List of Positive Purchase Experiences in H4S

Hi,

Since Hi-Fi 4 Sale started in 2007, many people have sold and purchased hi-fi equipment, with varying degrees of satisfaction. In the interests of many would-be buyers here, it would be good if members can post feedback of their buying experiences with various sellers here. For now, the criteria are as follows:

• You must be the actual purchaser yourself, not posting on behalf of someone else
  
• State what you bought and when you bought it
  
• Describing the background leading to your purchase would also be nice. Everyone loves a good story...
  
• POSITIVE feedback only, for now. Let's start this off on a good note first, noting that there will be hiccups in this thread along the way. So, unless you have a very deep grievance or wish to correct a positive comment, keep it for later.
  

So, for a start, here's a rough format that we can use. Please feel free to improvise.
SAMPLE FORMAT

• Item bought: Kazoom World Domination monoblock ampa
  
• Date purchased: Nov 2012
  
• Seller: bassraptor (sorry bro)
  
• Remarks: I was twiddling fingers during a quiet weekend when his ad popped out. As the price seemed right and that compulsive urge to buy suddenly got to me, PM'd him within 5 minutes after the ad came out. Ended up that we negotiated and did a COD somewhere convenient for both of us. Because of him (and the amp), I did not have enough sleep, listening to music the whole night. Great seller, fast & straightforward. Shame about my bank balance though... . This guys is a poison den. He told me that he has more equipment to clear.
  

Well, over to you guys. Reply to this thread to keep the ball rolling...

Item bought: Vincent sp 330 stereo power amp.
date purchased: about 2 years ago, give or take.
Seller: for the life of me i cannot remember. sigh. Growing younger every day... and it's showing...
Remarks: there i was growing sad and edgy that nothing in my budget could drive my Magneplanar MMGs. I had listened to a few other amps, and no, they could not do the job. And then an add for the Vincent poped up. And the seller, God bless his kind heart, was most agreeable to pop by with the heavy amp, huffing and puffing under it's quite subsantial weight, let me listen for about half an hour, and the music was sweet, and the feet did start moving, and the head did start bopping, and the music was sweet, wait, i said that already didn't i ? But God the music was sweet. And the deal was done. And once the amp warmed up after another half hour or so, and blossomed, i realised how absolutely musical it was. Very pleasant, no downside, win win all the way. My wife, who has better ears than mine, i am sad to admit, loved it and said it is not to be parted with no matter what. Until she heard my latest amp, that is, which is a story for another day.

Item bought: Western Electric interconnects II
date purchased: sometime earlier this year.
Seller: Lee, from sg. Petani, whose adds appear quite often for all things WE.
Remarks: So so easy to deal with this very enlightened person. The interconnect started singing from the word go, but with a few hours under it's belt, it really shone for the money spent. And then the inevitable happened, one day, 'phut', just like that there was no sound from one channel. So a quick sms to Lee just to ask him how to repair, or what to do, and he said, no, just return to me at your lesure, i am sending you a new pair now as we speak. And when the new pair arrived, OMG, he even included a small free gift for me for my trouble!!! This wonderful man really knows the meaning of good, honest business practices, to give good service and to protect his good name. Absolutely no hesitations in dealing with him again if i ever needed any item he may be carrying.

Excellent thread me thinks, but no other takers. Oh well, one more story...

Item bought: Sony 1st gen Blu Ray disc player.

When bought: few months back.

Why bought: Itchy bekside, whated to try something new, felt i could do better than my E Sound cdp. Wanted to try something new as a transport with my Buffalo II dac.

Bough from: Sting. He advertised a player that was top of the line audiophile, and in immaculate condition. My God he was not joking. This wonderful player looked as if it was brand spanking new. Worked flawlessly until now. And audiophile? Well, it gave my old cdp a spanking and it was dutifully put up for sale at a cheap price. We met a t a mutually agreed upon place, and Sting was on time. Price? Cannot get this good sound for the money he asked for. When my wife heard the sound (her ears are far better than mine, and now that she has embraced my hobby, my life has become paradise on earth..) she enquired as to why we were listening to the old cdp for so long, and when i told her the price her jaw fell to the floor, 'klunk' it made a sound like that.

