No.

I’m often asked this question, the basic query being: do I want to pay retail prices or more, for someone’s hi-fi equipment? Something along the lines of this:

My car is worth 10 grand, it’s not been professionally inspected, valued, has no service history, and I live in another state, but would you pay 15 grand for it?

Business 101: To sell things sustainably, one needs to acquire them for less than they sell for, significantly less for low-volume items where significant time, energy and risk are involved. Every piece of equipment I acquire needs to meet the high standards we set for the pre-owned equipment we sell. Every piece must be scrutinised, prepped for sale and carries some risk, no matter how carefully it is chosen.

I can’t pay $1000, or even $700, for something that I can only sell for $1000. Service, repair, QA, prep and listing equipment usually takes several hours per piece. Margins for profit and warranty must be factored in. I ain’t going to all this trouble to make a hundred bucks, and I absolutely cannot pay ANYTHING for equipment I haven’t inspected, from somewhere like Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace.

So, hopefully, the next person wondering if I’d like to pay $15K for equipment they’ve listed for $12K, that I’ve not professionally inspected, that will cost $2K to ship, plus a few K more to prepare for sale, photograph and list, and that I would need to sell for $25K to see even a modest profit assuming zero issues, will read this first. And sshhhhh…