Why so many weird sellers lately?!?!? Or common practice?

[tallcoolone]

I don’t sweat having people over to my house. They don’t know it, but I’m usually armed. Lol. I’ve actually met a few guys on CL that I’m still friends with today.

Same—I do set up in the garage tho

 

[Scumback Speakers]

I only buy things I've heard in person, or that someone I trust (very few) have heard before I offer money. Meeting at a Starbucks...right. I'll just drag down a 4x12, guitars/fx and cables to setup in their store and blast the amp, melting clients and coffee cups simultaneously.

 

[LP Freak]

Same—I do set up in the garage tho

Same here. Amps sound huge in my garage so it’s usually an instant sale

 

[RaceU4her]

people look weird to me everywhere these days

 

[SBlue]

Hey gents, so just unloading my frustration and looking for perspective. I recently started getting into the modded Marshall thing and discovered Ceriatone amps.
A yeti popped up on my local Craigslist and I was interested. I emailed seller and negotiated what seemed to be fair price. AFTER negotiating, seller then tells me he just got amp from France and that it’s wired for 240v.
I ask him if he has been using a converter - “no”
So I then email a tech and Nik (which have both been very awesome and helpful) and they say that it could be as easy as a wire switch on the bottom of the PT. They just need to see a pic.
Email seller back and ask for a pic of inside chassis - he sends me a pic of the tubes. I communicate nicely that I need to see the guts just to verify the re-wire can be done. He then states “Oh I'm not removing the whole chassis. The power transformer needs the voltage to be discharged. Very dangerous”.

So now he expects me to buy amp without hearing it or even seeing the guts?!?!? After emailing back and telling him opening amp won’t hurt anything as long as he’s not tinkering around he states “I’m just gonna keep it”.

Now too the second seller - local ceriatone comes up. Seller has high price and after trying to negotiate he just won’t budge, His right I understand, but come on, I’m offering more than you would clear on reverb. So I agree on price as I really want to try the amp. Now he’s saying I have to meet at a Starbucks and buy without hearing.

Is this seriously common practice? Do people really buy used amps without hearing them? When someone buys an amp from me I’m so gracious on letting them play it and do whatever they need to do to feel comfortable.

What I noticed is that "Sellers" and "Buyers" behavior are related.
Trying to figure out which one started it all it's like trying to figure out the "who came first, the egg or the chicken?" kind of thing.
However, the consequences are inevitable... the more demanding the buyer, the more protective the seller. And the more demanding the seller, the more protective the buyer. And that brings us to what's going on right now... wasting a lot of extra time and funds just so we can either have the instrument we want, or sell a piece that we no longer use.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great and honest buyers and sellers still, but they are getting harder to find by the hour.
But nowadays, I think really need better people on both sides, buyers and sellers, so we could use some of the wasted time, that we spent investigating and trying to protect ourselves, to play more music.

 

[BesaMoogie]

I usually give people the opportunity to play the gear and when I ask if I can test play the stuff before buying, I usually get the chance.

 

[Six Stringer]

Every amp I bought, new or used, I never got to try beforehand. I let a perspective buyer try out a rare, high-end amp I was selling once. He played through it for a while and said he need o to think it over. Never heard anything from him. I never let annyone try anything I was selling. I had someone recently ask me if they could try a high-end amp I was selling. I said no. He said that he would never spend that kind of money without hearing it first. I said I did.