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

 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?

johnread57

How can we determine a fair price?

A fair price is what a willing buyer will pay to a willing seller.

I've noticed very high prices for quality used gear on Ebay.   My Nakamichi 7A cassette deck I purchased for $700 in 1990 is now $1,500 to $5,900 averaging $2,500 (more than new), my Marantz 7T pre-amp I purchased for $150 in 1995 is now $1,200 to $3,000 with several in the mid-$2,000s, my Mac MC30s which I was given in 2000 are now $1000-$2000, my SME IV which I paid $1100 in 1989 is now $4,700 NEW (and being used on the latest SME turntable).   

So, some high end older audio gear has vastly appreciated in the current market.  I think speakers have dropped the most unless they are Tannoys or Altecs from the 50's and 60's.  My Legacy Focus speakers sold today for $12,000 are not the same as my 25 year old pair which now resell for only $2200-$2500 (a bargain).   

If I replace my speakers, I'm looking at $50-60K for Einsteins, Luminwhites or Von Schweikert VR55Ks.  That's high end dollars.

This is a really interesting thread as the same discussion has been around for a number of years in South Africa mainly because of our weak currency. $1 costs us +- R13.50. When you consider that R1 used to cost us .75 US cents (+- 50 years ago) things have got out of hand. So HEA is very expensive here. Having said this we have not a bad variety of HEA to chose from. So I have what i consider not to bad a system. Sonus Faber Amati futura Mcintosh 601power amps ML 523 pre amp Dcs Puccini etc. So 2 weekends ago i got to hear the Kii3's. These were one of the first 2 sets that arrived in South Africa. In my opinion, if I did not have what i have i would be entirely happy to purchase this system. Incredible dynamic  range very open and detailed. Voices and acoustics amazing and at about a 1/5th of what my system cost. Could this be the way of the future for HEA. High end streaming plus the option of integrating you existing system. Sure to appeal to a large spectrum of Audiophiles and budding audiophiles out there. And the BXT base add ons were launched also 2 weeks ago as well. This is my opinion. What do you think?