Audiogon Ethics

Most of us here are honest and stand behind what we trade. On used gear, unless the seller provides you with their original receipt, you have no idea how many owners there has been. There are some terrible original owners, who don't take care of things, so what does it really mean? When I buy used, I don't think I have ever asked if the seller is the original owner. I care more about whether they smoke in their room with the gear. Most warranties are void and if it is Bryston gear with a 20 year transferable warranty does not matter as much.

Last year I sold some Nordost speaker cables. I send them to the buyer in a plain DHL/UPS type box that had Nordost logo tape on it, that was from a pair of interconnects I had changed from RCA to XLR. He sold them later and claimed he had the original box. (He probably though he did.) When I sold them I claimed they were in very good condition, he claimed excellent condition. I was probably being conservative, so maybe he was not making an exagerated claim (or maybe he was)? He did an auction and he only got $15 more than I sold them for, so no harm done.

lol, I have a story non audio related but its about the same thing as this. ok, we built a house and then somebody came along and decided to offer us money for it we couldnt refuse, so before it was done they bought it.. we lived in it and finished it .. we lived there for close to 6 months after it was done, and another 6 months before that. Well after we moved out we had company over and they wanted to see the house and it was back on the market.. so we went and toured it during the open house and as soon as we walk into the house we lived in for over a year the realator says " this home is brand new. never been lived in" ha,my ass i was soo pissed and i HIGHLY doubt that he didnt know we lived there. maybe the moron that bought it from us left out that little detail..cheatin son of a.. lol oh well. thats my story of how people lie just to make a buck.

Contact the seller to share your concerns and see what he has to say.

Rupe

People Person:

Speaking only for myself,not a community,I'd express my concerns in his feedback and let other individuals draw their own inferences from the whole body of his feedback.

p

That is a bit strange - why would the person be an original owner of something they also bought a used copy of? Sometimes I think people shop these sites enough to buy and sell pieces they feel they can make a profit on, and it would be quite possible to have bought more than one copy of something used that is turned around and sold. The situation you describe is hard to come up with an explanation for other than that the seller is mis-representing the piece

That said, I don't think there's much you can do or should try to do about it. As much as we all want this to be a completely honest environment, it probably isn't, and every buyer needs to do everything possible to protect themselves. If somebody claims to be the original owner and a buyer really cares about that, there are ways to verify the claim. -Kirk