Audiogon question

jermmd · « **on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:15 am »

I have a buyer on Audiogon who says to send my Paypal invoice when I have it. No one has ever asked for this before and I'm not sure what it is or where to send it as all communication has been through Audiogon. In the past, I simply receive notice that payment has been received and I ship the item. I responded to the buyer that I wasn't sure what he wanted exactly and I await his reply. What do you think?

Joe M.

Austin08 · « **Reply #1 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:29 am »

Log on your pay pal account and create an invoice in the request money section.

(Only if he provide his paypal ID)

Phil A · « **Reply #2 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:29 am »

Audiogon has tried to make it so all communication and payment details flow through Audiogon. The Paypal will go through Audiogon's system. I bought a DAC recently and they flagged a message from the seller with his e-mail. I did find a way around it that's simple. The buyer can log onto Paypal and see notice of the transaction. Does the buyer have previous feedback?

jermmd · « **Reply #3 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:36 am »

Now another person has supposedly purchased the item I was selling. I already have a tentative agreement with the first buyer but my listing says the item is sold to the second buyer (who has been contacted and was aware that there was someone ahead of him). Should I have somehow indicated on my ad that I had a tentative buyer so no one could purchase mt item without my accepting the offer?

Joe

jermmd · « **Reply #4 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:37 am »

Quote from: Phil A on 8 Mar 2013, 02:29 am

Audiogon has tried to make it so all communication and payment details flow through Audiogon. The Paypal will go through Audiogon's system. I bought a DAC recently and they flagged a message from the seller with his e-mail. I did find a way around it that's simple. The buyer can log onto Paypal and see notice of the transaction. Does the buyer have previous feedback?

He has lots of feedback but I don't see his email address anywhere.

Joe

Austin08 · « **Reply #5 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 02:57 am »

Joe,

In this case, your best bet is to contact A'gon. Otherwise, you are stuck with second buyer. Good luck with your sale.

jermmd · « **Reply #6 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 03:04 am »

I'll give the first buyer two more hours to respond and if I don't hear from him, I'll go with the second buyer. I hope I don't get negative feedback as a result. I'll contact Audiogon now for their opinion about what to do. Thanks for the help.

Joe M.

jermmd · « **Reply #7 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 03:26 am »

I suspect I had the "buy it now" option available for my item and this is how it was sold while I was negotiating with someone else. I can't get back to the original listing to check. I think I'm obligated to go with the 2nd buyer if he used the buy it now button. Well, that's a lesson for me.

Joe M.

Austin08 · « **Reply #8 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 03:52 am »

The ”buy now” button put me in a headache situation before. My buyer hit the button but want to back out the deal. I told him it is OK but he has to pay for my relisting and A'gon commision fee. He was end up buying my stuffs. The problem was simple but it took several frustrated days to get it solved. I learned my lesson the hard way, too.

jermmd · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 03:29 pm »

Just for follow up here is my A'gon communication:
_______________________________________ _
Joe M
Subject: Item sold while negotiating with another buyer
_______________________________________ _
MAR 08, 2013 | 09:36AM EST
Louis replied:
Joe,
I am sorry that your listing was sold while attempting to make a deal. Unfortunately, the user that made an official offer should be the one to follow through the sell.
Thank you for being a valued member of the Audiogon community. Please do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything else we can assist you with.

Thank you,
Louis
Audiogon Support Team
http://app.audiogon.com/
_______________________________________ _
MAR 08, 2013 | 10:12PM EST
Original message
Joe wrote:

I had tentatively agreed to sell my Cal Audio MCA 2500 multichannel amp to a buyer and was awaiting clarification of something when my item sold to another buyer. I feel obligated to the first buyer and I don't want negative feedback. What should I do?

I assume you have access to my communication with the buyers and suggest you review the exchanges. The first buyer wanted a Paypal invoice in order to complete the sale and I didn't know how to go about producing and sending the invoice.

Joe M.

WireNut · « **Reply #10 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 04:36 pm »

Quote from: Phil A on 8 Mar 2013, 02:29 am

Audiogon has tried to make it so all communication and payment details flow through Audiogon. The Paypal will go through Audiogon's system. I bought a DAC recently and they flagged a message from the seller with his e-mail. I did find a way around it that's simple. The buyer can log onto Paypal and see notice of the transaction. Does the buyer have previous feedback?

I'm selling an item on Agon and in the text for my ad I put in my direct contact email address. Was that wrong, How do I know if Agon has flagged my ad, and does flagging kill the ad?

Don_S · « **Reply #11 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 04:52 pm »

Log out of Audiogon and then search for your ad. That should answer all of your questions.

FYI, Augiogon usually sends a notice that a message has been flagged via an email ("no reply message") to people who have offended by including an email address in messages. But don't count on it being 100%.

