This one has got Flower Pot guy beat.

[altruistica]

I disagree with most of what's been written here.

The guy spent $400 getting it refurbed. He showed the receipt.

It's up to a buyer to decide whether it's worth the $800 he was asking. I would expect a machine that's had $400 spent on it at Tascam, to be good for a few years hassle-free recording. As someone who's spent weeks getting things repaired, how much is your own time worth? The problem with most of this stuff, is that some sellers list things 'fully functioning' when they're not.......or as 'mint' and it's a dog. As someone who's just had to send a perfectly good TASCAM MSR24 all the way back to Germany (it came in what can only be described as a cereal box.....consequently bits were falling off it.......full refund from seller who paid return carriage), the hassle involved has me seriously questioning ever buying another reel to reel.
I think it's always worth paying a premium (as much as a third again) when dealing on Ebay if the feedback of the seller is reputable.

My tuppence worth..

Al

 

[lonewhitefly]

I agree with almost all of that, but someone did buy it from me at $800, so how was the price nuts? That's what I can't understand. You talk about the market, but in a free market someone did purchase it at my asking price. So maybe the market ranges from $100 to units not working to $800 for units restored by TEAC? I collect coins, for example, and there's a huge range based on condition. Maybe this is true of 244s and we just don't know because ones fully restored don't hit the market often. I'm just presenting a counter argument here and really don't know, but if someone bought it I don't see how the asking price was off. Unless you think the buyer wasn't legit, but he had almost 400 purchased with 100% feedback. Remember that after ebay fees and shipping costs (I listed free shipping), I would have gotten more like $650.

Let's look at it from a different perspective. Say I was a business that bought old units, had them restored, sold at a profit, rinsed and repeated. You know from personal experience the cost involved ($500 in your case, and it would have been $650 had the guy not refunded you). Now imagine for your business you wanted to turn a profit. Factor in shipping, ebay fees, your time, etc. To make all the effort worth your time you'd have to charge a lot. Now, I am not trying to run a business like that, but if I were $800 would be low for your unit. After all the fees that's a small margin. You'd be out of business shortly selling it at $250-400.

Yes, it's bad for buyers of old gear. Maybe that's why people get mad at flowerpot guy. Because they want to buy the gear cheap. I get it. Maybe he's running that type of business; I don't know. But I don't get mad when seeing what looks like a high price. Even with flowerpot guy, I just assume he either is attached to the gear, has money put into it, doesn't really want to sell/care if he sells, etc. We really don't know. He could be a great guy who is asking his price for a reason.

By the way, the fact your unit arrived "non working" is exactly why I don't want to ship to the guy who bought mine. Local pickup only makes sense for items like this. There's too much weirdness on ebay, and also a buyer should inspect the gear because buyers of vintage gear can be particular and have different opinions of "mint", "good" condition, etc. You don't want to be shipping a 100lb unit back and forth. That just adds to damage and financial loss.

I gotcha man. I sell more than I buy, and I've been selling on eBay for 15 years.

No business in their right mind would buy old 4-tracks, send them to Teac, then sell them for a profit. So it's really just your individual situation. I mean, I've bought mixing boards for a couple hundred, put like $600 into getting them repaired, then sold them for whatever they would sell for ... like $350 or $500 or whatever. I lost money on the deal ... that's how it goes when you gamble with gear and you're not a tech.

I'm not sure how to factor in your prospective buyer because you didn't close the deal. Basic point here is that the unit being up for sale for 6 months or whatever at $800 probably had some influence on the market price. If you want to sell the unit, and will only sell for $800, and find a buyer, great! That's really fine, it is. I'm not the moral police. But you certainly subject yourself to public scrutiny because it is well outside the normal range, and does affect others.

People are upset about 'Flower Pot Guy' because he's price fixing ... he's buying up all the old prosumer-type rack gear at the normal cheap prices, then selling them at something like 10x the price ... making it so he's got the only units available at the time. He's found a way to do something that most other people would consider immoral ... it benefits only him, and puts everyone else at a disadvantage. It would be like if I bought up every single NOS reel of 1/4" Scotch 207 on eBay any time they came up, then sold them all individually, trickling them out at $200 each. If anyone wanted a reel of NOS 207, they'd have to pay my $200 asking price. "But $200 is outrageous!" ... well not if I have buyers willing to pay, right? Haha ... not saying you did this ... but Flower Pot Guy is doing this.

I'm not judging your decision ... I get why you did it. Just clarifying why some members of the other side here feels the way they do.

 

[lonewhitefly]

I had the same issue, and had to wait about 5 months to get it back. This was because on the old unit the transport panel had a few loose buttons, and they didn't make that part anymore, so they had to wait for a unit to come through the door for parts and switch it out. Expect problems like that if you asked for it factory spec...some of these parts don't exist, and they might have to wait for a unit to come through the door. What you get back from them will be a fantastic machine and a rare one. I have never heard a 4-track sound as good as this one TEAC refurbished for me.

Are you within distance to go there or did you have to ship it? I'm like 2hr drive so it's not so bad for me.

Thanks for the info about the time frame! Yeh they haven't been in contact with me, except for the initial quote ... they did mention a possible wait for parts, so that's likely what's happening I assume. And maybe it's worth the extra $300 for yours to not wait?!? haha devil's advocate ...

No I'm in Portland, so I shipped it. And you should probably ship yours if you really want to get top dollar.

 

[altruistica]

Put it another way.....

I recently sold a brand new (NOS) Soundcraft Spirit Studio 16 desk in original packaging.

I put it on Ebay at £999 and a user bought it. He'd had his original desk (the same one) for almost 20 years and it had just worn out. The only thing he was worried about was if the unit was as I described it. He received it and was 100% happy and left favourable feedback. A used Spirit Studio 16 goes for anything between £99 and £300. When it was new in 1999, the desk was about £2500 (in 1999 money). Did I overcharge him? I don't think so, and more importantly, he doesn't feel so either.

Al