Newbie question - equipment with good resale value

Buconero117,
I, on the other hand, find that the BlueBook is way off in the other direction sometimes, especially for pieces which are older than 10yrs old. The formula you quote seems to be the one used by the Agon BlueBook when they have nothing else. That puts a pair of great vintage speakers from 30yrs ago at 15cts on the original dollar, when that original dollar is worth many times what today's dollar is worth. That's a bit what I am getting at when I say yesteryear's almost classics can be a bargain. So far, I have been able to get a couple of things at 15cts on the dollar, but they are the very rare cases. And I love buying from people who would sell me the best stuff from 1980 at 20cts on the 1980 dollar.

The Wyred 4 Sound Class D amps seem to retain a lot of their original value at resale so far.

03-07-10: Mapman
The Wyred 4 Sound Class D amps seem to retain a lot of their original value at resale so far.

The key words being "so far".

I'm very hesitant to buy the latest flavor-of-the-month product because they are so quickly displaced by the next flavor.

If you do buy this type of item, it's critical to decide quickly if it's right for your system and if not then turn right around and sell it.

In general, I see products that offer high value (performance/dollar) as those that seem to hold value best. Wyred is a prime example.

People seem to take the biggest pounding with more esoteric or one off products that may offer very high performance but also cost a fortune and have more of a niche high end following.

Off course, when new models come out with various technology improvements for comparable cost, then value of older designs will go down somewhat as a result.

Its, hard, but one good strategy to apply is to always wait if you can to buy or upgrade because you will generally tend to be able get more value at a particular price point the longer you wait.

Could be Mapman. I might be out of touch on products like the Wyred amps.

I correlate them with the NuForce and Bel Canto offerings of a couple years ago. Used versions quickly plateau'd at about the 50% mark until newer iterations were released, then the older products went lower.

I certainly wouldn't pay more than 50% of retail for any of these products if my top priority was recouping my cost upon resale.

I'm not saying these amps aren't reasonable values and good performers. I'm speaking strictly from the standpoint of a zero sum game.