1. Home
  2. vintage
  3. 175181-33949

Ridiculous resale price of vintage equiment

The price of used vintage is downright beyond ridiculous nowadays.

It seems like many hispters are buying crap based on the looks and many flippers are happily milking them.

As an audiophile and collector this really pisses me off... sure I could sell my collection for stratospheric numbers but then what would I do with my hobby?

When I see good looking stuff, like an ARC D70 MkII selling for as much as a crappy sounding, unrestored Marantz 2240.. well, I croak. Heck, I gave one of those away because they are not very good.

Today I was comparing my really recently rebuilt ( and I mean, really rebuilt, not just "recapped" ) Marantz 2325 and Sansui G-7500. The Marantz is dark but warm, the Sansui,which sounds a lot better than the Marantz, paints a nice musical landscape but has no real depth, etc... I gave them both the best chance, driving them from the pre-out of my CJ preamp so they are getting an outstanding source... and yet, well, they sound vintage.

Is the Marantz worth $2500? Is the Sansui worth $1500? From an audiophile point of view, nope. They look good, but my DIY Aleph 5 monos, my ARC D70 MkII, and a bunch of my other amps/preamps sound far better... and yet, they are not overpriced.

OK, except for the buffoon in eBay who was asking for $26K for his Pass Aleph 2 amps.

At least the poseurs have not found Quad yet.

What do you think? Are these prices interfering with your hobby?  

esporma
zimick
33 posts
 

Wow. Maybe it’s me but I don’t see where the confusion is coming from.

Just like cars , the new ones will be better in every way for less money, and true with many other things. 
Perhaps the confusion is the audiophile folks here think purely in terms of buying something with no emotional involvement and only it’s performance matters? 
I have a very nice main system, all “ new” stuff but also have vintage gear, Marantz  2325- Pioneer 1050- Yamaha 640- JBL L100 - Apt Holman- Adcom etc and love it all and the sound because it brings me back to listening to music when I was young. BTW some of it sounds really good! 
Yes the prices are getting high but have you noticed a BMW 2002 from the 70’s is big money? 
Some buy vintage to get something they wish they had, some to revisit stuff they had and then the hipsters want a look and some rarity. 
They all are enjoying it and isn’t that the point?

mapman's avatar
mapman
23,600 posts
 

The prices can vary widely. I’ve seen at least one shop that specializes in fixing up vintage gear and they sell for a very reasonable price, sometimes a small fraction of what some others similar might ask. Depends on the local economy.

bpoletti
1,590 posts
 

Value and the associated price is dependent on what the buyer will pay.  Look at the price of used vinyl if you have any questions.  

mapman's avatar
mapman
23,600 posts
 

Yes the shop I know of with good prices on vintage gear also stocks and sells a lot of records and gets a good price for those so I expect the gear is mainly a way to get new customers who will buy records which is where the profit actually is.

noske
783 posts
 

The discussion on what constitutes "value" is centuries old. I won’t go there.

@cleeds provides the one most are familiar with, and is accepted in a wide variety of circumstances.

But to clarify in the context of this thread, that a market price may be agreed upon does not mean that anyone else other than the buyer and seller agree that that is its value.

Many may consider that to be over priced (a rip off, price gouging, ridiculous), and others consider it to be under priced (a bargain, "good" value).

That’s all. And if that can be understood, then good. KISS.

At least one book has been written about the theory of supply and demand.  Can get a bit tricky when there are stocks (vintage, NOS) as well as current production which may offer only an imperfect degree of substitution.

More to discover