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“I’m looking to get back what I paid”.

It’s phrase that creeps up in the classifieds throughout the internet hi-fi community.

Wishful thinking, or a realistic request? I seem to remember this being discussed here a few years back, but I can’t trace the thread.
 
Human nature. Everyone selling is looking to get at least what they paid, and everyone buying is looking to have the seller pay them to take it.
 
Wishful thinking for sure.

I buy a s/h CDP for a sensible price today, run 10 CDs through it over the next 2-3 weeks, decide it isn't to my liking and want to move it on.

How much per CD do you reckon I should plan to loose on the operation?

I would say that so long as you haven't been suckered on the purchase and the time between isn't beyond months, it is normal to expect and get what you paid, it certainly is for me. I just loose the p&p.
 
Yeah, that comment always makes me smile. It always strikes me as a particularly dumb thing to put as surely the reader thinks “isn’t it the nature of selling used stuff that the more owners it’s had the cheaper it gets”. I guess that the people who write this stuff are trying to make it clear that they aren’t aiming to make a profit (as such), but really I think they would do better to just omit this element altogether.
 
It applies best to vintage gear that appreciates in value after careful pro restoration work has been undertaken.

For example if I bought a 1972 fender bass body/neck and hunted down 1969-1970 (by 72 they were still using 69/70 stock winds) matching pickups to make it complete and paid a vintage luthier specialist to do the work but decided I wanted to sell it,”looking to get what I paid for it” is reasonable.

It implies a certain level of restoration knowledge and care in its restoration
 
I don't really have a problem with it but I mostly buy and sell things that are quite old and have left normal depreciation behind.

People can say what they want (as long as it's truthful obviously) or ask for whatever figure they want and any prospective buyer makes their own mind up whether the asking price is reasonable. There's something FS in the classified that I sold a year or two ago that the current owner is now asking £200 more for than I sold it to them for, but I don't have an issue with that either - it's their thing now, the market value may have gone up a bit and anyway they can ask what they want :)
 
For anything still in production (in the exact same form), they can eff right off.

For vintage, discontinued or restored equipment, then they're absolutely within their rights to ask for their costs - that could still be lower than a buyer would have to pay elsewhere.

Unfortunately, for something someone has "only had for a week or two", you only have their word for that, and just like how new cars collapse in value as soon as you drive them home, buyers will always be wondering "perhaps this is for sale so soon because it's actually faulty".
 
Once an item is several years old and well out of guarantee I guess it attains a known market value and that stays the same no matter how many owners it has had providing the condition remains the same.
A Quad 303 for example could be bought for £140 and one could expect to sell it again for the same amount.
 
Once an item is several years old and well out of guarantee I guess it attains a known market value and that stays the same no matter how many owners it has had providing the condition remains the same.
A Quad 303 for example could be bought for £140 and one could expect to sell it again for the same amount.
This!
 
I could have, and in many cases have, made money on every LP12, SME 3009 and Garrard I have owned. Likewise Quad 33-303 and 44-405. You can do the same with Naim gear. Other stuff is variable. A mate is currently clearing out a houseful, some stuff he's covering his costs other stuff he can't give away. I have moved some of the stuff for tenners, but that's all.
 


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