Selling McCormack Upgraded Gear

My guess is the lack of exposure (pro reviews) and / or inability to audition first makes buying and selling modified gear, committing to have something modified more difficult.

Albeit SMc reputation as an accomplished modder and positive comments from loyal followers on Agon, SMcs’ hot rods don’t seem to get too much attention from the other BBS or pro reviews. FWIW, formal magazine reviews do help to put things in the limelight - i.e. Modwrights’ Sony.

The commercial models (std, deluxe) were built with price constraints, but the inability to audition the revisions (A, B, C, Gold, Carbon Wire) makes pulling the trigger more of a “leap of faith”. Sure, you can read about the differences, but unless you can hear it for yourself…you really don’t know what it sounds like.

I’m not questioning SMcs’ quality or value…I just think it needs more exposure. Perhaps putting the “crème de la crème” stuff on tour (hint, hint) or a directory of hot rod owners willing to demo to others would help.

The fact of the matter is that any gear on Audiogon lately is a tough sell, especially anything priced over twelve hundred dollars. You want to blame something, look at the economy. People are hanging on to their money. Gas prices are up & job security is uncertain. This does not diminish the fact that these upgrades are a superb improvement over the stock versions & well worth the money. Keep in mind that the stock versions are already well loved by many for what they do right. How many audio engineers do you know that care about the average audiophile & stay connected. I sold my McCormack amps for tube gear but when I see a McCormack amp up for sale I still drool over the ad especially the ones with the revisions.

Interestingly, an older-modded DNA-1 Rev. A was sold this week on a'gon for $1050!! I don't think the ad lasted an hour. On the other hand, the DNA-2 Rev. A+ and B amps are still on the market after quite some time, contributing to probably both PHD's theory and the previous theory that you can only expect to get about 50% of the new price and 25% of your mod investment back on resale.

Aggielaw, I seen that ad as well! It is possible that the seller might of purchased this DNA-1 Rev.A with the revision "A" already installed so maybe he did't lose too much money on this sale. I think most of us would prefer to buy this amp for only a $100.00 more than buy a Deluxe model which currently is going for $950.00. That is definately a no brainer! Anyway this may be a buyers market, for sellers I hope that changes in the near future as we all been sellers at one time or another.

The best way to reduce the risk of losing money on the sale of a modded amp is to buy it used. That way, it has already have the depreciation hit. It takes a little patience while you're waiting for that modified amp to show in the listings, but it's worth it if you have any thoughts of re-selling later. I did this myself when I wanted to try a DNA-2 modified by Steve. I picked up an A+ Platinum revision for a good price, listened to it for a couple weeks, and re-sold it for what I paid. Had I paid retail for the modification, I'd have lost a bundle.