Saying Hello, exploring EU vendors

[RickyB75]

Hi folks,

Long time voyeur, first time poster.

Just thought I'd say hello after putting my old office UQ2 on the site for sale.

Are there particular companies/stores people on the site use in the EU for HiFi? I used to use eBay and some UK stores for HiFi, but with the advent of Brexit, the 12% Duty and 23% VAT means purchases from the UK are no longer viable. Outside of Cloney Audio's pre-owned/ex-demo page I don't see many options within Ireland.

I've found https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de has lot's of choice, but always sceptical using a foreign language website especially when substantial sums of money are changing hands.

Are there any reputable EU sites/stores the community recommend?

[Diapason]

Welcome aboard!

With the caveat that it's a public site so there's always the danger of scammers, I've bought and sold a few things on audio-markt.de. You can find some good stuff on there.

[RickyB75]

Thanks, had a look and registered on that site. They don't have what I want at the mo but will check back periodically; thanks for the heads up.

[hudo]

I found good things at https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/ and https://www.thomann.de/ie/index.html

For 2nd hand, the first stop is HifiShark.com of course, and even purchased some equipment from Sweden and Norway that i found there, but its a risk of course since they can easily send me a brick. You have to call the seller and see if he is a crazy audiophile like us, its usually easy to recognize one:)

I also check Croatian ads (translated: https://translate.google.com/translate? ... dio-oprema), so if somebody finds something interesting, I can help with communication!

[RickyB75]

Thank you for the advice.

I've taken the plunge and agreed to a private sale with a seller in Germany - hopefully I will not have any horror stories to report back - pray for me.

[RickyB75]

Just a quick line to let you know I received my amplifier from Germany today. Nerve wracking as it was, I did all the due diligence I could, and plumped to having some faith in a fellow audiophile. It has paid dividends, and I've deleted my "wanted" post from the classifieds. Thanks for all your advice/suggestions and support.

[Diapason]

That's great, I'm glad it worked out!

[Fran]

Great result! What did you buy?

I know we have all thought it already - we need to get better at buying from within the EU.

[tony]

Well done, I bought a Jadis valve amp from a hifi shop in Belgium. Bit nerve wracking but all went very smoothly. Ditto for 2 coffee machines and a grinder. Most people selling this type of stuff are very genuine. My most recent purchase was the valve cage for my Jadis amp. Guy was a pleasure to deal with. In the opposite direction I sold my previous Jadis amp to a lady in Poland. It all also went very smoothly. Over a year later I got photo's of the amp in situ with her new speakers.

On the opposite end I enquired about Spendor speakers for sale at what seemed a great price. Some weird Irish ad site. The seller it seemed was in Tipperary so no worries I could just head down to collect them. Made contact and the guy turns out to be in Italy :)

[RickyB75]

Great result! What did you buy?

I know we have all thought it already - we need to get better at buying from within the EU.

Naim NAP 250 DR - will be avoiding UK purchases for the foreseeable.