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Struck Gold at the Thrift Store!

Squidward said:
...discuss amongst yourselves!

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41269
Click to expand...


It's funny - in the first thread, there was at least a few AK'ers who were willing give him the benefit of the doubt. I suspect that won't happen THIS time.

I really, really get annoyed by people like this trying to get around AudioKarma's classified policy. The guy's making hundreds in profit on this gear, and he can't shell out the two dollars for a legitimate ad that benefits both himself AND the website? :scratch2:
 
My take on it all.....

I find it in pretty bad taste to tell everyone youonly paid 60 bucks for something and then ask for 600. It's fine to make a profit, I do it too, but I'm not about to tell how much I make. If I had found this gear, and wanted to sell it on AK, I would not have disclosed the price I paid and I would have asked far less than ebay prices. If I'd have wanted to sell it on ebay and bypass AK, then I wouldn't even have mentioned the gear here.

Is selling to AKers about making a profit? Yes and no. I bought a set of Tannoy monitor reds a while back for 50 bucks. I sold them on ebay for 1200. Was I wrong for not offering them to an AKer for 55? I don't think so...... What I didn't do was tell everyone what I paid and then ask if they wanted to give me XXXX for them.

On the other hand I HAVE sold gear to other AKers for what I paid for it, even less sometimes. I've also given stuff away just so that someone could use it. (whoever was looking for a DUAL spindle...I mailed it yesterday), I also shipped out a Dynaco ST-70 yesterday to an AKEr I have never met. He said the cheque was in the mail.......I trust him. Would I trust everyone on AK.........?? Would you......????

I guess it comes down to this, it's fine to make a buck, but go about it with some tact.
 
I think in my case I just feel foolish when I congratulate someone on a great score.I love hearing(and telling) the stories of finding nice gear,since most of us love this stuff.Then when they flip it on Ebay right away,it just feels a little deceptive to me.Just sell it on the bay and dont brag about what you paid for it,and wait for us to congratulate you.Do I flip stuff on Ebay?Sure,I do.But if I find something of real value,I try it out for a while in my system first,then Ill sell it if its something I dont think I can use.The fun for most of us is uncovering buried treasure.
Jimmy
 
I have to say this thread had been most entertaining

Now dont go getting all pissed off at me, I just had to add something. :D

RC
 
This whole post by KRIMNEY:

"I find it in pretty bad taste to tell everyone youonly paid 60 bucks for something and then ask for 600. It's fine to make a profit, I do it too, but I'm not about to tell how much I make. If I had found this gear, and wanted to sell it on AK, I would not have disclosed the price I paid and I would have asked far less than ebay prices. If I'd have wanted to sell it on ebay and bypass AK, then I wouldn't even have mentioned the gear here.

Is selling to AKers about making a profit? Yes and no. I bought a set of Tannoy monitor reds a while back for 50 bucks. I sold them on ebay for 1200. Was I wrong for not offering them to an AKer for 55? I don't think so...... What I didn't do was tell everyone what I paid and then ask if they wanted to give me XXXX for them.

On the other hand I HAVE sold gear to other AKers for what I paid for it, even less sometimes. I've also given stuff away just so that someone could use it. (whoever was looking for a DUAL spindle...I mailed it yesterday), I also shipped out a Dynaco ST-70 yesterday to an AKEr I have never met. He said the cheque was in the mail.......I trust him. Would I trust everyone on AK.........?? Would you......????

I guess it comes down to this, it's fine to make a buck, but go about it with some tact."
Is my sentiments excactly.

Also if I found something worth $1000 and I paid $50 or less for it, Sure I'm going to
find everything out about it and probably sell it because I could really use the money
being recently laid off and all, but I wouldn't come here and say hey I paid $50 for it,
how much is it worth and how cool is it because I want to sell it, want to buy it for xxxx.

I go out garaging and thrifting all the time looking for stuff for myself/for my friends
and for stuff I can make money on to pay bills or buy more gear with. But I love audio
and can repair gear so I have a house full of it. I trade with people/make good deals
with people/help others out when I can. But I believe there is a good Karma way to do
it and a bad KARMA way to do it. I try to do it the good KARMA way and hope others
do also!
 
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I never asked for any information about this equipment, nor was I 'mining' for information. You are assuming that. Like you, I do this for fun. I have a day job, so the ebay thing is somethinig I do for fun money to support my golf habbit. I've learned a lot about a lot of things over the years and I'm developing an appreciation for vintage audio as I have antiqiues and collectibles, vintage porcelian lamps, fishing lures, modern era furniture, vintage silver plate and metalware, ivory, glassware, ect My house is scattered with the friuts of my hobby; some I sell and some I keep.

