Hi-end audio is a rotten business and one most have failed at. They have to act like snobs because they are charging far more than the performance of their gear really warrants. This is normal in the industry.
Beyond that, they can't take anything in trade for more than a pittance because they can't turn it around and sell it for much, if anything. If your old Yamaha whatever were worth so much, why couldn't you just sell it yourself? They can't either. It's a poor business model to pay anything for something you can't sell and make a profit on.
"High end" store snobbery
Our county lies in a fairly remote part of the country.Our major city of 100,000 has one "high end" shop so to speak.
I visited them yesterday.The store has limited selection of decent stuff-a few McIntosh amps.Marantz.Paradigm ,Focal,Sonus faber etc.No Wilsons or Bel Canto category.
I asked then if they take trade ins-I want to upgrade my one year old Yamaha RX4 AVR,worth $500 retail.
They said they only take high end components for trade i.e.McIntosh etc.
After that conversation, the 3 store employees pretty will ignored my presence and I continued browsing their meagre inventory.
Lo and behold!
In a corner I spotted about 30 items-old Pioneer,Yamaha amps and even an equalizer from the 1970s.Prices ranged from $75 to $500.
I asked :"what are these"
response from employee:"oh, those are items we are familiar with as they were swapped out for upgraded gear by our customers."
Thanks for tolerating my rant...
Gabe