[wifesboyfriend]

Is an AKG K553 too niche an item to be faked, or should I remain wary of anything from eBay?

I can get a K553 for $199 from Amazon, or for $139 (or best offer) from this eBay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/402639238688

Is it easy for me to authenticate these once received? The seller seems to be selling stuff from somewhere like a Goodwill or a closeout sale, basically where there's no documentation of the supply chain, and I've never listened to the K553, so I don't even know how to identify a real one by sound. Should I just pony up the extra $60 and buy from Amazon?

I don't see any K553s for sale on the Classifieds here; that was my first choice of source.

Many thanks.

 

[dstarr3]

I would set up a saved search for K553 and have eBay ping you every time a new listing is posted. I managed to snag a NIB K553 Mk2 for $100 just by exercising some patience.

 

[wifesboyfriend]

Thanks. Recently my eBay strategy has been to "add to Watchlist" and then have the sellers send me offers. I did that now at the same time as posting this thread, and the seller offered me the headphones at $127 like a minute later. I took the offer and bought them for $127. I guess I'll try to enjoy authenticating them once they arrive. The seller seems ok and eBay and PayPal are good protection for fakes.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I think fakes of these would be unlikely. Fakes tend to be really popular models, Bose, Beats, Apple, some Audio Technica. Also that price disparity isn't unusually large for retail vs ebay. And checking the price history on these, they do occasionally dip down to $149.99 on amazon, so $139 doesn't sound too low at all. You can probably find better if you wait actually.

In general for safe buying on eBay I'd always check feedback on the seller, new accounts without much feedback are more likely to be shady, even if the feedback is all positive.

 

[deafenears]

I've purchased a set of AKG 553 MK2s from audiosavings before for my son, along with an AKG Lyra mic. Seems legit.