Anybody having trouble getting near-your-asking-price for used gear ? (Plz. no hype)

About a year and a half ago  had a friend with a lot of high end equipment pass away. His widow asked if I would help her try to sell it all off. I collected all the equipment, did research on it, and then proceeded to start to list it here and on other sights. 

I guess I was realistic about pricing because most everything sold very close to the asking price. There were a few itrems that went for more, and a few that went for less (10-20% either way. 

Some items sold as soon as they were listed, others took 4-6 weeks before they sold. I’m not sure if this is a normal time frame for those that frequent this site and buy and sell equipment, but I didn’t find it to be too bad. I personally have sold a bunch of “pro-sound” equipment, and that equipment takes a huge hit $$$ wise. Example would be a 4 year  $10k mixer in pristine shape, high offer $1,400.00. I guess it just depends on your perspective. 

One other quick story, and it is in reference to the response about different peoples budgets. A friend who use to work at one of the premier high end audio stores in the Chicagoland area back in the late 70’s/early 80’s told me that a guy came in the store, layed a invoice on the counter and said, I need to replace this equipment. The guy responded, did you get ripped off. The customer replied, “no, I lost it in a poker game last night”. The invoice totaled $48,000. 

From my vantage point, if you are financially sound enough to be able to replace a system of that value (70’s/80’s dollars), you are probably not going to be purchasing used equipment.

Recently sold tube monoblocks for asking price. Recently sold tube preamplifier for asking price. So no problem with selling used gear. Where are you advertising? I use USAudioMart. 

Unfortunately, we suffer an inordinate amount of Tire kicking. I think many of those low ball offers are a little more than that.

Dealer here, but I’m weighing in anyways. 

I would say that the market was NOT slow from October through January. It was really quite strong. 

I personally noticed some impact immediately after the election, but it was short lived, and late November through January was stellar. 

Starting February, I started seeing a purchasing slowdown in my largest customer base, who I would classify as fairly affluent (but not in the top 1% per capita), while anyone I would consider a luxury / top 1% client is buying more than ever.

Part of this slowdown this month is normal. January through March tend to be a little slower in general due to recouping from the holidays and heading into tax season. But economic and political volatility is impacting purchase consideration as well, and I’ve heard concerns from a few of my clients.

Reale prices on the market, while relevant to all of the above, have also been affected by what others say based on how individual brands are doing in market, scarcity, and demand.

The market and supply / availability / saturation of products have also evolved. There are more brands/products now than ever before, especially in the digital domain, and vast improvement in products especially since 2020, which result in a slower rate of turnover of gear (e.g. DAC searches/cycles were likely more frequent than they are today because the baseline has improved significantly).

And yes, I believe too many people are asking too much for some of their used gear. So it’s very multidimensional.

FWIW, given the chatter on Audio Research, I just sold an ARC REF 75 SE at full asking price within days of it being listed. And I’ve seen it listed for lower in the market in the past. I think there is still value in many of their products, but people are thinking twice about which products from respective brands deliver the value they seek. I can imaging a newer set of REF 160 monos may move slower due to escalating tube prices, and many other ARC components, especially vintage, are not moving like they used to simply because they can’t compete from a performance perspective to more modern products at lower price points on the market. 

I always research present market values and price accordingly,  I also have pretty extensive 100% positive feedback. Can't recall a single time when I've not sold at asking price or near within a week or two.