"High end" store snobbery

+1 @celtic66 

I've made multiple purchases at both Reference Media and Hawthorne stereo, never had any issues. Truly not surprised that a lower end AVR was not considered as trade material. Don't take it personally. Craigslist and Ebay are full of them. 

I hate audio snobbery...   If I walk into a dealer and I think they are sizing me up or don't think I'm a serious buyer I leave.   Fast.

I value my local dealers, there's only a few left so I try to buy locally.    I was looking at turntables and although I didn't buy a turntable at Natural Sound in Framingham I definitely appreciated the time Mark spent with me.   He demo'd the Rega P3 and it sounded great.   I almost bought it but decided on a Sota

With no Sota dealers near me I did what I rarely do and that's buy online.   That said I thought it was important to visit Natural Sound and buy a cartridge there.    No pressure or snobby attitude there.  

Maan I finally got myself financially solid at my 50’s (I’m guessin it’s finally time) and decided to get G-wagon. As I’ve never lived on credit cards, I wanted to purchase it for cash. The dealerships were declining selling it for cash even when I had more than solid sources of income LOL!!! They get more earnings on crazy bank fees they charge so they weren’t interested at all.

To make long story short, I traveled to Germany and got what I wanted instead. The factory direct purchases for foreigners in Bremen are so AWSOME with greatest time spent there.and in addition ended up with savings for the total purchase including shipping. After all I decided to stay in Germany for another month and get my teeth DONE and saved another pile of bucks on that + undisputed and undefeated german quality!  YaVoll!

My brother who has a lot deeper pocket then I went to get BMW X6 to the dealership and because he was dressed too casual, dealers noted that it’s probably not the car for him.

Many dealers are same here culturally, not only in high-end audio shops.

Good explanation akg_ca. Are you in the hifi business?

Hawthorne Stereo won't want your AVR. They are devoted to 2-channel gear. They also prefer sought after vintage gear over more recent common budget stereo receivers. 

I have owned a few used AVR receivers that I got for a low price but originally sold new for much more. I would only expect to sell an AVR at a fraction of the new cost. Most of them just don't have a good resale value.

It is a shame the Bellingham store was not more considerate of you, Gabe.

Good luck to you!