Missed another set of garage speakers, uncool CL'er again...

[jtnfoley]

A CL moving sale listing included (paraphrasing) "Klipsch Heresy speakers with 15" woofers and tractix horns, reinforced with wood because they're so powerful they bounced themselves loose. Painted black from the original plain wood. $50.00"

Phone number provided, phone number called. Heresy II's said to be in working condition (despite the apparent abuse) and I'm on my way. Mind you, it's a 30 mile one-way trip in the Memorial Day exodus from Cape Cod all the way to the west subburbs of Boston (a city called Allston.)

I was literally at the Allston tolls when I got the call back. "I don't want to be an a-hole, but my friend just came over and told me I was crazy to offer these for fifty bucks. He says they're worth like $400."

I said "Not in the condition described in the ad and on the phone."

He replied "He's gonna give me $200 for them.

"TAKE IT! You gotta live and I won't counter $200, not if they've been abused enough to rattle appart and then been non-professionally restored. They were to be garage speakers as I said, and I MIGHT have gone to $100 IF you did a good job repairing them..."

Pay another toll, schlep all the way home, and drink a beer to the memory of those honest CL'ers that I've had the pleasure to do business with in the past.

Good thing my car gets nearly 50MPG, otherwise this trip would have cost me far more than $$2.50 plus a gallon and a third of diesel.

[Groomlakearea51]

Yah..... and in about a week or so, they just might appear again for sale by the dud who got them and is trying to flip them.....

This is awful suspicious.....

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/135954.aspx

[Yura]

Happens all the time. About 9 month ago an original owner was selling La Scallas for $350. Because of the amount of calls, he figured out that the speakers were worth more, so he sent everyone who contacted him an e-mail asking to provide him best offer, keeping in mind that someone else told him the speakers were worth $1,5-$2K.

[seti]

A guy at work has a pair of KG5.5's. He was going to sell them to me for $200. I talked them up so much he hooked them up and listened to them so he decided he liked them too much to sell. LOL Now I just shut up and hand over the money.

[Mike Lindsey]

Yah..... and in about a week or so, they just might appear again for sale by the dud who got them and is trying to flip them.....

This is awful suspicious.....

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/135954.aspx

Suspicious indeed...

[jtnfoley]

*grumble grumble*

[jtnfoley]

A guy at work has a pair of KG5.5's. He was
going to sell them to me for $200. I talked them up so much he hooked
them up and listened to them so he decided he liked them too much to
sell. LOL Now I just shut up and hand over the money.

At least they are being enjoyed. I bet he never knew what he owned until inspired to listen to them.

--edited for quote and content

[JBryan]

Too many stories of deals gone bad - the worst I can recall is about 10 years ago, I walked into a pawn shop I often frequented looking for guitars and such. The fella knew why I was there and pulled out a guitar that had just become available. It was an original 1961 Gibson 335 in excellent condition. We negotiated a price pretty quickly and I said I'd return with cash in an hour. I offered a deposit but he said it wouldn't be necessary.."it'll be here - don't worry". I get back from the bank and the salesman is nowhere to be found. Another fella says that he was at the other shop, so I wait for 45 minutes before he returns. After trying to avoid me for a few minutes, he said that the boss called while I was gone and wanted to see the guitar. I'd have to go to the other shop and talk to him.

Surmise it to say that the boss doesn't want to sell it until he has the guitar appraised by local dealers. I try to explain that the price had been agreed to but he's not willing to sell it just yet. At this point, we both know I'll never see the guitar again so he throws me a bone and shows me a very nice Rickenbacher 'Hawaiian' lap steel in chrome and offers it to me for a good price but says it wont be available until the following Monday. I regretfully accepted the situation and took him up on his offer BUT insisted I leave a deposit which he accepted and wrote me a ticket.

I stopped by on Monday morning to pick up the Rick only to be told by the boss that 2 dealers bid up the 335 and the one that lost out was so upset, the boss offered him the Rick to calm him down. He apologized, gave back my deposit and said he'd find another guitar for me but at that point, I was over the whole thing and left.

That's a bad experience, one of many but I can name 10 good ones for every bad one so I can't complain too much.

