"Some retailers claim Audiogon.com ruined the business of specialty audio. That's a bogus claim, just like saying Amazon.com ruined retail for everything else. Bad retailers ruined retail. Audiogon.com harnessed the power of the Internet to create a community that has resulted in a more liquid market for selling audiophile gear. For manufacturers who don't like Audiogon.com and/or the idea of people buying used gear, there is a simple solution - just make new gear that is way better and at an excellent price. Consumers will vote with their wallets, and if new audiophile gear performs better at a very fair price, they will buy that. Plain and simple."
Truer words never spoken.
I find Audiogon a useful tool. We are full fledged dealer members (a costly monthly fee). But with that fee, we get many nice benefits such as lower costs for ads, promoting the ads with bold, appearing on the main screen, etc.
What infuriates us about Audiogon is not audiogon itself, it's the scammers on audiogon. We take a lot of gear on trade and so we are active on the site to move it as quickly as possible (we aren't married to any piece I assure you!). We have had to adopt a very firm handed policy with respect to audiogon sales. NO REFUNDS. Payment is made by cashiers check, wire or ACH. No paypal. No CC. Why? I've lost over $10,000 on scammers. Here's an example:
A little over a year ago, I had a lady call me and say she wanted to buy this pre-owned DAC for her husband for Christmas. She wanted to pay by CC. She called me several times, and sounded legit. She asked if we could ship the DAC to her sister so her husband wouldn't see it until Christmas. Sounded legit. She paid by CC, we shipped it to her sister. She emailed that it was received. All was good right? Wrong. 2 months later, Visa, issues a charge back for the full amount. Claims the card holder didn't recognize the charge. Was it a stolen card? Don't know. We fight it with Visa, provide all the proof, and we still lost. I emailed her, called her many times, nothing. No response. We were scammed.
We have had people buy USED equipment, use it for 3-4 weeks and then make up some BS excuse and ask for their money back. We are not in the business of sending our used equipment for a "try and maybe buy" situation. In 2018, I sold Mark's (MDP) Hegel H30 amp for him on consignment. The guy had it for 6 weeks, emailed several times how much he loved it. Thought all went well. Nope, 6 weeks after he gets it, he claims, "oh, I think I hear a slight buzz in the right channel." I asked if would try another cable, he snapped, "I don't just have cables laying around here! No, I want my money back." I left the decision up to Mark. Mark said "give him his f'ing money back." Sure enough, we got the amp back and it was perfect. Nothing wrong at all. The next person bought it and that was 18 months ago. Not a peep.
I have 50 stories like this.
One more thing on Audiogon, I will point out an interesting fact: has anyone noticed that the "forums" section of Audiogon is under the "Explore" section and not under the "Learn" section. Just saying...
There are some very interesting characters on that Audiogon forum I will say.