Used audio market appears to be collapsing

Curious how many items which seem to be priced fair but not selling have sellers asking for Paypal Friends & Family for payment. I keep asking sellers to ship it to me first and then I’ll pay, but I get no takers. Go figure...

@ghasley Hello back to you! Yes we agree and your comment regarding folks being careful not to spend beyond their means is wise indeed. 
 

@whart we are on the same page also.  The sky is not falling and I do think uncertainty is playing a role.  However, I wonder what you and @ghasley think about the notion of audiophiles reaching a point where they feel highend price increases are deemed unreasonable and uncomfortable. I see these increases greatly eclipsing what this market has served up in past years/decades.  Uncomfortable in terms of an emotional and intellectual response. I think this is happening independent of our emotional and intellectual response to uncertainly.  Yes, they both feed off each other.  

It seems to me that this time of the year is not as good as in the fall for selling items. t

@grannyring said: "I wonder what you and @ghasley think about the notion of audiophiles reaching a point where they feel highend price increases are deemed unreasonable and uncomfortable."

I'm at that point. I gather from reading (I'm fairly active on the SHForums) that there's lots of reasonably priced gear out there these days-- can't speak to it simply because I haven't heard it, but the uber high end is now nutty money. When I'm told that a 250k dollar DAC is actually a bargain, I know I'm at the wrong party. 

Fact is, we could build extremely good systems for far less, total. And I'm not a cheapskate. Some would say even my main system is extravagant but it was built over time, in increments and gradually got to a place where I'm happy with the sonics I achieve using standard (not "audiophile spectacular") pressings. And I spent very little on a digital front end by comparison, to play hi-res from an SSD.

Perhaps its generational-- like the geezers who talk about when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon (I think I remember those times, not sure), and some may simply be to charge what the market might bear as a so-called Veblen good. I don't resent it, but it's not of interest to me. If it was a "blue sky" project with the promise of trickle down, that might be justified. I certainly know people who have extraordinary systems that do ring the bell on price but, again, for the most part, these systems were evolved over time by their owners. That's half of the fun of hi-fi, I think- the quest.

But there's also that other part- where you are no longer in the hobby just to keep buying equipment in that elusive search for the "best."  For me, the quest became hunting down obscure records to scratch my particular itch. And it wasn't just about the artifacts but the performances, the story behind the recording, and getting a better understanding of how the artist "fit" into the times and culture; sort of a "social history" of the music, to borrow a dated term (I'm not sure it is a term that is even used in the musicology discipline as such). This is an ever continuing learning process for me, and one I enjoy immensely. We can thank some of the labels like Blue Note's Tone Poet for unearthing some of the gems that were not warhorses and getting them onto turntables at reasonable pricing. 

@ghasley it’s listed in 3 marketplaces, not here. 

To clarify, it looked normal until the end of April and now it seems to have come to a complete halt. Few views a day versus a 100 a day, zero responses, inquiries in 10 days whereas I would have received 5-10 by now.