Newbie question - equipment with good resale value

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.

Then of course some good pieces may be rarer and last a long time or be easily refurbished and become sought after collector items that eventually sell for way more than their original cost. For example, I recently saw a Thorens arm lift like the one I have used on my table for 25 years up for sale here for about 8-10 times the amount I recall paying for mine new years ago because these devices are hard to come by these days and those willing to drop thousands on a good table have no qualms about dropping a couple hundred on a device that can make their life easier.

Buconcero, my vote for the agon bluebook was private seller to private buyer, not dealer. It is an invaluable resource, in that it is what most of us use and consult. Whether you believe it's 'shallow' or incorrect in this case I don't think matters, and is a very relevant resource for the OP to be familiar with.