Top resale value speakers

S7horton, I don't think that you'll get a dealer to come down more than 10% on the Maggie 1.6's. As I stated, Maggie selects their dealers rather carefully, and the dealer mark-up is nowhere near what their mark-up can be for most other speakers.

It is impossible to know the various discounts available on all speaker brands but it is well known that Magnepan does not discount much at all, whether due to low margin to begin with or factory control, I am not sure. But I think this factor has a lot to do with Maggies holding resale.

The argument can be extended by (in theory at least) getting enough data on selling vs list price of all speakers when new. Then, compare the resale value of these at a future point in time, assuming (again in theory) equal condition. I am guessing the result of comparing used resale to new discounted price will be much closer (ie clustered) than you might expect for 80% of all brands.

Similar models can apply to the car biz. For years, M-B held up value as there was no discount available. Since they started discounting a few years ago, resale value has dropped and it varies by model, which variance corresponds quite closely to the selling discount by model.

I think it has always been true that street price and not list price is the correct number to reference for resale value. Those items which are heavily discounted will not hold value as well as items whose selling price is closely guarded. On the other hand, supply/demand ratio can cause an exception to this formula.

Elizabeth:

your analysis is a bit flawed as the 1850 you received is MUCH less than the 2200 you paid in real dollars (inflation adjustment) Its only around 900 bucks. (still not a bad deal, of course)

KeithR