Many thanks again Sting.

Over the past few years i've bought a few things from Vince Vs126 as well. We first met about 2 years ago when i wanted to sart trying out computer as a media. So i did some research and very quickly got completely dazzed and confused. What do i buy? how do i connect? What's all this talk about computer being a 'noisy' environment? How can i get the computer noise makers to keep quiet? One thing led to another and Vince had a usb to spdif converter (the excellent M2 tech) for sale. we sat in a coffee shop some where in Damansara Utama area and he spent about half an hour telling me about J river, about ripping cds using various programs. I bought the M2 Tech from Vince, and over the next few weeks sms and phone him for more info, more advice. He told me about Asio4all, about settings and kernel, about WAV rather than FLAC, and so many other things. Since then, i now have a very decent 2nd system with Stax headphones and Mac computer which i am very very happy with.

Since that time, Vince and i have become friends. I have bought a couple of other things from him, always in very good condition. And always a pleasure to deal with him. We have become friends, and that is one of the things i so dearly love about our forum,... i have made quite a number of friends based around the systems and music we all here so dearly love. It's so wonderful to have someone over, with a cup of tea, listen, and discuss what we hear, what is wrong, what is right, how to further improve.

Makes my day.

Dear H4S Members - I have noticed with some irk that whenever an items advertised is tagged "Reserved" the seller always erased off the original asking price. Also, when the item is finally sold (whether to the one who reserved it, or to some other new buyer), the original price is deleted. Why is the need for this practice? As a frequent visitor to the H4S site, I want to know the general prices of equipment being advertised, not necessarily the actual price for which the equipment has been sold.

So, may I ask the Administrators or Moderators to implement the "no deletion of price rule" so that as a buy and sell community, we can search the blog for general indication of asking prices of equipment advertised on the blog for sale?

Thanks for the kind consideration.

superfi wrote:Dear H4S Members - I have noticed with some irk that whenever an items advertised is tagged "Reserved" the seller always erased off the original asking price. Also, when the item is finally sold (whether to the one who reserved it, or to some other new buyer), the original price is deleted. Why is the need for this practice? As a frequent visitor to the H4S site, I want to know the general prices of equipment being advertised, not necessarily the actual price for which the equipment has been sold.

So, may I ask the Administrators or Moderators to implement the "no deletion of price rule" so that as a buy and sell community, we can search the blog for general indication of asking prices of equipment advertised on the blog for sale?

Thanks for the kind consideration.

Thanks for your feedback. As per the guidelines, Reserved items must
still carry a price until the item is sold. If you see deviations from
this rule, let us know.

Thanks,

Dear H4S,

Does the last post indicate that it 'is', therefore, allowable to delete the price of an item which had been placed for sale, once that item has been sold?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you may remove the price once the item has been sold, although some prefer to leave it there as a reference.

Thanks for the clarification...!

Raymond88 sold me a power amp with d kind option to trade-in n top-up some cash. D price is reasonable but d best part of it ... to meet him half way between his n mine location ... Ayer keroh toll to do d deal. He is very considerate n I would not hesitate to rate him, not just stars but .... a truly fine gentlemen. N v parted our ways for a great weekend in malacca.

Item bought:
Nos tubes (mullard ,cca & amperex SQ)
Date purchased: Oct'13 .

Mr Soontas was a very honest seller.
This is my 2nd time i dealt with him.

Paid him nearly KRM 2 for those tubes.
Paid him that night & the morning after he did deliver the goods.

He even give me a nice powercord for me as a gift. 

To me, he is an honest man . He did not exaggerate things just to sell his things

Willing to trade with him in future if he has what i want

+1 for Raymond88
Bought a few chords cable from him.

