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How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect sites like Audiogon?

One would think that with social distancing and shelter in place policies, there has never been a better time for upgrading and enjoying your audio system.   But is now the time to buy and sell?  The mass unemployment and economic distress accompanying the pandemic seems certain to undermine what is essentially a luxury market encompassing both gearheads and music lovers?  What effects on buying and selling audio gear — both short and long term — can we foresee?
merlin
jetter
3,098 posts
 
And honestly, I hope stereo5 comes through, and the rest of us, A OK.
theo's avatar
theo
2,718 posts
 
I agree with Uber, this will create a buyers market. Personally I hope no one has to sell to raise survival funding. I really hope the real end game here is that, we are all safe, healthy and if facing additional time off. Spend it getting onto your music collection and rediscovering the real reason you bought that album. The drum solo, guitar lick, bass line or maybe the album cover👁

IMHO, we are all going thru this, rather than focus on the problems we cannot fix. So instead of worrying, enjoy as much as we can while taking the necessary precautions. Whether the flood comes or not, the only real option we have is to be mentally sandbagged in our most vulnerable spots.

and a little prayer never hurts
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Jetter
it was actually pretty easy to watch and predict when this was going to devastate the stock market.
Sure I waited a day or two too long but I moved the majority of my 401k holdings into fixed cash bonds just prior to the grand slam.
Yes I lost some $ but not dreadful.

And no I am not a broker or connected, just observant and reasonably intelligent no matter what some here think.

So goes without saying that it was also pretty likely to hit just the way it has. I had no need to rush out and buy toilet rolls... lol. We already had them!
jetter
3,098 posts
 
Uber, the day I was going to move my 401k the market went up 5,000 points, and I was as they say "lulled into complacency".   Am thinking tomorrow I am moving to a money market.  Still in a strong gain position, but not like before.
yyzsantabarbara
5,062 posts
 
NOBODY needs to hear more of this bad news.HELLO !!!!!!!
I have no problem reading about it. Don’t read these comments if they hurt your sensibilities.

nonoise, I am a very sensitive person, but the constant liberal drivel about how F. U. our response has been doesn’t sit well with me. I am an independent, so no bias one way or the other. A month ago no one really saw this hitting the U.S. like it did, arm chair quarterbacking is always 20 20. Otherwise a lot of us would have deep 6’d our stock holdings.
I actually did know this was coming to where I live. Santa Barbara, CA. I spoke with my wife in January and told her we need to be careful since there are a lot of kids from the university living in our neighbourhood. I also cancelled my squash games at the university rec center in January since I was afraid of bring some virus home to my kid. You do not need to be a genius to see this coming.

If you do some research and learn the causes of the Italian outbreak it is easy to see the co-relation. Similar to how Zika went to Brazil.

The second thing I said about Covaid-19 was that the biggest concern I had was the buffoon in charge in the USA. So far I am 2 for 2.

Saying all of this I am optimistic about the situation since people are doing their best to be smart, at least where I live.

With regards to the OP question about how it affects A’gon. I was getting ready to spend about $50K+ wasting money on an audio system. That is a big no go today.

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