[HawaiiR]

Hi there!

I've been thinking about posting up a pair of Audeze's I have to either sell or trade. I've never done a trade here (or anywhere online, really), so I'm wondering if any of you with experience in the matter might have some best practices that you'd like to share.

I'm having a hard time with the idea of being comfortable just sending a $1k headphone to someone I don't know without some sort of collateral. What have you guys done when trading?

TIA!

 

[msing539]

For trades, you can cover each other's full trade value with PayPal Goods and Services. That way, if someone doesn't come through, the other party can open a claim and you'd essentially be paid for your headphone value as if it were a sale.

On occasion, I've created videos of my headphone's functionality, sent that to the other person, and also taken videos of the packaging. These help a lot if you need to start a claim and also help refute someone else's claim if they say you didn't send them working headphones.

Things can also get damaged in shipping, so it's best to suck it up and buy the insurance. This isn't as easy a process as the carrier will want pre boxing and post delivery photos of both the item, damage, and packaging condition.

It all sounds scary but in 125 trades, sales, purchases, I've only had 2 issues. One was a damaged HE6SE v2 I received where the left driver was shot. Seems like it had been ruptured from a change in air pressure as this one came via plane. For that reason, I only ship and request things via ground now... little tough when buying from overseas, but that headphone was the only one I've seen damaged.

Once you're into it, you'll be fine.

 

[HawaiiR]

Thanks! This is very helpful. I was thinking that putting up full value in PayPal would be a good idea, but wasn't sure if that was common practice or not. I love the idea about the video as well. That makes perfect sense. I suppose I could attempt to do a video of the boxing process as well, just to be safe.

I wish "true" ground shipping was an option for me, but as I'm located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, shipping by boat will take forever.

Anyway, thanks again for all this info. I'll make good use of it.

Cheers!

 

[InvisibleInk]

Thanks! This is very helpful. I was thinking that putting up full value in PayPal would be a good idea, but wasn't sure if that was common practice or not. I love the idea about the video as well. That makes perfect sense. I suppose I could attempt to do a video of the boxing process as well, just to be safe.

I wish "true" ground shipping was an option for me, but as I'm located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, shipping by boat will take forever.

Anyway, thanks again for all this info. I'll make good use of it.

Cheers!

Username checks out

 

[earmonger]

This may be obvious, but there's also Classifieds feedback and previous posts linked to Head-Fi usernames.

I wouldn't do a trade here with anyone who didn't have some sort of history, just like I never buy from first-time Ebay sellers, etc.

Of course, they may also be thinking the same about you, but photos, etc., will probably have to be exchanged.

 

[HawaiiR]

This may be obvious, but there's also Classifieds feedback and previous posts linked to Head-Fi usernames.

I wouldn't do a trade here with anyone who didn't have some sort of history, just like I never buy from first-time Ebay sellers, etc.

Of course, they may also be thinking the same about you, but photos, etc., will probably have to be exchanged.

Yeah, I think I checked all those from the first person I ever bought HP's from on here, but that was a decade ago. I still have those cans, and love them (ATH-AD2000's) to this day.

I'll definitely take as many precautions as possible. Bummer I never built my own seller/trader history on here over the last 10 years. I guess I'll have to start now.

 

[DenverW]

You can learn a lot about a trading partner based on their feedback and their participation in the forums. An active member with a good history of sales/trades who is active in the forums is more likely to be a good trade partner.