What's happened to the used high end market recently?? Sales are tough....:0(

While all of the responses have a real foundation, I believe a key reality is missing from them.  Just as the used car market and dollar store sales/stock goes up in tough times/recession, with a corresponding drop in New car sales and designer store sales, such as bed bath and beyond....the same is true across markets.  We are in relatively good times compared to the recession.  During the recession, used products took on greater value as people held onto whatever money they had, avoiding new hi cost purchases.  Now that times are better in comparison, used sales are less robust, as people are more inclined to buy what they want new, with a strong dab of price shopping and caution.  Ofcourse, the caveat here, is that audio is not a necessity, especially where family concerns come into play.  The best time to sell your older gear and buy new replacement, may well be on the cusp of, or tail end of recession, for these reasons.

Jimman2, thank you for the shared knowledge of Facebook marketplace... good stuff.

Back to the main topic:  It has been fairly common the past 2 years or so for pro reviewers to mention how revolutionary the difference in available quality sound per dollar is today compared to 10 yrs ago.  While there has always been great sound at a value available, now it is more common, whereas 5-10 yrs ago you had to be well read and an educated buyer to peg those values in quality sound.  I would dare to venture that there was even a much higher degree of buyers remorse 5-10 yrs ago than now, as one is less likely to go wrong these days.   In my eye this development in quality jump across rhe specteum seemed to occur from 7 yrs ago thru 5 yrs ago, with an explosion in the past 4-5 yrs.  That being said, it stands to reason that the used audio of 4, 6, 8, 10 yrs ago would take a substantial hit in used value given the quality available at reasonable prices today.  That being mostly true, there then perhaps developed a general market sense that most all used should come cheap, and we see lowball offers left and right driving down valuations of even truly good products.

A few examples would be, just look at the stellar reviews of emotiva products and the price point emotiva can be had for new;  then there's products like monoprice monolith 7... $1400 for a product directly compared to $2500 outlaws and emotiva; or bookshelf speakers for $300-800 with rave reviews from elac, kef, etc;  golden ear bass aplomb with seriously overzealous (imo) accolades and awards ... but tied to insanely obtainable price points;  Tekton DI for $3k;  entry level maggies for 800 ... SVS subs for 1200 that match the best of the best $3-5k subs from 7 yrs ago..
With new products like those and a Bluetooth era generation that have now come into their own, whose paying $500 for the used PS Audio SC power cable that was $1000 3 yrs ago, when they can buy new Jenvings Supra power cables on ebay with rave professional reviews for $75?
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Another consideration is this: ever notice how stock in dollar store goes up in a recession when all the other retailers go down? It’s about affordability and penny pinching in troubled times, amd comfort in spending in good times. Better example might be the used car market. In the last recession auto manufacturers couldn’t sell new cars to save their lives and put in huge rebates to try and get it moving....didn’t help...so they cut back massively on units built tI’ll things recovered. During that time auto zone and other parts stores were busy as could be, amd used car values were going UP. My point is, in good times people will buy new audio gear if they need it, amd if they have real money, they will buy new if they want it.  But in troubled economic times, the market will move somewhat to used audio.  Not to the extent of cars, as that is a necessity, but to a notable extent in its own right.  
All of our responses here have merrit, and no 1 thing is responsible for what is happening....it is all of these things over the past 5 years building into 1 perfect storm we are now seeing.

I'm definitely there with you on that jimman.  With the exception of the about to happen electrical feed upgrades I'm working on, and my disc spinner, everything in my system is preowned, bank auctioned or maufacturers close out.  Now if only we could turn a new generation on to the same, we'd effectively abolish the topic of this thread