How will the COVID-19 pandemic affect sites like Audiogon?

Audigon will come out stronger after this. As people will realize the power of online discussion and trade. 
If the lockdown takes longer than expected people who are short on cash will sell and audiogon is a good venue. On the other hand those who have surplus cash will be tempted to scoop the bargains when they see them. The key here is that the delivery channels like UPS, FedEx and other independent couriers should be allowed to conduct business freely to allow trade to continue unimpeded. 

Jetter,  How refreshing to hear that you are an independent with no prejudices either way as you take up space on an audio forum to denounce liberals.

Whatever happened to Audiogon during The Great Recession (2008) will happen now. The virus will be history in a few months and the government is throwing trillions at the economy so the jobs will quickly come back. And if people have jobs they spend money, so Audiogon will be OK, but like 2009, people will be hesitant to spend money for a while until the unemployment rate goes down. The thing to worry about is inflation and ten years down the road, because of the debt.

As a long-time market participant, and a student of market history, the herd instinct of human behavior regarding business cycles is pretty consistent and easy to predict. And so are the effects of government intervention. I expect the market to dive again because not enough people have reached "The world is ending" level of despair you see in every recession, although some on this thread have. It will probably happen when the virus peaks around mid-April. Once we reach that level of despair things will turn around.

As long as there are enough people who believe in high-priced audio, Audiogon, being the critical mass site for used high-priced audio, isn't going anywhere.

Well, I can guarantee you I won't be buying any gear MADE N CHINA. I can guarantee you that.

Why is that, do you think the coronavirus infects the electrons? 🤭

I don't want to support a communist country that unleashed this pandemic upon the world. MADE IN THE USA or EUROPE for me.

Uh, almost everything is made in China. Hel-loo!

Is there any electronic component that doesn't have anything from China in it? 

There is, I would guess. Some European brands at least.

Practically everything made, including our medicines, has Chinese content in it. Good luck living off the China grid.
See how far that gets you.

Heck, that was a big bugaboo years when some genius discovered that most of our military gear has circuit boards made in China. The feared there could be a backdoor installed on them. Duh.

All the best,
Nonoise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Important fact and news to all of us... thanks....

Note the date:    https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Counterfeit-Electronic-Parts.pdf   and:   https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/counterfeit-chinese-parts-slipping-us-military-aircraft-senate/story?id=16403599

Machina Dynamica, tweaks extraordinaire, is one of the companies contained in the compilation of two years ago, American Made Audio. Yet some of my products contain parts made overseas: China, Japan, UK. How can that be? E.g., Batteries 🔋 , portable travel clocks ⏰, PWB devices (Leeds, UK), Tibetan Temple bell 🔔 , ceramic magnets 🧲 

https://americanmadeaudio.com/the-list/