Rated AAA+

Hi, I think we should really encourage this thread, so genuine and honest sellers can build their reputation.

Item bought: OPPO 93 Bluray 
Seller: Simon Lim

Took a risk with the transaction - a fair bit of money involved but I never got to see the unit before paying (bought on blind faith, just relied on Simon's description and pictures).

The unit arrived in very good condition (much better than I expected it to be). Very well packed, I can tell a bit of effort went into the packing to ensure the unit is well protected. Just tested the unit and so far so good.

We will do business again if there is something I need and he has.

One added note: The item was delivered one day after payment was made. Very fast.

Item bought: a few audiophile CDs
Seller: kychoo99

Item arrived one day after payment was made. CDs were well packed for delivery and CD condition was very good, no scratches.

A good seller, we will do business again in future.

Item bought: Burmester CD 03
Seller : Lup

Item arrived as described, in good condition. Care was taken to ship the item safely, the CD was well packaged.

I deposited RM 70 into his bank account and he returned RM 4 in the package as promised (the transaction value was RM 66).

An honest seller.

Raymond88, 2nd item bought.  Banked in RMxxxx-00 sum to his account and arranged to meet him in person indefinitely.  Finally, after a month plus he was kind enough to meet me again in the same place, ayer keroh toll to hand me the item.

Item in perfect condition and even poslaju me the ori receipt later on.  Honest and trustworthy.  A great seller and a great friend too.

100% encouraged to deal with him if you have any items in mind that he has.

Bought a second unit of OPPO BDP 93 for another room.

Seller: Simon Lim

Again the unit arrived in very good condition and very well packed. Just tested the unit and all good.

The item was delivered one day after payment was made. Very fast.

Great seller.

Items: Thorent TD165
Seller: Superfi
Experiance: Great guy, very helpful. Great vintage TT.  

Dear Moderators & Fellow Hifi Members - Ever noticed that many sellers post "SOLD" tags in the bumping area for updates which in my humble opinion is wholly unnecessary.  When a seller does this, his old post (after the item is sold) is bump right up to the first position of the posting, thus relegating other current posts a step down.  With no offense to Long (whose case is merely cited as an example), today (13 July) he tagged his items "SOLD" 6 times via the bumping or additional info area thereby pushing all other current posts 6 positions down the listing! This relegates 6 positions down the listing containing urgent sales messages and postings which sellers are eager to sell their wares.  What I do personally with items that have been sold was merely edit my original posting (Title) with the word "SOLD" and leave them at that so that my sold item message need not be bumped right to the front or beginning of the blog postings. The merit of letting unsold equipment to remain at the beginning few pages of the posting section surely must outweigh the victorious announcement that an equipment has been purchased!  The other cogent reason for not doing this is that what if every member especially those with a large number of items to be sold bumped their postings up? The result would be a whole long list of postings with "SOLD" tags and which would make it difficult for people looking for equipment to buy and having to scroll through the long list of "SOLD" items before being able to access items not sold yet? Do we need to create (as some other blogs by other groups do) a button to access and segregate only unsold or still available items for sale?

I hope our Moderators can institute an additional rule that there is no need to tell the world the an item has been sold by bumping them to the beginning of what is an already very long queue of equipment not yet sold. Just bank in the money and be happy and thankful that your equipment has been bought by another reader of the blog through the services and generosity of the founders of this wonderful blog!

What are the opinions of other members of this blog?

superfi,

Agree with you. I guess common sense can be quite uncommon (ie. just editing the post and marking it as 'Sold', rather than bumping it).

Looks like the moderators have to do more work with this.

I just pm-ed someone on this today. Have made necessary addition to bump policy on welcome page. Cheers!

Editing the title would be sufficient ... agree with that.

Sometimes seller who does not update their item as SOLD do keep getting phone calls and messages asking for the item. Hence I believe that is why they update their ad. But yes again... it should be in the title only.

thanks for the article, it is very useful.

Good