Most Underrated/Overrated Component or Brand

[Magfinity]

This is NOT the sellers being clowns. If someone sees the going price is 4x msrp and I got one, I'm for sure gonna cash in on that. It is all the talk on ak and other forums drooling all over the Pio/Mar/Sui/Mac gear that runs the prices up well past a premium position.

Sellers are clowns, they inflated and FLOODED the market. Not sure how well you're versed in eBay selling. But I know guys that put a speaker on there. And sell it to themselves for double the price and PUT up a new advertisement the next month. To artificially inflate the market (completed searches) well knowing some knucklehead will buy it at that price the more it's evident it sold for his asking.

It's business I am around that daily. The forums talk about it because they run into these products on the online market for such prices. And use it as a measuring stick for their attic dusty one they might have.

And you're CORRECT you're not a seller ,you're just a dude that rides their inflation wave and I don't blame you either. You're absolutely correct there .

In the end the true dumbass to me , is the guy spending 3-4k on a old crusty 70ts marantz, pioneer, sansui. That's well in secondhand higher end echelon gear spendure easily outdoing that gear.

And before I get burned on that one , mind you u have an entire marantz stack myself 80ts . So I get the nostalgia and cool factor there. So not bashing vintage...

 

[lorne]

This is really a hard question to address. And I'm really only knowing about a fraction of vintage gear from back in the days. But ... gotta say from experience ... the most underrated thingy I have is the Shure V15 IV phono cartridge.

Years ago I bought one with a broken stylus. Then I had JICO of Japan make a reproduction of the original stylus. It came delivered with a test that was graphed out on paper. All things considered, it was an affordable and worthy investment at the time.

I removed the brush gadget. I had solid reasons I won't get into here except to say I never regretted doing so.

The IV version always seems to get dissed in favor of other Shure carts — either earlier versions or later ones in the V series. But I've been so impressed by this cartridge. It plays damnwell everything with no fuss or bother. It's dead quiet, easily adjusted, forgiving, and tracks even cheesy records like gangbusters.

Years ago I had MC carts that were more dynamic, but that virtue IMHO only gets you so far in terms of cost and your salient musical interest. For return on the $ and versatility, the V15 IV is ideal, and I don't think it gets enough love.

 

[E2]

Clowns writing about Clowns. That's overrated.

 

[THF2]

• Sellers are clowns, they inflated and FLOODED the market. Not sure how well you're versed in eBay selling. But I know guys that put a speaker on there. And sell it to themselves for double the price and PUT up a new advertisement the next month. To artificially inflate the market (completed searches) well knowing some knucklehead will buy it at that price the more it's evident it sold for his asking.

It's business I am around that daily. The forums talk about it because they run into these products on the online market for such prices. And use it as a measuring stick for their attic dusty one they might have.

And you're CORRECT you're not a seller ,you're just a dude that rides their inflation wave and I don't blame you either. You're absolutely correct there .

In the end the true dumbass to me , is the guy spending 3-4k on a old crusty 70ts marantz, pioneer, sansui. That's well in secondhand higher end echelon gear spendure easily outdoing that gear.

And before I get burned on that one , mind you u have an entire marantz stack myself 80ts . So I get the nostalgia and cool factor there. So not bashing vintage...

@Magfinity

I have liked and replied to your previous posts with supportive comments.

That said, I think that it might be worth categorizing “sellers” to the best of my ability:

• There are those that troll estate sales, flea markets, tag sales, etc. to find the “scroe” on just about anything with the intentions of selling it for as much as they can get. Their selling price is dictated (in large part) on what those products are selling for elsewhere. They may be factoring the time and the effort spent in finding these market places keeping in mind that not all us are willing to spend the time to visit these places (in other words, they may be performing a service)
• There are other “sellers” that are more specialized in that they will invest time and $’s into a repair/refurbish in order to maximize selling price with (again) factoring in whatever their investment is
• Other “sellers” might value their items for nostalgic or to satisfy the liquidation of an estate.

Knowing the AKer’s as I do, this will certainly invite many interesting replies!

There is another point that I would like to make with examples:

• let’s say that one is a collector or wants to buy an original Mitchell Garcia 300 fishing reel. MSRP was ~$37 in 1964. Adjusted price using today’s $’s would be $376 (using the govt. CPI calculator). That’s roughly 10X of MSRP.
• Let’s say that one wants to buy an Wilson vintage golf club that might have had an original MSRP of $85. That club can now fetch 10x or 20x the original price based on what someone is willing to pay for it
• Vintage cars ( I don’t think I need to go there as I am no expert and there are several threads that are already in place here at AK)
• That leaves Vintage Audio. So yes there newbies or uninformed people that will pay ridiculous prices for gear that is not in tip-top shape. The reasons for this behavior have been covered so many times here at AK, I’ve lost count. Having had the unique and wonderful experience of actually selling this gear as brand new, I simply can’t comprehend buying a used pair of JBL L100’s (underrated/overrated, who’s to say!) for $1,500 when I sold them brand new in a box with a choice of color on the foam grills for $599 a pair ( which BTW would be around $4,000 in today $’s which is not that far off from the MSRP of the newly released L100’s). Others that did not have that experience might choose to do otherwise.

In conclusion, everything is relative and people will pay based on the value that they place on an item.

 

[painttoad]

Their selling price is dictated (in large part) on what those products are selling for elsewhere.

what i have seen around here is people asking for the same price as is being asked elsewhere, not what the gear is actually selling for.

 

[Swanny88]

Back to the original topic/question.

Most Underrated: Acoustic Research (Classic XA Turntable and early AR speakers).

Most Overrated: JBL speakers. There are some great models…the brand certainly has some loyalty.

 

[THF2]

what i have seen around here is people asking for the same price as is being asked elsewhere, not what the gear is actually selling for.

@painttoad

Forgive me for asking but, can you please differentiate between “the price being asked elsewhere” Vs. “What the gear is actually selling for” ?

Not looking to contest what you have said but, i am looking to understand it better

 

[painttoad]

@painttoad

Forgive me for asking but, can you please differentiate between “the price being asked elsewhere” Vs. “What the gear is actually selling for” ?

Not looking to contest what you have said but, i am looking to understand it better

on ebay there is a side menu that will show completed sales and the price for which it sold.

 

[THF2]

on ebay there is a side menu that will show completed sales and the price for which it sold.

View attachment 3281572

Ahhh…I now see your point.

Thank you for elaborating.

Yes, people use different data points to price out their sell.

My question is, all other things being equal, what is the best approach for either an overrated or an underrated brand given that price paid seems to factor into the equation? By way of example, let’s use a McIntosh “anything” that would be considered “overrated” based on its price. Then one day, someone finds a real “scroe” they can buy that overrated McIntosh for a ridiculously low price. Would that buyer (who might have previously considered it be ”overrated”) change their mind?

Very curious to see the responses to this one!

 

[Blue Shadow]

Would that buyer (who might have previously considered it be ”overrated”) change their mind?

There are a number of folks that need paper profits when they buy gear so yes those would change their mind, pocket the paper profit and enjoy the unit, knowing they are making money which can't be spent until the unit is sold.

My brother has a nice rig, I use his preamp and power amp here and he has one of my receivers so he is not a collector or whatever but knows the gear. He is amazed that a high percentage of the ak collective need this hobby to pay back. Different from many hobbies, current hobbies like flying drones where you pay to play. But like many vintage hobbies they need to pay back so bottom line just enjoy and don't bitch about it either way.