Are Music Magpie and such just ruthless scammers?

[HRHQueenMe]

Third time trying to shift unwanted tech, and was offered a good price on Music Magpie, again. Sent it off, and they got back within a day saying the item had multiple invisible faults bringing the price down from £81 to £16.20. Seriously? The item has ZERO faults. Same with an Iphone 3. from £33 to £1.20. Do they think we are stupid? Has anyone had good experiences with them, and is there a reputable company that will purchase old tech for recycling? Thank you for any tips!

I've only bought from Music Magpie. I bought a "Very Good" DVD, and got a filthy disc that didn't work in a battered box.

Hmm, I wonder if that was one that they refused to pay the seller for as 'in unsellable condition'....

I wonder what they mean when they 'kindly' offer to 'recycle' items that they claim are unsellable or not the correct item. Considering that you can't actually physically recycle old discs in the same way as paper, plastic bottles or tins - and surely they couldn't legally describe chucking them in the bin as 'recycling' (plus they never sound at all sad about being landed with a load of stuff for recycling) - do they mean that they give them to charity shops (odd if they're unsellable), re-use the cases and chuck the discs or.... just sell them anyway....?

I've sold cds with no issues, and bought three iPhones from them, again with no problems.

I checked on MSE for best prices when I wanted to sell my iPad Mini about a month ago and MusicMagpie came out top, offering £162, so I sent it to them. It was tracked all the way as part of the deal and they paid me the offer price day after they received it. I'd use them again.

You were one of the lucky ones, though. The problem is that they can quote any price they like to gain your interest, but there's absolutely nothing stopping them from claiming it was in far worse condition than described or didn't arrive at all.

Webuyanycar work on the same principle, so I've heard widely: quote a value based on the car being in a completely unrealistically perfect condition for its age and then keep finding faults for which they knock money off until the price you're actually offered is much, much lower.

As I said upthread (and another PP echoed my opinion), webuybooks clearly tell you on their website exactly how they define condition, what is and what isn't acceptable and they don't expect a 10yo textbook that cost £40 new to be in as-new condition for them to pay you the (obviously very much-reduced) used market trade value as originally agreed with you, as long as you were honest with them.

I sent one box of 20 items and they 'lost' half of it. When I queried it they said the second box must've got lost in the post, then in the warehouse, then no trace whatsoever and no comeback. Funnily enough they were all the recent films that went missing

I'm always amused that they boasts about their quality checks. I've had DVD's that skip (they did send out a free replacement), DVD's with jam on them and CD's that skip and with the wrong discs in.
Buying things from them maybe cheaper, but it's always a gamble.

I've used webuybooks.com recently. Got quoted about £20 for 40 books. Fine but I have about 200 other books they wouldn't take. No idea why, books by well known authors too, Stephen King, Harry Potter etc 🤷‍♀️
Still, hermes came and collected for free which is good.

Maybe the market is already flooded with the Stephen Kings and Harry Potters. I presume they work on a quick turnover of stock and know what they can move on swiftly, as paying postage for and storing hard-to-shift stock would all eat into their profits.

At least they were honest and declined them from the outset instead of promising to buy them from you and then 'losing' them once you'd sent them.

They're in a position to be ruthless scammers. You post your stuff on the basis of an offered price, then when they physically have the item they lowball you on the price. Music Magpie even claim the right to retain some items they "reject" without either paying you or returning the items .