[Mike Frezon]

Parker & Ron (and the HTF membership):

Another successful year in Software/Hardware for Trade/Sale.

In 2005, 468 successful trades were reported and recorded with only one "bad trader" added to the list.

I'm surprised by one thing, however. In 2004, 1054 good trades were recorded on the GTL...meaning that the number of trades were cut in half! I wonder why there would be such a dramatic drop. Any thoughts?

Consumers more cautious in their buying habits and thus with less inventory to trade/sell? Prices dropping to the point where people aren't looking to save on the secondary market? Or, maybe prices have dropped to the point where DVD owners don't think its worth the effort to try and recoup $$$ by selling off unwanted inventory?

Recent weeks on the Software for Trade/Sale page have been noticeably scarce with major "For Sale/For Trade" threads.

January 2006 has, so far, seen only 27 reported good trades. If those numbers were to hold true for the entire year that would mean just 324 trades for 2006!

[ChristopherDAC]

I predict business will pick up in a big way as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD hit the market. I don't believe, with some, that piracy has ruined the "used" market -- these are HTF members we're talking about here -- although the increasing popularity of Netflix may mean that there are fewer buyers and fewer sellers [because it's less and less necessary to blind-buy something].

[Parker Clack]

Mike:

You never can predict why people do what they do. I know that more and more people are seriously looking at their spending habits and putting off more and more things that they think they can remove from their list of items they can do without. Energy prices, overall unrest in the job market...the list goes on and on. I know I didn't purchase as much as I did in 2004 last year. And as Christopher said there is a lot more of the wait and see attitude as HD on DVD is getting closer and closer. We shall see.

[Mike Frezon]

Thought I'd drop in with an update.

The number of trades recorded on the HTF's Good Trader's List continues to decline.

217 Good Trades were recorded in 2007...down slightly from the 221 which were recorded in 2006.

As you can see, the number of good trades dropped precipitously in both 2006 and 2005.

YEAR	# of Good Trades
2004	1054
2005	468
2006	221
2007	217

I figured trades would increase dramatically (as ChristopherDAC predicted a couple of years ago) with the introduction of HD media...along with the recent damaging blow to HD-DVD. But that seems not to be the case.

It is also true that there is a number of one-sided notifications of completed deals. That is, that one person involved in a deal will report the other...but that action is not reciprocated.