I think what caused the plummeting of the resale value are those people who didn’t pay MSRP for their abyss products. I saw people sell their 1266 phi for $3200-$3800 and I’m pretty sure they did not pay $4995 at the time of purchase unless they don’t care about their money. In fact I think the whole hifi market is highly unregulated and as a result one should never buy brand new products. If you can acquire a Dave in great condition by paying ¥42000 why pay $8000? I bought a brand new abyss 1266 phi cc because I really liked it and Wall Street showed retails mercy 2016-2018. I would never spend my salary on any hifi products as long as there are people out there with connections pay only 50% of MSRPs.
I speak as someone who's been around the circuit for a while and who can, in fact, get below MSRP prices from many brands. Joe's price control is absolutely rigid and dealers who cheat are swiftly blacklisted. AFAIK, there are basically only three ways of getting Abyss products below MSRP, aside from buying used:
1. You can go to Canjam and RMAF and offer to buy the showroom unit from Joe directly. I've done this and saved a good amount. But you have to be quick and have cash ready and actually go to those events. But snagging a good deal on a TC might mean that you're saving more than the plane tickets and hotel.
2. You can find a dealer that you know really well and offer to buy their demo unit. I've also done this for older gen models (e.g. the Phi when the Phi CC came out) and while not every dealer will want to do this, most of them will especially if you're a repeat customer. It's still "used" but you get a warranty restart.
3. You can find a less scrupulous dealer from overseas. This isn't too hard (and I suspect what lots of people do with the Chord/64 Audio situation) but you're responsible for warranties and if something breaks it's a mess. I know for a fact that this is fairly uncommon with JPS, mostly because the big market for these is in the US and getting big cans imported is sometimes a PITA.
That's it. JPS has the best price control in the industry I've seen, period. You can bet that 8 or 9 out of every 10 guys that sell their Abyss headphones here did in fact pay for the MSRP. If you don't want to, you either go used or have to be really, really patient. People pay higher used prices for JPS because they're
actually good. That's it. I mean, if you want a TOTL planar with great build quality (ruling out the Susvara), no faulty driver shenanigans (ruling out the LCD4, which in itself isn't totally competitive with the TC), JPS is pretty much the only viable option. If they command a premium in the used market - and I would argue that they certainly do, when their competitors can quite readily be found at 50%-60% off MSRP, that's because they are in fact premium cans and the best sound that planars have to offer in the market place.