Classification Of Forumers

Hi Everyone,

I think the sharp-eyed amongst you will probably notice that we have just introduced a small change to this forum. Basically we have introduced a 'classification' of the members in this forum. Basically, after lengthy discussions amongst the moderators and the admin, we have decided to classify the members in this forum as two general 'types'. They are :

1. Regular members, who are actually 'end-users' or basically 'consumers'. People like me, who actually owns a system. If we sell, it's our own personal stuff, we own it and we listen to it and perhaps we want to upgrade it and so we reluctantly sell off our original equipment to someone who appreciates and will take good care of it (to generate some much needed cash to pay for the upgrade).

2. Commercial members, whom we loosely classify as either dealer, reseller, trader, service-provider, etc. These are the forumers who sells equipment to make a profit. Basically they seldom if ever use the equipment themselves. They buy it from someone or they accept a trade-in and then they re-sell them. Some may be the authourized dealers who owns the agency to sell Krell here for e.g.

There are pros and cons to buy from both type of sellers. Some people are familiar with them and will find such classifications useful for their decision. Others, maybe newcomers, might not feel any difference between buying from a consumer vs buying from a dealer/reseller, etc.

We decided to provide this differentiation so that those who finds it important or useful to make their decision will have it. If you do not find it useful, then simply disregard the information.

Also, whenever we introduce changes such as this, there is a likelihood, no matter how remote, that occassionally it will cause a small advantage or disadvantage to a few fortunate/unfortunate people.

We (moderators and admin) have debated this at great length. Eventually we agreed that the objective of hifi4sale is to serve the Hi-Fi community. So whatever we do is for the general good of the community as a whole. Life is such that it is impossible for any change or decision to be completely neutral and to completely benefit everyone, or to never benefit anyone. Nothing is completely fair in this world. As matured adults, we decided that the members of this forum will understand this logic. So if this new change is to cause any inconvenience to anyone, we ask that the person just accepts it as part of life. Similarly, if this change somehow (unplanned) benefits a certain part of the community, then again, we should accept it.

The overall good this change will do to this forum is what we feel is the more important.

Enjoy your Hi-Fi !

Oh yes, as a quick guide. The way to quickly differentiate between the types of forumers :

1. blue colour - admin and moderators
2. white colour - regular members
3. yellow colour - dealer/reseller/trader/service-provider/etc
4. red colour - members who have violated guidelines or have been banned

Some of the pros and cons buying from consumer and dealer/reseller/etc.

Note: these are my personal experiences and opinions. Others may differ. Most important is we share our experience openly. It might or might not work for you.

Consumers:
1. Typically they ask for a little bit lower price, because there is no middle-man and thus no extra mark-up point.
2. If we visit the seller and listen, it is in his/her personal system, so we get to know the actual condition of the unit. We also know how well he/she has taken care of the unit, plus the reason for the selling (maybe upgrade to a higher-end unit ?).
3. We typically have to pay cash because normal people, where can accept credit card ? Cheque may be a consideration but to be honest, there is a bit of risk and I personally do not expect a private seller to blindly accept a cheque as payment.
4. Typically no warantty and no after-sales service.
5. As the seller pesonally owned the unit, he/she should be able to provide good advice on set-up and how best to extract maximum performance out of the unit.

Dealers/resellers/etc.
1. Often they offer good payment methods, e.g. credit-card. Some might even be willing to offer some sort of partial payment/installment.
2. As expected, their prices usually are a bit higher. They -have- to mark-up because after all, they need to make a living.
3. Sometimes/often they offer some sort of limited warantty. Any good/concientious dealer will be willing to ensure that the unit works fine after the sale because after all they are in the business long term so they won't want to lose reputation. If the unit develops problems are a few weeks only, typically they will be willing to repair it for free
4. Sometimes we can trade-in our own unit as part-exchange and thus get to pay the difference only.
4. After sales service like repair or spare-parts, we can go back, especially to the authorized agent. Your luck with resellers may vary here.
5. Often if they are selling a used unit, they won't know the history or usage of the unit, because mostly it will have been accepted as a trade-in.
6. If they are not an authorized dealer, many times they will not know how to set-up to squeeze the max performance out of the unit. But this depends on the dealer/seller. E.g. my dealer is an expert in setting up and he can get the max performance out of literally all brands. For this reason, I usually try to buy my stuff from him as the first choice.

These then are the brief pros and cons I have personally experienced when buying from consumers or from dealers, etc. I have bought from both and fortunately I had mostly good/happy experiences (of course the exception cases do occur once a while. One can only hope that they remain the extremely rare exceptions).

Once again, your mileage will vary, depending on how careful you are, and yes, also on luck. As with buying anything, one needs to exercise the proper level of care. The most important thing of all, in my humble opinion, is that we enjoy the hobby, both shopping, buying, and then owning the hi-fi or A/V equipment. Life is too short.

Enjoy your HiFi.