[obzilla]

The adage is "Caveat Emptor", which means "Buyer Beware". The consumer is responsible for informing himself, in fact every single individual is responsible for informing themselves before spending money or selling products, but more so the buyer. 
 
Personally when I sell things, I post them for a bit more than I want, because I know people are going to try and haggle me down. I don't get it personally, I wasn't born in a Turkish flea market so I don't fall into the multi step transaction scenario, but I have come to accept that if I want $500 for something, I need to post it at $600 so the obligatory negotiating (which I wish could just be circumvented somehow) begins above, and not at, my bottom line.
 
Regardless, price policing is the last thing any place needs. It has been well said in this thread that items priced reasonably will move, those that are not, most likely will not. Simple as that.

 

[noxa]

What a ridiculous thread, If you don't agree with someone's price then don't buy it simple as that. I think there are a few people here that seem to think they can retain 90% of what they paid for their gear a year later, but on the whole you get very well cared for equipment at a decent saving off retail.

 

[Chezzy79]

Quote:

Any product's value is exactly what someone decides to pay for it.  The market moderates itself, plain and simple.  I didn't realize that HF was supposed to be a charitable organization.

Guess what, if it was eBay or Amazon I would say the same thing.  But HF doesn't make any money from the Sell/Trade forums, and if you look at its rules it should be pretty obvious to you that HF is much closer to a charitable (or educational) organization than an auction site, even though it is the best and most populated website to sell/buy high-end cans that costs over $500.  If you want to treat eBay and HF the same way, you must have no clue about the difference between the two.  Trust me, it's not hard for Head-Fi to make money off the Sell/Trade forums.
 
 
 

This is directly what the "flipping for profit" rule is supposed to prevent though: buying them at a fire sale or from a member who has priced them too low, and then immediately selling them for a profit.
 
Personally, if I bought them for $99 and wanted to sell them off here, I'd price them at $99.  That's the same with my old orthos.  I have old Yamaha orthos I paid $39 for, and if I sold them here, that's what they'd be priced at.
 
I realize that others don't agree with this perspective, but I can feel good about being more generous than they are. 

On HF, the bold part should be (ideally) the most the seller should charge for their item (how much they got it for or less).  There are plenty of people who don't miss out on deals from other website (like Triplefi or X10 from Amazon black friday) and pass it on to Head-Fi for absolutely no profit.  I've seen many brand new TF10's for $100-120 after the Black Friday, but now all the TF10's are around $140-160 for a used one, despite the fact that they go for about $130 brand new on eBay from a reliable seller.
 
 It is not difficult at all to exploit the generosity of people like this, but I think it is absolutely despicable.  I'm not saying you should always give a GOOD deal, but at least make it fair.  If a brand new Q701 from amazon with warranty is $250, you DON'T price your 2 year old K701 at $220 (plus owners are the people who are the most aware of their item's market price).  And guess what, maybe people shouldn't "expect" a good deal from head-fi, but should "expect" a fair deal from here.

 

[obzilla]

And why is this in the full sized headphone forum?? Speaking of policing and monitoring...

 

[barleyguy]

Quote:

I would put them up at market price, or slightly lower if you want to get rid of it faster. Then again, my opinion differs from alot of users because they pretty much EXPECT a good deal just because they are on Head-Fi.
 


 

It's not about "EXPECT"ing a good deal.  It's about the rules of this forum, which prohibit flipping for profit.  The justification for that rule is that HeadFi is not charging a fee for selling here, or taking a cut.  If you don't want to follow the rules, sell it somewhere else.
 

 

[Chezzy79]

Quote:

And why is this in the full sized headphone forum?? Speaking of policing and monitoring...

 
Sorry about that, but there was no appropriate section to put this thread.  But I thought this was an important enough topic to argue about.
 
The bottomline is, by "flipping" or selling for profit, you are not only violating the rules (I don't really care about that) but you are exploiting the generosity of people who doesn't mind losing a few dollars for your benefit, including the forum itself.  I'm usually not the "conservative" types to say something like this, and it is surely out of my character, but I really hate seeing things like this.
 
Also I don't really buy the argument that "people are just unaware that the price of their items have gone down" because there can't be that many people who are too dumb to check the value of what they are selling.

 

[clarknova]

Quote:

What a ridiculous thread, If you don't agree with someone's price then don't buy it simple as that. I think there are a few people here that seem to think they can retain 90% of what they paid for their gear a year later, but on the whole you get very well cared for equipment at a decent saving off retail.

Agreed. As long as its within the stated rules here ..then its free market economics. If no one is willing to pay for something over priced , the message is received. Why does a mod have to waste their time filtering it FOR you.
 
 

 

[pyramid6]

Can we end this?  What your asking is not against the rules.  It's flipping and selling for profit.  No where in the rules does it say I can't make a profit on used items.  I just can't buy an item on here or elsewhere and immediately resell it for profit.  A mod can correct me if I'm wrong, but if I decide to sell my W3000ANV for $3000 once they sell out, that is perfectly legit.  You may not like it, and that is fine, but as far as I read, it is in no way shape or form against the rules to do what I described.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/139393/commercial-sales-not-allowed
 

 

[MusicTurtle]

As someone who's shopped around here quite a bit I don't really have much of an issue with the current pricing. I tend to research most audio purchases at least 3-4 times over from various vendors and then get a ballpark. Sometimes the head-fi prices are lower sometimes a bit higher they fluctuate. As others have mentioned good deals don't linger and bad deals stagnate or eventually price drop. The only thing I'd be wary of with head-fi transactions is committing to purchases when the seller doesn't have any type of feedback.
 
