new gear vs used gear

2 new - 12 used pieces.

The only new items I bought from a dealer were 2 specialty cables I needeed. One to connect my Opus 21 cdp to my Ayre preamp. It was a DIN to XLR cable, which never shows up used. (I have not seen one anyway.) Another was a really long interconnect cable, (which I would have bought used, if I was not in a time crunch. It was on sale though!)

All the rest were either purchased on Audiogon, (2 on Ebay), or at a dealer as a used or demo piece. (I consider demo pieces to be used, since, regardless of who used it, it was used, and the price reflected that.)

Thank you Audiogon for allowing me to upgrade my systme for half the price of buying new at a dealer.

PS I have never had a bad experience on Audiogon. (And only one ortwo minor irratating experiences on Ebay for that matter.)

used,mint cond,less then 50%retail, nuff said....... ...... ..... in what other hobby can you get gear that looks and operates like new (no scratches, no nicks, original manual, box, sales receipt, packing material), for less than 50% off of retail or more, often with pieces not that old and still have most of it life and usefulness left in it? Cars? nope. Not mint, and defintely not 50% off. car audio? trashed to hell (scratches, broken glass in heatsink fins, etc) and 25% off at best, clothes (not really), houses (yeah right), computers (not in mint shape and not 50% off for desirable items). So basically high-end audio is an anomally. And to me high-end is a commodity. That's why I buy used.

I'm also basically 50% new, 50% used.

50/50 only because sometimes used is not readily available. like 31 foot Kimber shot gun 8TC biwire speaker cables.