Buying & selling used audio pre eBay vs. now

hey my name is Steve Guttenberg and I'm here with Dave Wasserman has a store called star exchange but we're gonna talk about use gear I mean you've been through mountains mountains of gear right Oh mountains and mountains is a good description yeah half the store back in the old day was used equipment Wow and customers used to come in just to scan the use shells having no specific interest in buying anything but just to scan the use shelves and see what interesting items came in uh-huh but the thing is when you're doing that though this was like pre eBay so it was a whole different well right pre eBay and pre-internet yeah so we used to you know the the challenge was where to get the used equipment right certainly some of it came from customers who had equipment and were upgrading and they'd trade but there were many people who had used equipment and wanted to get rid of it wanted to sell it there was no real easy way to do it you know you could put an ad in The New York Times classified section or I don't think I don't think Craigslist existed then yeah so we got calls from all over the country and we actually at one time ran ads in local classified ads of Miami Chicago LA to get people to call us up and sell their equipment we ran ads probably the biggest venue was stereo file we used to run an ad we by Bui by phone we also made arrangements with many dealers who high-end dealers generally who wanted to you know wanted to make a sale but in order to make a sale they had to move the customer's trade-in and they didn't really want to take it in and they wanted to clean transaction so they would call me what's the whole sale on XYZ I'd give them a price they in trade and then I would pick it up from them but I'm just thinking what about the hassles of it has a problem the inputs yeah so so we had one employee downstairs who was responsible for checking all the equipment it wasn't a it wasn't a full you know bench tech check but it it checked you know basics okay left channel right channel you know distortion turntables if they ran on speed speakers if they sounded good and then we you know we gave if it checked out we paid for it and sold it if it failed on the sales side you know then we had to make good to either refund or repair well we have a limited warranty - I mean you're buying used equipment you didn't get a new manufacturers warranty right but there were certain brands like Marantz I guess would be the obvious one they're easy to turn over really quick yes there were and and of course when you were when you had a popular brand you could pay more because you could sell it faster right yeah the basis of how to offer a realistic price and make a fair profit was based on a number of factors one of them as you pointed out was was it something easy to turn if it was a big clunky speaker that had a very limited market you know I had to make a lot more than a standard margin on something like that because I was apt to sit with it you know for six months or so and even transporting it was a big problem that would involved or just today I got offered a pair of gigantic speakers and after negotiating the price the customer said will you be responsible from afraid that's that's a challenge especially here in New York City a lot of people don't have a wherewithal to ship things so you know this brings up this thing with I don't have to remember my beverage speakers oh yeah sorry well no I don't remember the story story is that I you know I was working at a competitor right and we sold beverage speakers and for some reason I just had it in my head that these are the speakers for me right so I got these speakers from how a beverage an accommodation right so I think they were I think they were five thousands I think I paid 2,500 right and you know was one of those things at first I loved them that I wasn't so sure but then I actively hated them so I did I put the ad in the New York Times for what I paid twenty five hundred dollars they were less than a year old at that point right I got no takers so I put it in another week so those answer I think like 80 bucks 80 bucks like in 1985 or something right yeah so I put it in again I got a call or two but nothing real right so then I called you and I said so what do you give me for these beverages and you were you said I got a pair sitting here right now so I'm not interested I said okay then I tried again to sell them on my own nothing was happening so I called you and whatever was two or three weeks later said Dave I'm absolutely desperate I'll take anything and you said do you remember can you can you take a guess what you offered me $500 exactly 500 I gave you 500 dollars right and soul right wonder what I sold them before so you don't you do I do know what your solo would look I know I just saw four but the thing is so you had to pair because you had the pencil I was averaging my cost right super cross right so anyway a month later or shortly thereafter you sold both pair to one guy does this ring a bell do you remember that I'm wondering if that was edged Nick I think so yeah because he was a beverage so so the offeror 500 so you understand where it where it comes from okay one of the ways that I bought used and continue to buy used equipment is when something is going to be tough to sell and obviously this was tough to sell you pick a price that's so low that you say to yourself God even if no real buyer wants this there's some bargain hunter out there that I can bail out and not lose money and that was that price of what was it 1/10 ten cents on a dollar right yeah well you were you know that's an interesting point because many people when they when they're selling stuff and you know your time is involved in your