"The usual suspects" i would say. There are a lot of more or less professional sellers out there. Often the price of their products is higher than the typical auction price. You can only by their products for a higher price. 

The interesting fact is, that even if some products are online for a long time, the price doesn't change.  

I would not support this business. First because there are a lot of nice auctions if you can wait. And second because (here in Germany) the tax office doesn't like this (often) unannounced commercial trading.  

An exception seems to be lifestyle AV. I think you can trust them. 

Good luck with the £10 or £20 auction buys, most of them don't work and the sellers won't accept returns.

They will not work for a multitude of reasons which include worn out buttons internaly, worn buttons externally, buttons missing altogether and the usual battery leakage causing corrosion in the battery compartment.

Whatever you pay, there is nothing worse than a remote that works intermittently!!

I have been a professional reseller on ebay for around 8 years. I am registered for all the government clubs that cost money to join! I am not allowed to advertise on BeoWorld, so I won't.

Those £10 or £20 auction remotes, I throw them in the spares box because they are un-saleable, in my opinion.

I charge between £40-£60 for a BL1000 depending on age and condition and the price is unlikely to be reduced as I am in no rush to sell. For that you get brand new Duracell batteries in every remote which has been fully tested on my own B&O systems. Most have been used by me for a week to check them out.

If you are not happy, for any reason, you can return the remote within 7 days of receipt  for a full refund, BY LAW and according to eBay and PayPal rules. In addition, if the remote fails, in normal use, within 90 days of purchase, you can return it for free repair or replacement, if I cannot repair it.

Now, crappy cheapo auction or Professional Reseller, the choice, as they say, is yours!

Agree with Graham - pay more and you get a remote that has probably had a new keypad and will work. Beolink 1000s are the best remote B&O have made - sturdy and very versatile - worth every penny. I have 4 or 5 around the house.

I'm with Graham - used cheap remotes are always a crap shoot. If you need a new button mat for example to make it useable, it won't probably be a cheap buy any longer.

The cheapest good remotes come with TVs, often for much less than the remote alone would be worth. I recently paid 20€ for a beautiful, apparently very little used piano black MX4000 for my bedroom - and got a quite nice Beo4 with it.

If a remote looks externally like a 100 monkeys have been using it to build a garden shed, that usually is the case as well! If you buy four of those, you can usually make one or two out of the good parts if they happen to be interchangeable, there are a lot of internal differences between Beolink 1000 versions as well...

I had luck buying a Beolink 1000 for 25€ plus postage. The former owner didn't take much care of it and spilled a glass of red wine over it. After a complete cleaning the remote looked brand new, no scratches, no damage to the paint or the rubber mat .It works like a charm 'til today.

One can not say in general that remotes for a low price on ebay are crap. Sometimes you can have luck to make the real deal 😁

Regards

Martin

I don't think that is what we are saying. Auction sites offer the opportunity to get a product cheaply. That is where some resellers will get their equipment n the first place. However they will then fix the bits that don't work. You take a risk that things will not work - the reseller factors into his prices the cost of such repairs and a profit margin. He will however spread the repair costs in such a way that each item will be acceptably priced.

SamWise72 wrote:

So, I went on eBay, found that there were plenty, and ran a "completed listings" search, to see what sort of price they really end up at

So you're one of them who just watch and don't buy👍

BeoIce wrote:

I had luck buying a Beolink 1000 for 25€ plus postage. The former owner didn't take much care of it and spilled a glass of red wine over it. After a complete cleaning the remote looked brand new, no scratches, no damage to the paint or the rubber mat .It works like a charm 'til today.

One can not say in general that remotes for a low price on ebay are crap. Sometimes you can have luck to make the real deal 😁

Regards

Martin

Your remote was certainly not perfect when you bought it as, by your own admission, it had drunk a glass of red wine!!

Some people are either incapable or unwilling to dismantle a remote control, clean it properly and re-assemble it. They expect their purchase to work 100% on delivery.

Happily, they are quite willing to pay for this type of  service and backup from a professional.reseller, as my eBay feedback will testify.

How would you get that from me running a search on completed auctions? It's true I've watched a lot of B&O items in the last month, but in my defence, I've bought a BC8000, a BC2002 with S30s, a pair of S45.2s, a Beogram 1202, and a BC4000 with speakers that may never materialise. Those were all more or less bargains, but I bid on lots of other things and just didn't win.

Back on topic, I guess I have my answer. I agree that the work of someone else in refurbishing something should be recoopable, but I can't afford it, so I'll take a risk. I've done this on musical instruments, bicycles, cars and other things, and 8 times out of 10 I've come out on top, defeating expert opinion on what can be done ("You'll never get a decent melodeon in playable condition for £50!" Oh yes I did, and I'm still playing it 4 years later without a drop of work being done. It came from Germany and is in a slightly obscure tuning, but it suits my purposes perfectly). Of course, there is the risk attached to having things posted; all the B&O so far I have picked up, so I've been sure I was getting what was advertised. Still, £65 for a remote I don't really need to go with my £89 Beocentre is not going to fly.