Your oddest Audio Sales

Shadowfax

Shadowfax

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Location
Bucks County PA
I have been buying and selling gear for a few years now. I recently purchased a whole bunch from an estate thinking to keep some and sell some. One item was a Sony Dual CD Recorder. I was going to keep it for a spare but after doing some research realized what it could sell for. Within a few days of my CL ad I got a hit and went right to phone as he had questions. The guy on the other end was about the nicest potential buyer (and just in general person) I have talked to. It turned out he was a Symphony Flutist and was at one time the Music Director of the New Your Ballet.

So we make a deal but he is in North Jersey 2 hours away and he says he does not drive, but willing to take the trains if I could meet him at one. He figured out all his logistics and ended up taking 4 trains to meet me at a station 30 minutes from me but where I grew up. He got off the train, we made the swap and then talked for the layover time before the train headed back to Center City Philly.


I have another pending sale of my Clearfield speakers. Again, someone 2 hours away replies and asks me to take the ads down, he wants them. But, he cannot make it for 2 weeks. I told him the ad stays up and if still available, they were his for the agreed price. The day before the planned pickup he says he cant make it but was going to send a deposit by Western Union and planned another date. The second date was this past Saturday and on Friday I got an email with another tracking number for WU. He says he will get them and pay the remaining on December 26th. He has never seen or heard these speakers, only the pics from my ad and is willing to go this distance to buy them. I really didn't want it to turn into a Christmas Layaway Plan, but as of now, I have more than half the money and the speakers to enjoy until xmas and hopefully by then my Fynes will be in.

Both of these oddball sales happened in the same week. What kind of crazy stories do you have selling gear. I have plenty but these two jump out as very far from the norm.
 
Cool stories Brian. I have enough stories for a series of books. Mostly great people, but there have been some real characters too.


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Mike said:
Cool stories Brian. I have enough stories for a series of books. Mostly great people, but there have been some real characters too.


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I figured you would as a dealer. The characters you deal with from CL and FB can be nerve racking at times so really good to find nice buyers with trust.
 
While we are chatting about odd customers, can we talk about odd dealer experiences?

While I was doing research on speakers, I decided to audition the Focal Aria 948s. I had read several good reviews and the price point matched my budget. I had several dealers within a short-ish drive, but none of them had the Aria 948s nor were they planning on getting a pair. I finally found a dealer (who shall remain nameless) in the middle-of-nowhere Michigan who actually had a pair of 948s. The first red flag should have been that his business model also consisted of selling cellphone accessories and perfumes out of the same store.

So, bright and early that Saturday morning, I made the three hour trek with a handful of my favorite CDs. When I got there, I introduced myself and he responded with, "Ah, so yur that Ohio feller?" Second red flag was when I realized that the "listening room" was a square 12' x 12' room adjacent to the room with all the cellphone accessories and perfumes. There sat EXACTLY one system composed of a Cambridge Audio stack hooked up to the 948s. That's it. One system. Apparently, it was his favorite system so he decided to only sell that one.

As I went through my CDs, he kept popping into the room and saying, "Oh wow, that's a great CD!" He did that for nearly every CD I brought. When I finished the audition, he asked me if he could play something for me. Sure, no problem. I had brought mostly acoustic (orchestra, jazz, vocals, etc.) music with me to test. However, he decided to put on some type of Beyonce-esque (I don't think it was Beyonce, it just had that kind of poppy sound to it) music and then proceeded to say, "Listen to this!" as he cranked the amp up to a very painful level (far louder than I was listening) and began to dance around with his eyes shut and play the "air drums." I sat there, stunned, not knowing what to say.

He finally turned down the volume, made some small chit chat as I gathered my CDs and asked, "So, can I send you home with a pair of the 948s?" Since this was a first audition, plus the fact that the room he had them in really did the speakers no favors (the standing wave situation was pretty bad), it was easy to say, "I'll think about it."

A month later, I read a review of the Janszen zA1.1s, met with David Janszen for an audition in Columbus, OH (where they are manufactured) and have been a happy owner since.
 
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