The Music Room is Slipping

TMR is a totally professional company in every regard. Communication, packaging, and shipping are second to none. Personally, I’ve been treated more than fairly.

Quick story: a few years ago they sold me a high-end stereo power amp. It has three blue LEDs on the fascia and although the amp was fully functional, one of the LEDs was out. They sent me a call tag, I shipped it back for repair, and they found that the replacement LED was a slightly different hue. So they replaced all three LEDs for consistency of appearance. I also had them recap the amp while it was on the workbench, and they did that for a very reasonable price. The LED repair and two-way shipping cost me nothing; TMR took care of it.

It’s been my experience that most people who complain about retail businesses making a rapacious profit are not very economically literate. 90% have zero understanding of how expenditures like personnel, lease payments, heating and power, building maintenance, insurance, taxes, and many more factors legitimately affect the price of goods sold. 

I have have been treated fairly by TMR

Nobody is wrong on this thread. TMR is a business and they have to make sure their business stays afloat.

Yes, TMR does lowball on items and sometimes shockingly, but it all really depends on the item and how in demand it is.

The people who are the most upset with TMR offers are the ones that paid full MSRP price on the component at an authorized dealer, tax, shipping and all… and a month later expect 80% or more of what they paid. You will not be happy because they will offer you approximately 50-60% of the preowned price which means you could be getting maybe 30-35 % trade value. Ouch!

Also it depends on the item. Popular things that move fast on the market, they are likely to give you more value. Obscure brands and certain items they’ll definitely lowball you cause it just takes them so long to sell that they need to recoup their opportunity cost.

Personally, I traded in a cable to them 8 months ago and they’re still trying to sell it, albeit at 180-200% more than they gave me value for. That was a good trade for me as they had something I wanted. That, and I acquired the cable for the same trade value a couple of years earlier.

More recently, my last TMR trade offer was really low, so I walked.

Wow that post really backfired on you, you’re probably in the wrong hobby if you get offended by a 25 buck difference.

I’ve done several deals with TMR over the years.  As they’ve gotten bigger and become a seller of new equipment, their offers have gone down.  But, I always think of the absolute pain it is to sell on my own.  And, when I determine the value of the equipment I’m selling/trading, I still think they offer a fair deal, especially with providing free shipping to them,  I’m trying to get off the “buy new gear merry go round” so I hope I won’t need their services for a long time - or any other store for that matter