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

While all of the responses have a real foundation, I believe a key reality is missing from them.  Just as the used car market and dollar store sales/stock goes up in tough times/recession, with a corresponding drop in New car sales and designer store sales, such as bed bath and beyond....the same is true across markets.  We are in relatively good times compared to the recession.  During the recession, used products took on greater value as people held onto whatever money they had, avoiding new hi cost purchases.  Now that times are better in comparison, used sales are less robust, as people are more inclined to buy what they want new, with a strong dab of price shopping and caution.  Ofcourse, the caveat here, is that audio is not a necessity, especially where family concerns come into play.  The best time to sell your older gear and buy new replacement, may well be on the cusp of, or tail end of recession, for these reasons.

  I am a person who has loved music for many years. My present system gives me great listening pleasure. I own a BAT-VK500,Krell CDplayer, KEF speakers,Basis Ovation turntable,McIntosh tuner,Nightigale cartridge,DaCapo cartridge, Cardas cable,DCCA cable,Purist Audio cable,HiFi tuning fuses , and a Krell  KRC-HR preamp, a very huge CD and  vinyl collection.
   At this stage of my life,I have every intention to enjoy, what I have,and not look to change,just because something is new. In the higher end systems,the bang for the buck is very small.

  

 Reality sucks. Like when you don’t get what you think is a fair price. Here or on eBay. Then the question turns to sell it or keep it for a second system? Of course it depends. 

How can we determine a fair price? Is the auction method a better way?

I blame Apple. It's Gresham's Law in action: bad currency will drive out the good. Apple made the fateful decision not to make full-resolution files available from the iTunes store. This decision, as with most corporate decisions, was driven by greed--you can pack far more downloads (at $.99 each!) of crappy-sounding down-rezzed files into the available bandwidth. In my day, all "software" (LP's and tapes) was inherently full-resolution. Reproduction quality was limited only by your equipment. Now over a generation has grown up with no idea of what hi-fil sound is like. So why would they lust for it as I did when a teen in the '60's?