Quote from: WireNut on 8 Mar 2013, 04:36 pm

I'm selling an item on Agon and in the text for my ad I put in my direct contact email address. Was that wrong, How do I know if Agon has flagged my ad, and does flagging kill the ad?

Austin08 · « **Reply #12 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 04:55 pm »

Quote

I'm selling an item on Agon and in the text for my ad I put in my direct contact email address. Was that wrong, How do I know if Agon has flagged my ad, and does flagging kill the ad?

That is very intetesting since A'gon is not allow any form of email type on the text unless you go around and put your email address like wire-nut at yahoo dot com.

WireNut · « **Reply #13 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 04:59 pm »

Quote from: Austin08 on 8 Mar 2013, 04:55 pm

That is very intetesting since A'gon is not allow any form of email type on the text unless you go around and put your email address like wire-nut at yahoo dot com.

I didn't do that, I just put in my real email address in my ad. It's been in there for a week now. Yeah, I just checked my ad, it's still there and my email is still listed, maybe I should take out my email address now.

decal · « **Reply #14 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 05:08 pm »

F*&% Audiogon, I'm through with them and their nonsensical rules for good. Sorry, just had to rant for a second.

WireNut · « **Reply #15 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 05:18 pm »

I did purchase an amp this week thru Agon where the seller listed his direct contact email address in his ad. The transaction went very smooth. We did everything thru email not going thru Agon at all except for his ad. That's made me list my own ad with my email address in the description because I thought it was a good idea. I'm not so sure it is tho now.

neobop · « **Reply #16 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 06:05 pm »

Amazon bought Agon and they're still working out the bugs. I recently sold a couple of items and the new system is a PIA. Email address exchange is prohibited now - they're afraid of being bypassed. Some dealers who pay a monthly fee to Agon can put their email address on their ad. I guess they haven't figured how to automatically tell a dealer ad from a private ad and that's why you can do that, for now.

I don't know how much commission was lost with the old system, but I doubt if it was much.
That's progress for ya, time is money and your time doesn't count.
neo

Don_S · « **Reply #17 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 06:24 pm »

When did Amazon purchase Audiogon? I did not know that. Audiogon has been screwed up ever since it went to the commission format.

I recently read a commercial ad on Audiogon and they specifically mentioned they pay a monthly rate so they can list their email address and requested potential buyers use that email instead of contacting them through Audiogon. I can't find the ad now but they may have also mentioned they don't pay a commission. Do commercial advertisers pay commissions on sales?

I just completed a very nice transaction via Audio Circle and another one via US Audio Mart. Both items never made it to Audiogon which I only use as a LAST resort.

Quote from: neobop on 8 Mar 2013, 06:05 pm

Amazon bought Agon and they're still working out the bugs. I recently sold a couple of items and the new system is a PIA. Email address exchange is prohibited now - they're afraid of being bypassed. Some dealers who pay a monthly fee to Agon can put their email address on their ad. I guess they haven't figured how to automatically tell a dealer ad from a private ad and that's why you can do that, for now.

I don't know how much commission was lost with the old system, but I doubt if it was much.
That's progress for ya, time is money and your time doesn't count.
neo

WireNut · « **Reply #18 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 06:28 pm »

My concern for Agon flagging my ad, I just removed my email address from the ad.

fritzspeakers · « **Reply #19 on:** 8 Mar 2013, 08:32 pm »

Amazon didn't buy Audiogon, they wouldn't have screwed it up as much as the guy who took controlling interest of the site from the original owner a couple years ago. I believe he got a new webmaster who told him that he could make a bunch more $$ by having pay per click ads from other companies.

In the past, private party ads were $4 with a 2% commission due when your item was sold & seller or buyer left feedback. Commercial accounts (dealers) paid $5 per ad with 1% commission due unless you had Audiogon bill your credit card for a minimum of $100 on the first of the month, then dealers didn't pay sales commission. They now want dealers to pay $250 a month to be an "authorized" Audiogon seller, but you still have to pay for any ads separately. Authorized sellers can put their email or phone numbers on the ads.

Due to their boneheaded moves and/or the slow economy, Audiogon is now getting 1/3 of their home page hits and only about 10% of total hits to ads, discussion forums, member lookups etc. Before they launched the "new" site, they used to get around 35,000 daily home page hits compared to the current average 12,000. And 80,000 total other page hits compared to an average of 800,000 to 900,000 before. Recently they have about 250 new ads posted daily vrs 425+ in the past, their revenue must be down several hundred $$ a day. Maybe they are making it up on the pay per click ads. Does anyone know how those pay? Maybe I will put some on my web site...

Here's a link to a tracking site with more info. At the right side bottom of the graph, move the slider to go back to 2009 & move your mouse around to see the numbers.

http://www.quantcast.com/audiogon.com