I’ve popped up a reply on Anthony’s other thread but Pete has also raised a very good point that I was avoiding mentioning simply because it always kicks off a lot of discussion with a global forum as this is …
BR
Phil
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Yep, I found a ‘dealer’ offering a Rossini clock for £4000. The fact they then said cash only sounded alarm bells, so I checked more deeply to find their trading address (allegedly containing high value stock) appeared to be a cow shed in the middle of a field.
I later discovered that a few people had parted with tens of thousands Euro (unfortunately, in Germany, doing business by bank transfer is normal practice). The website vanished soon after…
Should have written an official dealer… 
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Have we gotten to a No, Yes, or Maybe with a Marketplace here on the forum?
Unless something drastic changes then I think it’s highly unlikely that there’ll be a ‘For Sale / Want To Buy’ section on here …
BR
Phil
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It’s was just a suggestion, seems to have some interest in focusing on a need for high end marketplace solutions . What’s out there right now in many ways is not meeting the need. There may be other other thoughts in how DCS can better help support their owners in this area. One of my overall points is with exception the dealer network is hit and miss in this regard.
Although based in the UK I have used Canuckaudiomart a number of times in the purchase of my second hand Transparent cables. I am fortunate to have a brother who resides in Canada for the shipping address.
Just to be clear I think you are a Lina and headphone customer . The dealer arrangements are not the same as traditional dCS stockists , certainly not in the UK, and I think that this market is new venture for the company. So this is interesting and of importance.
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Correct. Am a Lina system owner. I previously had a Bartok purchased from Abyss the headphone guys. Joe S the owner was informing me of something new for HP users was coming soon from DCS. It was his willingness as a “Web” only dealer“ to sale and service me like a traditional dealer in many of the ways discussed in the tread about handling transactions.
I sincerely hope some in depth research of the “on-line” only audiophile owners and the current state of this marketplace for High-End buyers. IMHO I’m seeing new dealers of High-end components use the prestige of carrying those manufacturers but sell and serve more like “Best Buy” wanting it both ways.
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I hope that @Phil gets to see this part of the thread when he returns from holiday.
I don’t know the ins and outs but I think that the relationship with dealers is with the local distributor rather then directly with dCS. However maybe they could seek to provide some influence?
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I sold my Bartók on Sunday to a fellow in PA. It’s on it way via UPS. It’s got enough tape and shipping wrap to safely go to sea.
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Hi Pete - I’m baaaaack!
Yep, you are completely correct - the distributors are directly responsible for their dealers and we primarily back up the distributors for support but will happily get involved with / support any dealers directly should the distributor ask us to / be happy with us doing so.
What sort of influence would you see us providing?
Cheers
Phil
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I hope you had a good holiday.
I can only be vague about this. I fact I am an an age when I do vague convincingly 
This relates to Anthony’s coments like:
This seems to be about experiences with the new head-fi dealers. I have not seem anything similar about traditional 2 channel dealers. Perhaps you could seek further details from Anthony as ultimately the experiences will need to be gone into and a public forum may not be the ideal medium.
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Hi Pete,
Fantastic … a week spent chilling in a converted cowshed near La Roche Posay … I haven’t been away on holiday in probably 20 years so I had my other half and @James (who sometimes seems like my other half too) both banning me from my laptop and from logging in to work.
The ferry back from Caen to Portsmouth on Saturday evening was a bit of an experience though - definitely a “lively” sea due to that storm and a few damaged cars that had obviously slipped on their hand brakes when we got back to the car decks …
I think realistically the second hand market has to remain separate to us (as a manufacturer) unless a unit specifically comes back to us to be checked over, given a proper test, serviced and repaired and it leaves us after a full “as-new” testing.
Cheers
Phil
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I didn’t know that. Thanks.
I’m willing to bet a lot of people have missed this. Third-party insurers also seem to insist on there being no identification of the contents whatsoever.
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As well as this packing issue this may be a sutable place to raise another issue with carrier’s insurance. It’s been a few years since I checkred but when I last looked at the maximum reimbursable sum with one of the UK’s main carriers this was £900. So check the wording of the policy.
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Indeed. It seems to vary from carrier to carrier, however the charge for insurance through a carrier that insures higher value items can be 2% of the value of the item.
There are alternative (cheaper) insurers, but it strikes me that a carrier is more likely to pay out on their own insurance than a third-party insurer who might be seen as incentivised to put barriers in the way.
By way of illustration, I interviewed someone many years ago who had worked for an insurer whose policy was to create so much red tape on claims that 90% of claimants gave up after three months.
Definitely something to ponder on…
I am a strong believer in good packaging as the best insurance.
I have little faith in insurance from carriers. Most would do anything not to reimburse you, for instance you could insure a DAC for its market value of say $10000 and then the carrier would say in case of damage or loss, ‘oh but this is electronic equipment. It is five years old and electronic equipment depreciates 20% per year, so it is essentially without worth’ Of course they like to sell you their insurance, only to find out that it is worthless when needed. This is why good packaging works. dCS equipment is very well packed as to survive international shipping. Add the tip for the black shrinkwrap and Bob’s your uncle.
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In the UK there is a specialist I have used to ship high end kit I’ve sold privately. Dunno if similar/alternative services are available elsewhere. Overland Express cover many countries. They seem to act as a broker covering items excluded or not able to be insured full value by the couriers themselves, think they go up to £20K.
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