I don't see the current sale/trade forum as ripping anyone off.  It's honestly to the buyers own detriment to not research item pricing and current market value.

 

[obzilla]

Quote:

 
Sorry about that, but there was no appropriate section to put this thread.  But I thought this was an important enough topic to argue about.
 

 
This would be the appropriate forum, in my opinion.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/f/5620/feedback-bug-reports
 
And personally, no offense, the only thing worth arguing is the validity of this thread. What 2 people (buyer and seller) choose to exchange is 100% their business. No one should be allowed to force them to make the deal acceptable to you or anyone else. The market governs itself, speak with your dollars (or pesos or euros or whatever), don't buy things you find over priced.
 

 
 

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Quote:

I have a question for you guys.
 
I recently had a bad experience with a dealer. He gave me a big courtesy coupon as compensation for my time and frustration. Using that coupon, I got a brand new HD25-II for $70. HD25-II are definitely keeper for me, and this dealer is an authorized sennheiser dealer. But if I were to put it up for sale on head-fi, say, after 30 hour use. how much should I ask?
 
Note: This is just a question to gather some thoughts. I am not selling HD25 in any way, so don't contact me for sale.
 

 


 

I can't see any harm in making a profit from it. Obviously you get people who bulk buy items when they are on offer before anyone else has a chance to buy them, like the HP touchpad, or limited edition items, and then flog them on ebay to make a profit. I can't stand people like that. But in your case you are only selling one.
 

 

[RayleighSilvers]

Quote:

ebay now charges fees for shipping cost as well. 
 


 

Are you sure? I sold something on ebay quite recently, I don't recall them charging any fees based on postage. I know they've capped the maximum you can charge for postage to stop people from evading the fees.

 

[Chezzy79]

Quote:

I can't see any harm in making a profit from it. Obviously you get people who bulk buy items when they are on offer before anyone else has a chance to buy them, like the HP touchpad, or limited edition items, and then flog them on ebay to make a profit. I can't stand people like that. But in your case you are only selling one.
 

But what about those people on Head-Fi who buys bargain items, then sells it at Head-Fi for no profit?  I've seen bunch of people do this for Black Friday TF10's and X10's.  Again, if this was eBay I wouldn't be saying anything but nobody on eBay does that kind of thing, and I'd hate to see those people get taken advantage of.  Plus I'm not suggesting we should completely monitor and restrict the price, but give someone a heads up if their price seems unreasonable. tbh it feels like this thread spiraled out of control a bit and became a little off topic.

 

[pyramid6]

Quote:

But what about those people on Head-Fi who buys bargain items, then sells it at Head-Fi for no profit?  I've seen bunch of people do this for Black Friday TF10's and X10's.  Again, if this was eBay I wouldn't be saying anything but nobody on eBay does that kind of thing, and I'd hate to see those people get taken advantage of.  Plus I'm not suggesting we should completely monitor and restrict the price, but give someone a heads up if their price seems unreasonable. tbh it feels like this thread spiraled out of control a bit and became a little off topic.

If you buy an item specifically to sell and make profit, that is flipping.  
 
If you feel an item is over priced, and you want to buy it, then feel free to PM the person and offer another price.  If you feel someone is charging too much, and you do not want to buy it, then stay out.  If someone asks your opinion by all means give it, but you're only going to make enemies if you go in crap in someones thread about their prices.  If you absolutely feel the need to says something, please keep it to PM.
 
Just a side note:  I do not think head-fi would be as popular as it is if the admins and moderators got in the middle of deals.  Having items flow freely so people can try out stuff is important to the health of the community.  I would not be as involved as I am if I could not unload gear as easily as I can.  I'm sure others feel the same way.
 

 

[Chezzy79]

Quote:

If you buy an item specifically to sell and make profit, that is flipping.  
 
If you feel an item is over priced, and you want to buy it, then feel free to PM the person and offer another price.  If you feel someone is charging too much, and you do not want to buy it, then stay out.  If someone asks your opinion by all means give it, but you're only going to make enemies if you go in crap in someones thread about their prices.  If you absolutely feel the need to says something, please keep it to PM.
 
Just a side note:  I do not think head-fi would be as popular as it is if the admins and moderators got in the middle of deals.  Having items flow freely so people can try out stuff is important to the health of the community.  I would not be as involved as I am if I could not unload gear as easily as I can.  I'm sure others feel the same way.
 

Honestly, I don't know how mods and admins even came in this thread.  All this thread was supposed to be was a complaints for crappy pricing by many head-fiers and a place to share some idea for us to educate OURSELVES so that the selling/buying/trading of gear becomes much easier.  I'm kinda tired of all the classifieds getting filled with overly needy Wanted ads, really overpriced For Sale ads, and getting bombarded with lowball offers when posting an ad.