What's up with the price of Vintage equipment?


The reason I am asking is, I sold stereo equipment in the 1970's and 1980's and some of the stuff I see selling for big bucks today were not well thought of during the 70's and 80's and lots of it sounded pretty mediocre (think Class D amps with amazingly low specs like .00007% distortion or other such nonsense). I won't get into brand names, but just by the era you should be able to tell. 

As a quick aside, it annoys the hell out of me that I'm at an age that 1970's and 1980's equipment is considered Vintage. Was it really that long ago? Rats.

Anyway, again there were some really good sounding stuff back then, and the price today may be high, but it's still good sounding stuff and worth it. But I see prices today for 40-60 year old equipment that I sold back then because it was heavily advertised, popular/known name and design (and sometimes gave me a good commission), but not because it sounded good. 

So I am assuming some of this high price vintage stuff is due only to nostalgia (both in looks and sound) and collecting fun, not for listening compared to today's stuff.

I'm open to hearing other opinions, especially from someone who does like vintage (mostly 1970-80's) stuff, listens to it, and what brands they have. 

 

128x128deadhead1000

@deadhead1000 On flip side, I’ve had my parents 70’s album collection for decades and finally assembled a system two years ago. I tried various new gear but went with good, all original 70’s gear (except stylus), not SOTA but holds its own. More importantly, new gear is no match to me when visualizing my Dad getting up to put on his favourite T.Rex album on gear he would have used…time travel is priceless. 

Yeah I sold and heard most all of it back then. I’ll pass. Some neat nostalgia items but that’s about it.  

What new circuit designs are there today that were not done 30-40 years ago? 

To me, vintage is (rebuilt) tubes and idlers from the 50s-60s! 1970s-80s Japanese transistor gear with lots of switches and silver fronts are mid-fi at best.

@noromance 

I'd agree that most of the japanese 1970-80's stuff is mid-fi at best. What I meant by vintage was anything before the 1990's, and not just tubes. Since antiques start at 30 years, I beleive the same would apply to audio equipment.

Although there is very good sounding stuff from the 1980's (I had AVID and Mirage speakers, Thorens/AR turntables, Shure V15, etc.) there was a lot of stuff considered high end back then, and some of it still is.But there was also lot of bad sounding stuff. The list is long.