Market price is what a seller can get for the goods, not what that seller feels she/he should get for those goods.
We should stop thinking about equipment as some sort of a safe investment and accept that our gear is worth close to nothing to most of the people out there. Apparently, even to people similar to us. If they do not want to buy it at a given price, it is too expensive.
garebear,
Have you tried to split the difference between what dealer was willing to give you for your gear and what dealer would be advertising it for and sell it yourself? Maybe that would work.