’re trying to take me for a fool, and makes me much less likely to buy from them in the future.
The hifi shops usually have access to market value information stated as: trade in and direct. I get similar information from Audiogon by subscribing monthly as I have been buying and trading for the last year or two regularly.