[oldmako]

Last week I found a nice DVD player on eBay. It went for nothing. As in 5.00 bucks. I later get a note that he dropped and broke it while packing it. While this may have happened, I have had several deals fall through with suspicious explanations. I think he was sick that it wasn't bid up more. He did a lousy job on the bid (no pic, minimal info, marginal English etc) and most people are too lazy to look specs up so they just ignored it. Bottom line it went real cheap.

But, I suppose you gotta pay to play. I have made some killer deals on ebay and CL and will continue to look, but a deal isn't a done deal until it lives in YOUR house.

[jtnfoley]

Ad was still on my desktop at home, as was my Mapquest of the route. It was 35 miles, not 30 []

Verbatim, to counter/compliment my original paraphrase:

"Klipsch Heresy loud speakers with 15" Subwoofer and tatrix horn for
mid/high end. These speakers are really loud. I reinforced the case
because the bass was splitting the frame. I also painted from wood to
black color. Look and sound great: $50 for pair"

[RockOn4Klipsch]

pair of chorus I's came up about 3 weeks ago for 200 bucks i tried like hell to get them, someone else bought them, now they're up again for 500.

[colterphoto1]

whatchu looking for mang? Pro Heresies? got a fave model in mind?

Michael

[NeverForever]

This is a subject that touches a raw nerve with me. A Nikko 850 amp in nice condition was selling for $45 on CL. I jumped on it, agreed to meet the seller in a couple of days (a Friday), only to have him tell me that he sold the amp to somebody else the next day, somebody who had "expressed interest" before me. I would gladly have paid more. And I would have gladly dealt with somebody more honorable . . .

It looked like a good one, or I wouldn't have been so aggravated by the whole situation:

[JBryan]

Like my other story, the lesson learned is that a good deal will not wait. After losing the Gibson 335, I started carrying around a few hundred dollars at all times. I figure that if I'm mugged, the actual violation will bother me a lot more than the amount of money stolen and being able to make an instant deal has come in very handy on numerous occasions.

A few months ago, I saw an ad on CL for a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom for an unbelievable price and immediately sent an email. The fella called 10 minutes later and said I was the 1st to inquire and that we could set something up for next day. It was a little after 10pm at the time but I suggested that if it wasn't too late, I could be there in 30 mins. He agreed and it was lucky for me 'cause by the time I'd driven over, he had gotten dozens of emails, some offering more than twice what he was asking and one guy even made it a point to tell him his guitar was worth 3000-4000 dollars and that he would appraise it for free (nice trick - I bet it has served him well). I told the seller that these guys were just trying to get to the head of the line and there was no guarantee that he'd get any more $ for his troubles. I also told him that if his LP was indeed a 1968, it would be worth a lot more than $4k - more like $20K but there were only 200 made that year and they were all black which his was not. I had seen the pic in the ad so I had brought some books along to date the guitar (not an easy task for a Gibson) and we determined that it was probably a '72 or '74 so he felt better. To his credit, he did say that he'd stick with his asking price so he ended up with the price he wanted, I got a nice guitar at a great price and we both walked away satisfied that it was a fair deal.

[gambo]

3 weeks ago I read on the local Craigs List "Stereo equipment for sale" the ad detals listed the equipment as pair Corus 1 $400 and Heresy 11 speakers $300. So I called the guy, he explained that he was in the military bought them in Okanawa in 1989. The speakers were in the orginal boxes stored for the last ten years he needed the money to repair his pickup truck. Since I was the 1st caller - I told him OK I want to see the speakers tonight and would drive the 30 miles after work to his house and would be there at 6pm. After work I went to my bank took out $700 cash and drove to the guys house in the country. He had just finished setting up the stereo in the garage on a rug (next to the truck motor on a cherry picker). He offered me a beer and we listened to music -- pfffft I wasted no time and paid him cash for 4 speakers that are 20 years old that original showroom condition. ( no marks/ chips on the wood ) The entire time I was there drinking a beer the phone was ringing with callers who wanted to see the stereo. I got the feeling that he wished that he had listed these at higher price but followed through on the prices posted in the ad AND I had the cash in hand.