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Publish the age of your component when selling (let's discuss)

I've noticed that many sellers don't publish the age of the item or items they are selling on Audiogon.  I believe it should be required that the age or original manufacturing date of the item being sold be clearly stated.  Some do but many don't.  Sometimes you can see the manufacturing date on the back of an item should the seller post a photo clear enough to see it but a prospective buyer shouldn't have to find it out that way.. What is the fear here?  This is especially important when it comes to sources such as DVD and CD players.  No matter how great the CD player may have been at the time, an 8-10 year old unit (let's face it) is worn and the DACs are no longer state of the art. You may think you have a piece of gold but the transports wear and again the DACs are antiquated. 

Opinion now:
I believe that many of the CD players on sale now that are say at least 10 years old are over priced.  To back up what I'm stating here, out of sheer curiosity and with a little extra cash I had, I very recently bought a brand new Onkyo C-7030 CD player for $200.00.  Got it home and in a matter of a few days, OMG, the overall sonic fidelity and extreme detail is produces when playing decently recorded CDs is nothing short of amazing.  Why would I purchase a pre-owned $1,000.00 player when this Onkyo sounds just as great?  I know this is a loaded question and may not be too popular but would love to hear what the members think.  No offense to anyone's machines.  THANKS.  
pdn
trelja
3,215 posts
 
@pdn, thank you. You certainly bring up several valid points.

The transports / laser assemblies represent a true achilles heel to CD players. It’s just a matter of time when they will fail. While the parts and ability to fix some machines exists, for many such a failure means the end of the road. Obviously, no one wants to spend several thousand dollars on a component that could potentially become a door stop tomorrow.

One caveat: so much of the gear listed online gets sold by folks who are not the original owners. They may be third, fourth, fifth, or... hand. It’s unrealistic and unfair to place the burden of knowing component history on those folks. Though again, I think you raise an excellent topic for discussion, and we do have the ability to make the situation better for the potential buyer
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I agree that sellers should provide full information if they can.
It is also true many sellers are not the original owner.
One other curious play is to use the latest retail price instead of the actual date of purchase retail price.

One way for a buyer to find out the years of manufacture, and the original retail price is to Google the item name and model with the word review. Most popular equipment have reviews in the first few years of manufacture. And those often have the original price.

zavato's avatar
zavato
903 posts
 
Most of us buying gear on Audiogon are (hopefully) savvy enough to recognize an age range of a competent we might be spying. For instance, if someone is selling a McIntosh MR 78, I don’t have to be told it’s no newer than late 70’s. Often, folks sell gear they also bought used so- again, age range is likely as close as you can get. It’s not like a Leica Camera where the serial number can be checked against a solid database to get the year of manufacture. 
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,180 posts
 
I have sold many things on this site and listing the products age is in the AD making process so if someone is not listing the age of the piece maybe they figure most people have already looked up when these were made and for how long. Also, thats why they have a "ask seller a question" box at the bottom of ad. So I dont think these people are trying to be misleading when they dont list an age, most people that is.

Matt M
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