Stupid Asking Prices- Why Don't Sellers Read Audiogon The Blue Book First?

lol

fair market value, like good sound, and tasty food -- exist entirely in the minds of the beholder

people can ask what they want, the market will clear for an item if it is priced right, or, even if it isn’t

people without an accurate sense of what is a fair price for something they want to sell try to sell stuff all the time, for all sorts of things... cars houses boats bikes jewelry

key is - there are often equally uninformed people on the buy side too (or someone who is simply not price sensitive and wants the item) ... so for used audio gear, like all the other things, it just takes one buyer willing to pay

otoh money isn't everything... and it isn't everyone's top priority all the time

The idea that the Audiogon Bluebook is "reliable" is hilarious

any source of data needs to be understood for what it is - reliability is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak

a-gon bluebook tracks sales through the site over time... thus it is primarily a usa based data set, and it produces calculated ’averages’ over time for any given component

on most components with ample sales data, one can see a graph of prices at which they changed hands, as a function of time... so for an older, popular component (let’s say a c-j pv14 linestage) it will track from when it was pretty new, to the present, where it is now decades old - so the nominal ’average’ does not take into account the first falling, then later, stabilizing prices (a common depreciation curve) - one can also see the spread between ’mint’ units with ones in less wonderful condition, which can be useful

so like all other data sources that one can consult to inform buying or selling decisions, one simply needs to understand what the data set is, how it is gathered, how its presented ’answers’ are computed, and how one may need to ’peel the onion’ one layer or two to gain more insight

’reliable’ is as reliable as we choose to make it - like many things in life, getting good answers, making good decisions, being really informed, takes some effort and determination

@harrylavo

i am with you... a-gon could do many many things to make its blue book, its forum better... the list is long -- i guess like a 70’s porsche, it still runs, it has a charm, but it is missing what many would feel are modern conveniences

@coltrane1

you still remember the half-size, small font, paper edition, weekly mailed audio-mart?  every tuesday it would arrive, would run to the mail man, read through fast with highlighter, start dialing on the good stuff  ... LOL