Another issue for mom and pop stores is dealer requirements to place an order. My local shop usually has a decent inventory of new gear, most of it one the low-middle end of the spectrum, as that's what our market dictates. Not junk, but very rarely do high end items come through any more.
One of the reasons for that is requirements from dealers to place an order. Gibson's minimum order amount was so high in 2019 that they couldn't even afford to place an order, and they have been a Gibson dealer for years. On top of that, Gibson now forces dealers to bundle Mesa in, so you basically have to place a large order for both brands in order to even meet the minimum.
For a long while, stores couldn't get any new products, either. I'd never seen the place so barren, and they were basically begging for people to trade stuff in, because they had nothing to sell. But of course, everyone was buying, and nobody was selling, and I think we can thank the "economic stimulus" for that. People were getting all sorts of money that was essentially disposable income for most, so the need to sell non-essential items in order to cover living expenses went way down. But as has been discussed here, what goes up, must come down, and like others have said, the companies pumping out new gear didn't have foresight to see the obvious downturn that would come once people got back to normalcy.
I personally survived off of gear sales while I was building my YouTube channel in 2021. It couldn't have happened at a more perfect time for me, to be honest, and even though it sucked for everyone else, it worked out in my favor (not gloating, it's just the reality) But, I have definitely seen a major slow down in the last year. 2020-2022, I would list stuff at insane prices, just kind of throw things at the wall, and people would still jump all over it, it was honestly wild to watch. Krank Krankenstein for $1,500? Gone in less than 24 hours. You couldn't give that amp away pre-pandemic. JCM 900 SLX? $1,250 - gone in 2 days. That's an amp that I would consistently sell for $500 and have to sit on before. We won't even get into 5150's, Rectifiers or JMPs - those prices are just asinine, yet people are still paying them despite everything else somewhat coming back to earth.
I am certainly backing away from moving gear around at the moment though. Things seem to be getting more unstable by the minute here and around the world. I've been living comfortably for a few years, and I have always and will always live well below my means (something that seems to be lost on most people in modern society) but I also don't want to get caught with my pants down if everything does turn to shit and I have a bunch of absolutely worthless investments taking up space in my home while I struggle to keep the lights on. I'm seeing others in this forum with the same foresight, and I think that's a good thing.
