are we are own worst enemies?

Assuming you get 10-20% off MSRP if you buy new from a dealer, buying used from an individual at 65-70% of MSRP could be saving you as little as 10-15%. Price has to be your overriding concern by a large margin to make this attractive - if I can buy a new piece of gear for $4000 ($5000MSRP) from a local dealer vs. paying $3500 to an individual for a used piece, it's probably worth the $500 to be sure of warranty coverage, proper operation, exact condition, possible audition opportunities, etc.

If you know exactly what you want, you can often find something as a demo or a clearance from the dealers that actively sell online for 60-80% of MSRP. Some of my best purchases were exactly that - peace of mind, confident of what I was getting, etc.

Ultimately, the individual selling a piece of gear has to inhabit the price points below that or it's not compelling, leaving the 50% of MSRP price (give or take) as the natural target. If you have something almost brand new, where the model is still hot off the press and the great reviews are just coming out, you can get above that level, but for the typical sale there's just not enough to justify going much above that pricing point. -Kirk

Most high end audio equipment has a 40% mark-up over dealer cost. Cabling is closer to 50%, some dealers offer new equipement at heavily discounted prices. I bought my Sony SCD-1 just after it was introduced two years ago for $3200 un-opened with warrenty ($5000 MSR). Today I could sell it for about the same used. If $5000 had been the price I and anyone else paid, the price used might be higher. I think it's hard to expect re-sale pricing to be higher than dealer cost on anything when some people are able to buy at the dealer cost. Cabling is the worst in my opinion. New prices are all over the board. When you go to sell your cable people want 20-30% off the 50% they see advertised. At 75-80% off retail the consumer who pays full price takes a huge hit. The best thing the industry could do is to either hold the line on retail pricing or lower the mark-up across the board so the used costs retained value. As long as people have brick and morter shops, the price must remain where it is, it then becomes the responsability of the on-line retailer to hold the retail pricing. Of course this also will not happen so the only answer I see is don't pay retail!

You may get 65% for your item, if it is almost new, is in demand and is the current model (not needing upgrade). Often older equipment is replaced by models that are better and cheaper making the old one now worth much less. There is often huge price drops in cable, especially MIT. Yesterday's $10,000 reference is tomorow's $1,000 model. Audio Research VT150 Monoblocks at $14,000 pr was blown away by the VT100 at $4,500. That's just the way it is.

Thanks for all the interesting responses. My point is that lets say I purchased an amp new for $10000, kept it in pristine condition, and it is a current model, I feel that $6000 or even $6500 would be a fair asking price. Now I log onto a used audio web site and see the same amp advertised in mint condition for $4500 or less, I must now list mine at a comparable price, if I hope for a sale. I propse that us audiophiles increase the value of our used equipement by listing them at a higher asking price. If you go to your local high end dealer and price his used equipement (that he received on trade-ins), you would see that he is usualy asking 60 to 70 percent of retail.

Jadem6, a 40% markup as standard sounds awfully low to me. That would mean a product with dealer cost of $2000 would sell for $2800 after being marked-up 40%. A 40% margin (67% markup) seems more reasonable.