Do you buy new, used or new or used gear?

Since the 90's I commenced with stopping using good supplied from Brands and adopted the purchase method of having Custom Designs produced and built for me. This method evolved through the early 00's and also adopted the method to  purchase a used Branded sale item, to be sent away to undergo modifications that made the under the hood, quite different to what the original was offering.

In the late 00's the whole system was using a Source - Amplification - Speakers that were custom from scratch as a design or a substantially modified product from a earlier era.

The last of the 00's also was a time a purchased a PS Audio PWT Transport.

During the 20's bespoke custom designs are continuing to be built for me, but I also have a couple of additional items that are unique in their designs, and not produced for me but another.

The friendships developed through the methods I have selected to acquire audio equipment are very long lasting and remain toady inclusive of invites for a home visit as a social get together. 

@tomrk its not uncommon for asking prices of used gear to exceed retail. 

All of what I have was bought new except my -power supply

@cey asking for something is one thing.  Getting it is a whole ’nuther matter.   

Now there is a caveat to that.  If you’re buying older Marantz gear, you will pay more than retail in the 1970’s (but inflation adjusted, it’s approximately the same as retail)

I did get a pair of Magnaplaner 3.7i speakers from my local shop for 10% of retail rom my local shop because they took them in on a trade and just wanted them out of there because of the size.   It came with the boxes, the magnetic strip and the original manual.   It was missing the crossover cable for the midrange and tweeter, but that cable was just $8.

Proving an actual thriving stereo/video store is more rational than people selling used.

@spenav   That makes sense because most electronics that fail do so in 90 days and gets fixed. 

I purchased a NAD M33 that was a demo unit, and it works great.  I'm looking for a cheap NAD M23 amp to go along with it, but I want to pay somewhere under $2K.