08-25-08: Learsfool
... one should never pay more than half of the original retail price for a used
item, the only exception to this would be if it basically hadn't actually been
used. That is pretty much the rule of thumb for any type of high-end
goods.
That's a worthy goal, but in practice, it's not always possible. The market for
an item determines its used value. In cases where there is more demand than
supply for an item, the market value will be higher than 50% of retail.
Depending on the component, paying more than 50% can still be a good
value.
You can see evidence of this daily in the Audiogon listings.