effort and you just have no patience to deal with right you'll take a low offer you know just to get it out of your life and say check that box it's done I don't have to think about it anymore I know I lost money but I don't care it's out of my life but this brings up the question because you know you don't really do use stuff anymore no I do but the thing is do you think that smart buyers of new audio should be thinking if five years down the road or a year like me down the road I want unload this should I really think about is this something I can sell without taking a bath well so I look I founded my business on used equipment I worked for a company before I started my own company that featured used equipment and I think use equipment is is great value there are many audiophiles who will buy only used equipment because they know they've taken that first appreciation and in the equation you're buying a $5,000 component for twenty five hundred dollars you use it for you know they know they want to trade equipment they know they're restless and want to own anything so instead of selling or trading something that costs them five thousand that costs them twenty five hundred they can get most of that money out of it on a resale market and you know then the price of the Hobby goes down is there risk there's always risk you have to evaluate the company that you're buying to if you're buying a solid company that's in business well you can always get it repaired but you know how many fringe audiophile companies there are the in business one day out the next day you can't get parts for it nobody can service it there are no schematics then you're really gambling well no you have to know what you're buying yeah but that thing that I was aware that that some people just buy you so they live with something yeah I've never had an electrostatic speaker right I don't know what it is but I'll give it a shot that's cheap enough right well so what we were able to do which was very effective in a lot of sales was to be able to mix new and used so a customer would come in looking for a system you know you might have the speakers that he liked but you know it took him over budget but you had a used amplifier or used table so you could put a couple things together and get that customer in at the price point they wanted with a mixed new and used system and then of course the trade back at the you know once you have customers I'll tell you a recent story I have a customer who has as in the last two years bought three different turntables two different sets of electronics and two different sets of speakers he just keeps on but he's been buying new you know he's behind new and trading in so you have that customer - yeah you know luckily I'm a reviewer I'm Restless I'm always looking for different things you know this way it's not necessarily better it's just do I like different yeah we're into different really in a big time in a big way yeah so you're gonna we were like without obviously naming names your craziest customers you know crazy cuz I had and he passed away recently I had a customer and elderly man he had been buying with from me over probably 15 or 20 years and he he was retired he had the money he was a single guy he just loved the audio and he loved opening new boxes he bought some items several times from me he bought John the boars speakers twice he bought BMWs more than twice he he bought a whole Meridian system from me including the SBA thousands traded it all in and you know in the last year before he passed away which is only recently he bought fifty two hundredths traded those in for seventy-two hundredths and then says its meridians these are all Murray these are expensive speakers 7200 s knees of 45,000 a pair Wow he said when he bought the 72 hundreds he said you know you better work out a trade price for me because you know I'm getting the 8,000 but unfortunately he was a real gentleman to who passed away and we never got to the 8,000 but he was incredible he just loved order you know I have another customer out in Long Island who has six different systems he lives just he and his wife six different systems in his house he keeps every box because he learned a long time ago that the value of used equipment is enhanced when you have all the original packing and in condition with all accessories it's hard for a lot of New York City residents to keep big boxes but he had a house and he had a shed in the back of his house full of all the boxes and just constantly churning equipment within six different systems you can imagine how much trading he - do you know audio attracts you know a certain kind of a neurotic behavior I would say well because it's hard to you know measure right it's like well well I like back if our speaker is better than you yeah well it's also the idea I think one thing that gets people going is that there's this desire to kind of make the perfect system right and it's unlimited what you can do to change the sound system between you know all the electronic sources speakers cables and tweaks you can just change it in forever and you will never get there we've fun on the way hopefully you know uh I think we both know you know from your retail days that there are many people who suffer greatly and their frustration of seeking that system yeah but mostly it's fun and you hope people don't let it get the best of them right yeah I understand I've been there anyway I think this is it thank you so much my name

Channel: Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac

Views: 18,949

Rating: 4.9598393 out of 5

Keywords: Stereo Exchange NYC, Stereo Exchange, used audio, buying used audio

Id: Oh28nxUSuEE

Length: 13min 22sec (802 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 22 2018