Tír Na HiFi

Anyone buy or have any experiences buying from abroad from audio-markt.de? I know you have to be careful and look at the prices if they're realistic and feedback and everything but is the feedback in these type of sites reliable? Do the sellers accept paypal in general and does that give you sufficient protection if they send you a box of fresh air?
Seems like the Germans like their high end and there is a lot of choice over there and the sterling to euros has gone to the dogs so there's no good deals buying from the UK anymore.

I was about to buy my first item from there few days ago but the french guy backed off from the sale 10 minutes before I made paypal payment so not the best start ! but he seemed genuine enough for me to be willing to send him few bobs. He had 3 comments accumulated over some years so it made it easier :) Not sure if it helped but there you go :)

Other then that I bought from around the world using various different services and never had any serious problems. Once two sets of cables went missing... 600+ USD... I tracked them to Brazil... I wrote them off after 2 months of waiting and some calls and email sent to Brazilian and US post. I bought another two sets of cables in the meantime and then out of nowhere they showed up at my doorstep 3 or 4 months after the guy have sent them to me...

Pearse helped me survive the wait by lending me his set of cables for which I am very grateful (probably at times I had here more Pearse's gear then my own while I was building my system!)

Cheers

I have uses Audio-markt twice and been lucky enough to deal with the most careful and excellent sellers of anywhere on the net. Once a German private sale. Another was a Swiss shop as far as I remember... Both excellent... But I think the advice is to keep good contact and ask for additional pictures to verify the product exists...

Ask for a picture of the item with a toothbrush on top of it.

You can be sure the seller has one then.

SJB

Get the URL of the image and do a Google Image search to see if the same image turns up elsewhere. Your scammer might be using someone else's pic and you might see it on another continent.

Ask for his address and tell him you'll come and see it first, if he's evasive pull the plug.

KM

Another vote in favour of asking for more pics. I bought a pair of speakers from the Netherlands a good while back on audiomarkt and asked for some close ups of the drivers. Nice speakers in great condition, still have 'em.

Not sure about the toothbrush though given the availability of Photoshop, just ask for an unusual angle of the actual item and be on the lookout for stock photos.

I sometimes ask for photos in similar fashion to tooth brush but instead of tooth brush I would ask seller to put a device for sale with piece of paper saying for example - for Sebastian 05-06-2015...

With bigger purchases I would be very reluctant to send any money before I speak with the person over the phone in addition to above photo. I mean you can tell if you want to do business with a person by exchanging just few sentences with him / her. Much better then even dozen of emails and anyway scammers usually cannot be called...

Cheers,
seb

sebna wrote:
With bigger purchases I would be very reluctant to send any money before I speak with the person over the phone in addition to above photo. I mean you can tell if you want to do business with a person by exchanging just few sentences with him / her. Much better then even dozen of emails and anyway scammers usually cannot be called...

Cheers,
seb

Yes probably give him a call as well if I do want to go through with it. Going to keep an eye on the site just to try and get a feel of the place to see if I can spot the scams and the authentic ones. I asked seller if he accepted paypal and he said yes if I paid the fees that's no problem there. Looking at the conditions on paypal you seem to get similar protection as a buyer from ebay. You get a 45 day period where you can open a dispute and 20 days thereafter to escalate dispute to a claim. Together with credit card maybe it's pretty safe through paypal.
Just waiting for cloney to get the phantoms in for a demo before I decide on anything.

Found another set of great value Focal Scala Utopias(I'm a sucker for Focals) for sale for 2500€ on AudioMarkt , this is the bargain of the century usually 8000€ to 10000€. Found same on http://www.hifishark.com/search?q=focal+scala+utopia. Seller claims to be UK based and one ad gives a name and address in Peterborough UK, however, when contacted he says he is in Germany and this is how he wants to do the transaction

I'm from UK but now i'm in Germany at some relatives, for holiday and I post them from here and from here I will ship them.
I will explain how we will do the deal and I attached additional photos.
The delivery will be made through DHL,, You will receive an invoice from DHL that the item is in their custody and it is in standby , waiting for the payment confirmation to start the delivery, and you will make the payment on DHL bank account. You have the possibility to check the package.
In about 3-4 days you will receive the package, you will inspect it, and if everything is in order and if you agree, they will transfer the money to my account.
I will not receive the money until you won't check the package.
This way, both of us are safe.
If you agree, please send me your address so that the package will be delivered.

Suspicions were high and I found a Facebook page in Berlin with the same name but when I contacted they said they were not selling speakers so I researched the name and found he died in 1994!

An image search found the images on different Spanish sites. Finally a modest friend found the same images on Ebay UK http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Focal-Scala-U ... 28020bb488

If it's too good to be true , it ain't true.
KM

Ken, any idea how that scam would work? It sounds like the financial side of the transaction was fairly watertight. I'm guessing that some last minute changes from the above scenario would probably happen.