Take a look at my ebay feedback... 170 transactions with 100% positive feedback! If you count off ebay and no feedbacks, the number is more like 250. I understand the value of reputation and trust. Like you, I've shipped plenty of stuff to perfect strangers before payment arrived or checks cleared. I've had ongoing dialog with buyers and sellers and I've partipated (without incident) in many other forums.

I was kind of pumped about the Yamaha system on Friday. I had this idea of using it to build a surround sound system in the playroom, but the reality is that is at least a few years away when I will hopefully have more time to enjoy it.

Honestly, the reason I listed it so quickly is that my wife and I were kind of having a spat on Saturday regarding all my 'crap' accumulating in the garage. That morning, she went out in the garage, opened the freezer door, and one of my Bertagni speakers comes crashing down on her arm, reducing her to tears. We got into it and I said WTF, I'll just get rid of it.

I won't post anymore regarding my thrift-store hobby. I think I've learned my lesson in that department. I'm still at a loss to explain how any of you feel that my buying and selling stuff I own is any of your business or why you think I'm greedy for doing so. You seem to think I should offer it to you under market value just because you're the self-proclaimed gurus, defenders of the faith; or that by finding it first, I somehow robbed you of the opportunity. Perplexing...

If you look back at this thread, through all the ranting and raving of a couple of you, you'll see the only question I asked was the specs of the M-2. Some of you have somehow twisted that to include words like greed, 'vampire', and 'parasite'. Watching you guys pile on reminds me of the behavior of little kids at the playground; picking on the new kid.. A self-righteous mob mentality.

I'm through with this thread. You guys can rave on if it makes you feel good or it gives you something constructive to do.
 
Pjones2127 I personally see the need to sell stuff sometimes when the profit is so
huge and I understand what you are doing, "It might not be my thing but that is
allright"

The problem that most have with your post and others we've seen of yours is the
fact you tell us how much you paid for it and then offered to sell it to us at inflated
ebay prices.

If you have something you paid little for and your going to keep it then by all means
tell us about it. But what you did was kinda like saying hey look I got this great deal
that you did not now if you want it your going to give me 10 times what I paid for it.
And that's not nice nor the KARMA way!
 
pjones2127 said:
I never asked for any information about this equipment, nor was I 'mining' for information.
Click to expand...

That's not true. Examples:

"What are the specs for this amp??"

"I'm thinking of building a surround sound system. What speakers do you think would go best with it?"

"Can anyone tell me the difference between the AC input and the DC input on the big amp. Which one should i plug the preamp into?"

"One of the 10" woofers in teh Fisher speakers has a rattle in it. The cone and surrounds look good. Is there any way to troubleshoot it?"

"Is there some way to "Lube" this switch mechanism? Do they tend to get stuck like this? Will detox help?"
 
He can't see the forest because the trees are in the way...

pjones2127 said:
I won't post anymore regarding my thrift-store hobby. I think I've learned my lesson in that department. I'm still at a loss to explain how any of you feel that my buying and selling stuff I own is any of your business or why you think I'm greedy for doing so. You seem to think I should offer it to you under market value just because you're the self-proclaimed gurus, defenders of the faith; or that by finding it first, I somehow robbed you of the opportunity. Perplexing...
Click to expand...

I think the root of the problem is that you are posting on an audio hobby board, and you really need a "thrift-store hobby" board. Your commerce is not our business, and no one else made it so, untill you went and posted it for public consumption. I don't think anyone thought you had an intention of offering to sell it here for less than market value because you were a helpful member of the community or anything, I think people just feel insulted when they congratulate you on your good fortune, and then you turn around and try to make an obvious fast buck off of them.
 
pjones2127,

I can see your point of view regarding kids and family - I have 3 young kids and a slightly tolerant wife. As long as she's not tripping over things it's all OK. But when a little Radio Shack Minimus 7 speaker fell 1 foot off the TV shelf onto the hand of our 13 month old and his finger swelled up bigger than his thumb they were out of there and no stereo anywhere the kids can go. My stuff is packed up and put on shelves and generally not used! I rotate receivers with headphones in the bedroom and another receiver in the basement on a shelf out of reach of the kids which plays kids music almost all day long.

As for posting here about your great find, and then asking $599 for it not even a day later - imagine if that was an in person face-to-face conversation with a neighbour. For example....what it you bought a china plate for $2 at a garage sale and your neighbour, an ardent plate collector, excitedly told you it was worth as much as $400 on eBay. So you then offer it to him for $400. The message that comes across is thanks for the free advice, and now pay me for it. The next time you show up with a plate your now less trusting neighbor will tell you it's worth $10, but he'll give you $5 for it. You go on eBay and find out it's worth as much as $400, so you go over and complain to your neighbour about how he tried to rip you off....and the war begins....

stick around AK - you can make some friends. You seem to have good luck finding neat stuff, but just keep it to yourself (as I'm sure many here do :naughty: ) and do the research about value on eBay and elsewhere. Offer it for sale here in the classified section, not in a 'hey look what I found' post, or just quietly put it on eBay. Many members here post all the time, and also sell tons of stuff on eBay - they just don't say much about it at all on AK.
 
