In the past year or two, I've noticed a huge decline in pricing on pre-owned audio gear.
My guess is this was a result of Covid, during which people were losing work (myself included) and tightened up on spending. As a direct result, sellers started dropping prices to compensate, hundreds and hundreds of dollars, depending on the item. Now that we're mostly out of Covid, you'd think that the market would have slowly come back. But I regularly see headphones, amps, dacs, etc. sitting around at well below new pricing. And well below initial pre-Covid pricing. It's almost as if buyers (again, myself included) are expecting those lower Covid prices.
My concern is this devalues the market as a whole, meaning manufacturers are also forced to drop pricing since the incentive might be greater for someone to buy used. This could, in theory, lead to less money being spent by companies to develop new headphones, amps, etc. I'm only speculating, as I'm not an economist or manufacturer. But it also hurts current owners of gear that are looking to sell. I've had things in mint used condition sit around well below market pricing, and I'm sure many of the sellers here have, too.
This seems great for buyers. Cheaper prices, high end audio. But there's always a desire to want more for less, and I'm sure the buyers will take a loss, too, when they go to resell. Most things, after all, aren't going up in value.
As a seller or buyer, do you see this as an issue or is it only me? Does anyone else feel the pain of trying to sell high-end gear for ridiculously cheap, only to have someone try to haggle them down even further? As a buyer, do you feel that everything is fine and used pricing is in line with what it should be?
My guess is this was a result of Covid, during which people were losing work (myself included) and tightened up on spending. As a direct result, sellers started dropping prices to compensate, hundreds and hundreds of dollars, depending on the item. Now that we're mostly out of Covid, you'd think that the market would have slowly come back. But I regularly see headphones, amps, dacs, etc. sitting around at well below new pricing. And well below initial pre-Covid pricing. It's almost as if buyers (again, myself included) are expecting those lower Covid prices.
My concern is this devalues the market as a whole, meaning manufacturers are also forced to drop pricing since the incentive might be greater for someone to buy used. This could, in theory, lead to less money being spent by companies to develop new headphones, amps, etc. I'm only speculating, as I'm not an economist or manufacturer. But it also hurts current owners of gear that are looking to sell. I've had things in mint used condition sit around well below market pricing, and I'm sure many of the sellers here have, too.
This seems great for buyers. Cheaper prices, high end audio. But there's always a desire to want more for less, and I'm sure the buyers will take a loss, too, when they go to resell. Most things, after all, aren't going up in value.
As a seller or buyer, do you see this as an issue or is it only me? Does anyone else feel the pain of trying to sell high-end gear for ridiculously cheap, only to have someone try to haggle them down even further? As a buyer, do you feel that everything is fine and used pricing is in line with what it should be?