Trends in value of vintage / used audio equipment?

The SF Bay Area is a great place to shop on CL.  There is so much money in the area that prices for used gear are crazy good imo.  When I see something interesting I'll HIFI Shark it just to get a base line.  An example:  I just picked up a pristine pair of Von Schweikert VR4s  Gen 2 for 1000.  Sam the seller allowed me to pay him "when I can" after a down of 100 via PP.  Brought them to my house as he was going to be in the area and even took them up 19 steps as I'm recovering from quad surgery.  After flipping a pair of JBL L96s I got in the FREE pile at a yard sale for 500 on ebay I'm in 500 of my own money on a pair of speakers any audio phile would at least respect.  

I always read in threads "oh it's old will die"  etc.  Lexicon MC-8, 2005 or so.  Proceed HPA 2 2000 or so.  DCM Time Frame 2000s sn 446/447 1988.  All strong and always make me smile.  2000 but got lucky on the 2000s for sure!  Magic Thors hammer made of butterflies.  

Great music does not have to cost a lot.  There is plenty of used gear that can take people used to normal music to that special level that literally gives you chills.  Now that I stream it stuns me to hear songs I have heard for decades completely new!  Even seemingly simple pop like The Cars or such becomes layered and nuanced.  Friends that come over and listen are shocked at what they miss in their system or earbuds, sigh.

Again, does your sound make you smile?  That's what counts!

@guscreek

Original Chartwell LS3/5As in at least 9.9 condition.

They were given to me by my neighbor’s adult kids when he passed away a few years ago and they were emptying and selling the house. I even got an extra NOS woofer for them that I found in his workshop!

Neither of us had ever heard of Chartwell, but I knew what LS3/5As were. They let me clean out his workshop (for free) and I gave them $140. He was a NASA engineer.

About the meter craze, I am not a particular fan of meters although my linestage has a meter.  It is actually useful for telling me when the linestage is stable and can be switched to fully on.  But, the real reason it is there is because the builder uses only certain very old chassis for his projects and the chassis would have a big round hole if a meter is not stuck in there.

At the last Capital Audiofest, I went around with two young guys who are both fully engaged in gear, including professionally repairing and reconditioning gear (one is 26 years old the other 17).  As a joke, we went on the hunt for the biggest and most impressive meters.  In the Western Electric room, we found monoblocs that use massive quantities of 300b tubes (of course! they manufacture and sell those tubes) and had a square meter on the front of each monobloc that had to be at least 8" by 8".  Winner! Winner!.