Nature of the current used speaker market

As an aging audiophile, who over the years, has been more interested in building a well thought and cost coherent system that could produce an engaging performance, rather than spending ridiculous amounts of $$$ buying expensive gear to make other expensive gear sound listenable.
After moving into a smaller space, I downsized from my quads to (after many hours of auditioning) a set of small 2 way floor standing gems, whose big open detailed, but musical sound defied their reasonable cost.
Recently, after moving back into a larger space, I decided maybe time to upgrade. One of the rather pricey ($12.5K) book shelf sized speakers on dedicated fancy stands, that I auditioned, had a great deal of hype regarding how detailed and spectacular they sound. At first I was impressed with their detailed and aggressive sound, but after about ten minuets of listening, at a quite moderate level, my head hurt and I thought my ears were going to bleed. I thought - Wow, if I just spend $10K or $20K on cables, $10K on a magic wall cord and another $30K or $40K on a better amp - maybe I could tame these speakers to sound something like music.
Looking at the featured ads on A-gon and Audiomart and seeing most of the used speakers and electronics, listing for tens of thousands of $$$ - little wonder people are loosing interest....Jim

@tinear123
I share your feelings.
In my upper mid 60s, and having a grown son and grandchildren who don't particularly share my love for HEA. My son is a builder, a doer and an avid outdoors-man and has little interest in setting still long enough to listen to stationary music and my grandson's idea of fine music is earbuds hooked to an I phone - I doubt there will be much interest in inheriting a nice audio system. 
Myself and wife (like many others) have other, somewhat expensive, interests and activities, i.e. motorcycles, boats, etc, etc, to share expenditures on and I sometimes question my own good sense in spending more and more $ on audio gear. When I see the ridicules prices posted on much of the, both new and used, HEA gear, I gotta wonder where it's all going to end.....Jim