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

There are a few factors at play I believe:

1.  Many younger people are still saddled with student loan debt and while unemployment is nearing record low numbers, wages haven’t risen as they should have so money is tight.  Boomers who got caught out of sorts during the financial crisis are holding on to their jobs longer instead of retiring, making advancement harder.  

2. Partly due to the above, but also due to other trends such as younger people choosing more urban dwellings than suburbs, many younger people don’t have the space or the privacy (either roommates or living in apartments where you can’t play a stereo much without disturbing your neighbors, or living at home with parents where luxury purchase would be frowned upon plus the noise issues) to set up nice stereo systems.  

3.  Because of both of the above high end headphone sales have been booming. You can get an extraordinary headphone rig for a tiny fraction of the price of equivalent speakers, it takes up virtually no space, won’t disturb the neighbors or roommates, etc.  Headphones can easily be HEA, and while they can’t do everything that real speakers can do, they can provide an incredibly enjoyable musical experience without the expense and inconvenience of 100lbs floorstanders and the associated gear.  

4.  For those who are interest in traditional speakers, the quality of budget gear has increased exponentially over what it once was.  Easier access to computer modeling and computer aided design, a better understanding of science-driven speaker design, and manufacturer-direct selling via the internet have all helped bring the price of entry to very satisfying sound way down.  Elac, Q Acoustics, Hsu, Emotiva, RBH, Philharmonic Audio, RGL, etc, have proven you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get a great experience.  

5.  This one may be controversial, but the prevalence of snake oil in HEA turns a lot of people just starting into the hobby away.  Cables costing hundreds of dollars or more, vibration control for solid state electronics, ‘audiophile’ fuses, mystery boxes that claim to have magic properties, etc, it all comes off as both silly and slightly deceptive.  At least the magic crystals of the past could be laughed off, today there’s a veneer of misleading pseudoscience being applied by purveyors of what usually amounts to nothing more than audio jewelry.  

It certainly seems that the “rediscovery” of vinyl has helped with bringing the younger crowd into the hobby. The physical media is a great way for young people to discover music and to alert them to the pleasures of collecting music. The next big return will be the CD.
IMO, the ability to stream is a great way to listen to a large variety of music, but it has too much of a “throw away” aspect that will ultimately loose the excitement of opening that new record...or even CD.
While this is an interesting point, it does not seem to have much to do with the original topic that I posted, at least IMO.

@jimman2 what NJ town is your record shop located?

@daveyf I agree my previous 2 post didn't directly address your OP and instead responded to something else on the thread. Sorry about that. Please accept my apology. I think that there is an existing age, aging and income gap that is softening the used HEA market. I agree with points 1-4 above of @tutetibiimperes post. They seem spot on and are making the used market softer than what may have previously seemed normal. In order to have a robust used market you first need demand in the new market. The generation behind me isn't that interested in either new or used HEA equipment. Unless it is new headphones. The generation ahead of me is getting older (I'm 54yo), downsizing, and not buying as much new equipment it seems. The new market drives the used market. If we're not buying new stuff, then we're holding on to the old stuff and not replacing it with other used stuff either. This is the new normal. I will also point out that newer technology will continue to gut used prices, especially in the DAC category. The folks who paid for ultra-high end DACs appear to be struggling to get 50 cents on the dollar because those DACs SQ is being challenged at a much lower price points in the new DAC market.

tutetibiimperes:
In regard to your 1st point - while I agree somewhat , Millennials and Boomers are my main customers and I would say the younger folks account for 2/3rd of my records sales.  Many have good jobs.
I simplified in my original post as although I have 1,200 records I also have many other items geared to Millennials and Boomers (swords, knives, certain books (Harry Potter, Marvel related, etc.), Batman, Spider-man related stuff.  I started out as an antique store with records - we've been in business for 2 years now and we have almost zero antiques - not because they sold but because you almost can't give them away. Since then we learned that Millennials will need to be our customers if we are to stay in business.   I'm getting way off post but all this to to say that Millennials do spend money. Many certainly have $400 in disposable money to so I don't think money is the problem.  As far as limited space goes, that may be true but I (and I'm sure many of us) spent 4 years in college in very small dorm rooms and finally a small apartment.  Music with good sound quality was important enough that we always had a stereo and it wasn't as good as the $400 systems in my shop.  
daveyf:
Back more on topic and I haven't read all the great posts here and it has probably been said - I think the used prices on Audiogon are generally way too high.  It seems when I look for something here the asking prices are in line with asking prices on eBay.  For example the is an amplifier I want with several listed on eBay for $2000 and one here goes on sale for $2000.  I'm unable to find one on eBay that sold because the amp is so infrequently listed in true action (eBay does not track sold items back in time nearly as long as they used to which makes it much tougher to find this information).  So finally one comes for auction and has 50 bids (probably many from people here) and sells for $1200 - that should be it's approximate value (and of course any low buy-it-now sale price is meaningless).  This is simplified of course - most of us would far prefer to buy here than from eBay and would pay more from a member here.  If asking prices (here) reflected legitimate (eBay) sale prices I think pieces would move very quickly.