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


The heading says it all!! What do you guys think is the reason that the sales in the used high end market have gone soft??
Prices too high? Economy too slow?? Stock market too volatile?? Something else??

Thoughts....
128x128daveyf
@boband212 @mahgister



Do you believe it is the broad audio industry suffering or more isolated to certain brands? The reason I ask is I am aware of several manufacturers, electronics as well as speakers, having their best year ever in 2021 following a record 2020.
The audio market is hot in some areas, and cold in others. Majority of gear that churns in & out of the audiogon classified listings is probably on the "cold" side.
Very good sounding modestly priced products continuously undercut the value of the uber expensive "high end" gear. Fewer and fewer people want that big heavy high price tag stuff even if they could have it for an affordable price. But those who spent big bucks on expensive new gear do not want to take a loss. There are more very good sounding affordable and practical commodity items these days than ever before starting with a smart phone with streaming app and headphones that most already have and on up. Greatly beats the transistor radio, portable cassette player, and stereo phonograph that I started with as a kid for sound quality.

Also when buying used the buyer assumes a fair amount of risk when buying expensive items.  Many things can go wrong that seriously undercut the value of what one buys used and repairs may take forever and be quite expensive as well.   A money pit!   Better off buying through a reliable  intermediary who will certify and support used gear bought for some period of time initially.