What's happened to the used high end market recently?? Sales are tough....:0(

I’m not high end audio type, but I do enjoy the two channel experience, spin vinyl and fuss over my old equipment. So what I find here at Audiogon is thoughtful conversation about options and a better quality marketplace than eBay. It’s a crapshoot on eBay but the quality control in this community helps a buyer know the product is going to perform once purchased. This site has a great seller review system and that means a lot when moving away from bricks and mortar sellers. 

That said, I am sitting on several old components and not getting them sold—so my interest in this thread. A Belles amp used to be worth something and now it seems the buyer interest is low. 

Thanks to trickle-down economics, combined with the idea that corporations are in business purely to make as much money as possible, we now have a highly stratified society with wealth extremely concentrated at the top.  A million dollar system is not a problem for some people, while a thousand dollars is impossible for virtually everyone else.  Manufacturers are only going to be able to survive either by appealing to one or the other - there is no middle left to speak of.
And that million dollar system is really only there as a big middle finger to impress the less wealthy.  There must be virtually zero correlation between wealth and audiophilia!  No wonder the snake oil contingent seem to be doing so well.

Part of the problem is that today "if it doesn't travel, I ain't interested".

 I also have found it interesting that so many trends have been "re-discovered". Vinyl, integrated amps, magnetic tape; what's old is new again. This will no doubt happen with CD's also. Buy 'em while they're cheap!

I have mid-range stuff- QED, Revolver, Time Frames and Nakamichi, late 80s mid- 90s or earlier. and would have loved a Bryston and a couple of the better Elipsons (money issues)
People have snapped up these old units (try to find a Dragon killer). Most important is component complementarity, speaker placement and the room itself. Best rooms are high-ceilinged rooms with real plaster. European equipment was made to sound good in the kind of rooms they had. N.Am. dealt with gyprock
I have a friend who went through several cycles of expensive equipment because the units did not work well together, but has finally got some reasonable sound in spite of the poor room, in part by strategically placing bookcases and sound absorbers etc. to create a symmetrical room, as well as changing some components.

Money, money, money; only the rich have it. and as someone said above
we grew up to expect the kind of stereo sound in theatre halls or chamber music venues, like chapels, and early systems tended towards that. Since MP3, a serious dumbing down, although true full digital lossless recordings are very good.

Records also sound different when you change a piece of equipment and you can "rediscover" all your records; also, old farts like myself like the stage of instrument placement as well as good colour, presence and ambience. My QED provides "civilised" sound that I can listen to for hours. The Nakamichi is too boomy; you can contact me if interested in this type of equipment.

All in all, whereas I used to see stuff I could afford and even bought some speakers here, prices are in another galaxy on most of the stuff. I wouldn't even know where to start.

When the time approaches, I will not "go gentle into that good night".  I will enjoy my over-engineered, tube-burning two-channel system with unrestrained satisfaction. I will avail myself of excellent, used gear whenever the desire take me, and I will do so without distraction of current "trends".  "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" and drive those deeply discounted vintage mono-blocks into the good night.