Why is there so much Rowland gear for sale?

Can't speak of other markets but audio has been experiencing attrition for 10 years or more. Some of us have died and others have lost jobs, lost interest or succumbed to divorce, computer or home theater distractions or insufficient funds to continue reinvesting endlessly. When high-end audio was growing the "carrot" proffered by TAS might have cost $20K, more than most of us could afford but within dreaming range. When that "carrot" moved to a point well beyond our mortgages, many of us despaired of ever being able to so much as dream of reaching for it. Some lost interest at that point. Who wants to participate in a game from which they are clearly disqualified.
Since Bush (not Osama) pulled the rug from under Clinton's economy, there are a tremendous number of white collar casualties who have to decide between their kid's tuition and their prized sound system. Or maybe it's health care or mortgage payments that force that decision.
In any case, we are losing brethren by the score and their detritus is beginning to clutter Audiogon with many a glorious piece at ever descending prices. Rowland is only one of many.

Incidentally, I think it unlikely that any of you little boys would want a Harley if it didn't make noise. If not for U.S. government intervention, market forces would have eliminated HD years ago. They can't compete fairly with the Japanese as their products are dollar for dollar vastly inferior. All they are is noise and myth. That said, I will repeat that McIntrash is the perfect corollary in the audio world. Perhaps Crown is the Indian.
No complaints about my reference to the Dead being like Mac and HD?

mac,the dead,harley...all are recession proof enigmas...they all have an intangible that many others don't....rowland is great stuff but at the end of the day its still just another high priced amp without the mythology when it comes time to move on....all myths contain at least a little truth...

jrd -- I agree completely that all myths contain a kernel of truth. In the case of the Dead, Harley and McIntosh those kernels are old and dried up. Rowland is still vital and emerging where the sun has set on the others and only nostalgia or ignorance sustains their vestiges.

Macrojack: you said it all. Pretty soon, me too, I'll just be listening to the music on a nice small system and fade off into the distance...It does make me sad though, to see people like yourself who love music forced from that retreat. I have said this before: the audio hiend is in trouble - and you are right, the attrition has been occuring, at a deeper level, for ten or so years now. This is happening because, underlying even that, is a decline in our society's valuing of things vs. meaning; we accumulate things in the hopes of finding meaning. This happens in most empires eventually. Pull up a seat, you have a front row view...Rowland being dumped is only a very minor surface eddy. There will be other oscillations...

I tip my hat to the brethren and say, this too shall pass.