Why was Audiogon started?

I love this site. Although, I participate more in the winter months. IMO, Connecticut sucks in the winter. I feel like a caged animal. Consequently, I listen to my music more and participate in the forums more often during the winter months. Soon, this will no longer be an issue, as in July I will be relocating to So. Cal. My family has lived out there for over 20 years.

It's funny. I find that many people tend to only look at small bits and pieces of the forum and tend not to look at the whole forum "picture". A forum is an open exchange of ideas. You must be willing to accept other persons opinions. If you can't, stay out of the forums. I have never asked anyone to agree with my opinions, but I do ask that they at least respect my opinions.

From the perspective of private/dealers sales, I have found AudioGon to be a tremendous source for used/new equipment. I have bought/sold many items and have always been very pleased with the people I have done business with, and the manner in which everone has conducted themselves.

I would not want to be a retail dealer in today's marketplace. While attending college, I worked in a small chain of mid/uppermid stereo stores here in Connecticut. Back then? There was no internet. There was no AudioGon. Not only did we have to represent our equipment, but we also needed to represent ourselves. It was personal integrity and commitment to our customers that made us successful.

That does not seem to be requirement today. Many people are driven by price point. Which is fine. Although, a very close friend of mine who is also an Audiogon member had proposed a concept to me that I still value very much to this day. It goes like this:

There are three primary things a consumer wants today.
1):Price, 2):Quality, and, 3):Service.

Well, pick two, because you can't have all three. If you really sit and think about it, it makes sense.

If you enjoy the ability of buying stereo gear at discounted pricing, it's very hard to expect a retailer to provide you with top notch service also. You must be willing to give up something. Unfortunately, many retailers (because of the internet) have to make the one time "kill". I would never expect a retailer to sell me a new $5000.00 item for $3500.00 and then have to service the shit out of me also. That is what I would consider, unfair from my behalf.

That retailer is compromising by giving up margin, I think the buyer needs to compromise also.

Nuff said.

I can only speak for myself as someone who moved from a very large midwest city full of audio dealers to a very small southern with no dealers anywhere within reasonable distance. I don't know how I originally got started with Audiogon, but it was probably after reading some advertisement in Stereophile or The Absolute Sound. I found it to be a source of information on equipment and discourse on related subjects that offered me something no other media had. The one thing it did do was rekindle my interest in audiophilia. Sure it's changed over time, it would have to to be relevent. I, for one, welcome the input from dealers and independents alike because that gives you both sides of the equation. I've bought from dealers who I was exposed to here on Audiogon that I would never have had the opportunity or occasion to do business with. I've also bought quite a bit of equipment from other members who have moved on to bigger and better things. Today email and phone contact are even more powerful marketing tools when people are seeking information and don't have the time or the inclination to shop in person. Audiogon supplies a forum for anyone to use as they see fit, whether one uses it for information gathering or uses it to buy and sell equipment, either way name another site that gives you so much for so little. I promise you that if I were to try to sell my Tenors in Beaufort, SC that I would probably not get one phone call or if I did it would be from someone who would want to know how many cylinders it had!

As I was reading down through the initial posts here I found myself in staunch disagreement with several mentioned comments. As I read further, I was thinking what I would write in response. When I came to the last four posters before me, I realized they have done a nice job in responding to the original thread and I echo their opinions strongly. Nice job in turning this into something constructive.

Sherod,

Bless you for buying a new component and selling it here. In a small way we used buyers stimulate the new buyers, but it's buying new that keeps the economic engine running.

Your reply to the dealers request was spot on since here at Audiogon it takes two fat ladies singing in harmony to finish the deal. It would have been more polite for the dealer to check your add until he saw feedback posted for you indicating the deal was finished and then request you to remove it. If he didn't get rude then he simply was over anxious and forgot his manners.

It's clear that it (Audiogon) was and is primarily a for-profit venture. The forum and discussion stuff is just an ancillary marketing thing to draw viewers and build community. If it wasn't about making money, why would they bother keeping the site running? Something with this level of bandwidth and back-end systems (not to mention advertising budget) costs quite a bit.

By having done many things well, Audiogon has evolved into the pre-eminent online marketplace (at the moment) for new and used high-end gear (and, increasingly, mid-fi as well). They don't really adapt their services as quickly as they could, but thats ok too since the stability of known quantities is good in a way too.

But realize: the people behind it are in it to make money - like any other business - anything that gets in the way of that or distracts from it is secondary, one would presume. (At least that is the logical conclusion one could draw from it.) And, it's probably a safe bet that the real money is not in $2 classifieds, it's in the multiple-hundreds-per-month that the online dealers with 'stores' generate to the bottom line, along with the manufacturers who also choose to be involved behind the scenes (they pay as well, I believe, if they choose, for services from audiogon).

-Ed