2. misc-audio
  3. 182800-119096

"High end" store snobbery

Our county lies in a fairly remote part of the country.Our major city of 100,000 has one "high end" shop so to speak.

I visited them yesterday.The store has limited selection of decent  stuff-a few McIntosh amps.Marantz.Paradigm ,Focal,Sonus faber etc.No Wilsons or Bel Canto category.

I asked then if they take trade ins-I want to upgrade my one year old Yamaha RX4 AVR,worth $500 retail.

They said they only take high end components for trade i.e.McIntosh etc.

After that conversation, the 3 store employees pretty will ignored my presence and I continued browsing their meagre inventory.

 

Lo and behold!

In a corner I spotted about 30 items-old Pioneer,Yamaha amps and even an equalizer from the 1970s.Prices ranged from $75 to $500.

 

I asked :"what are these"

response from employee:"oh, those are items we are familiar with as they were swapped out for upgraded gear by our customers."

 

Thanks for tolerating my rant...

 

Gabe

 

 

gabor2525
heretobuy
119 posts
 

One thing about this that comes to mind is that if they're the only audio dealer in town you don't have to worry about competition. They have less reason to treat people well if they don't want to. One reason they might be loath to take trade ins is that they have comparable used equipment in stock and its not moving. For someone in your situation an audio show would be a good alternative because it's ethical showrooming. You could listen to a lot of stuff, figure out what you like and then buy it online - or even used. That wouldn't solve your trade-in problem, but it would seem a solid state AVR would be pretty easy to ship and thus selling it yourself might make you more than you'd make in trade.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,827 posts
 

Your item  would maybe get a $200 trade in never trad in at a store , actually

craids list would be ideal that .depending how much you have to spend there are dealers that will ship on trial especially for dacs .

emrofsemanon's avatar
emrofsemanon
292 posts
 

if the OP lives in north puget sound, he could try Hawthorne Stereo.

jeffseight's avatar
jeffseight
571 posts
 

Take a nice 1 1/2 hour drive to see Domenic at Hawthorne Stereo in Seattle.

They also may not want your trade so sell it on US Audiomart.

Become a real cash buyer.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

@jeffseight     A real cash buyer.

Yes!   Real cash buyers can negotiate discounts on expensive gear if they don't fog the deal by offering to sell their item.  For the dealer that just kills the deal as he has to get rid of the part exchange item that probably doesn't match his market profile or his customers' requirements.

Horses for courses.  Sell your used gear on Audiomart, eBay etc etc.

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