I have a feeling that the old adage,"fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me" might be applicable here. Everyone here understands 'Homerbrain"'s decision and why he made it. That will undoubtedly affect his future relationships with some if not all of the members aware of that position on commerce and audio gear. Caveat Emptor - but the seller needs to realize that you can't retain anonymity on a small forum like this for long. The cat's out of the bag now. He is holding the noose - let's see what he does with it.

As for my personal opinion? This is America. We can choose to do whatever we want. It is sad that these days, no one wants to accept that there might be consequences or repercussions to those choices. When you run afoul of the 'community', and cry "hey, that's unfair"! No it isn't. You chose to go against the grain of the community you chose to join. That they found your actions toward them unconscionable - is the right of the community members. Do what you will, but don't expect everyone to like it. They don't have to. Political correctness doesn't apply here.
 
My .02 cents. I have no problem with what he did. He found a great deal, didn't need it, and sold it at a nice profit. I would have done the same thing - jeezus christ - a $540.00 profit!! That's great for him. As for him asking for advice here? So what, we all ask for advice. Advice is free, take it. Maybe someday he can contribute something back to the person who took the time and offer their advice to him - like a nice stereo find? So he didn't sell it to any AK'er first. So what? He had a choice of selling it here for maybe $200.00 at most - and that's a stretch, or selling it quick and easy on ebay for $600.00! No brainer for me here folks - ebay it is. I have kids, a wife, and bills like anyone else here, and $600.00 buys a lot of school supplies and diapers and love around here. I like everone here on AK, but I love my family more - nothing personal, but that's life. At best he dangled a carrot in front of some "possible" yammi lovers here. Hey, you know what, there's plenty more carrots out there. I say cut the guy some slack. I've seen worse types pop in here before.

But hey, that's just my opinion. And you know what they say about opinions....they're like :yikes:
 
waylyn5945 said:
"Amen" and cheers to T.A. for carrying the ball for the rest of the AK members! :thmbsp:
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Couldn't agree more. Thanks T.A.


One more thing regarding pj. As I read this thread couldn't help but see that in spite of the many comments made, he still does not see that he took advantage of AK. Made even more obvious because he had done exactly the same thing previously.
If nothing else he has thick skin.

Now we know.


Terry
 
Sure I like to make money, and that is mostly the justification for the hobby, but I also in my heart am a collector and tinkerer. Once I get interested in something I tend to develop an appreciation, and I like projects.

My father is an electrical engineer and we always had an elaborate shop growing up. I learned early to use soldering irons, power tools and volt meters and that nothing was thrown away, just stripped for parts.

I spent two weeks trying to get the Sansui amp I found working. I felt I was close, but then came to the conclusion that I was in over my head, out of respect for the equipment, I sold it basically for nothing to an AK guy who was qualified to fix it. I've also been thinking about tackling a re-foam job. Even though I'll probabally then turn around and sell the speakers, I still want to do the refoam just because I like the idea of doing it. In my garage, you'll find a vintage Marantz amp/tuner driving a couple of Bertagni flat panel speakers. The wooden bases on the Bertagni's are pretty messed up and I'm keeping my eye open for some wood to fashion new ones. I also had to do a repair of the foam sound panels on those speakers and I posted notes and progress on that project here on AK. I don't particulary like the way they sound, so when I get the bases repaired, I'll likely sell them. I saw some much nicer ones on ebay that looked like picture frames and I'm considering buying those for the porch and painting them up with a mexican theme. It would sound great and make a good conversation piece, you don't need a lot of base outdoors anyway. My screen porch currently sports a pair of thrift store speakers which I wired up to my main audio system via a A/B speaker switch. My sony system is the den is driving a nice pair of LDS bookshelf speakers I found at the thrift that were perfect for the job, replacing the factory speakers. Last week a guy in my neighborhood put a pair of EPIs 3-ways out on the curb with blown foams. I asked him if he knew those could be fixed and he said no, so I explained how he could buy a refoam kit and volunteered to help him with the project. I'm planning to scrap the Fisher XP-7s that came with the Yamaha stuff and sell the components or trash them. If anyone needs parts email me. I ran across a thread here from a guy looking for the XP-7 badges, so I'm trying to contact him to see if he still needs them.

I'm really getting tired of this thread. It's stressing me out. Can we please put it to rest?
 
pjones2127 I think you've earned that, your still here, you've explained to us your side
and you've gotten the slapparound! I'm sure you've learned what tiks folks off here and
if you don't want another thread like this that you know what to or what not to do!

Have a good one BRO!

This will be my last post on this thread.
 
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