Ever since the empeg was EOL'ed, I've sort of kept an eye on eBay tracking units for sale.

At first I actually kept a log of sales and prices, noting who had bought up a bunch of units and was trying to flip them for the quick buck. That was way in January and February.

After that got boring, I just kept checking the listing every few days after I would check on Phillips Videopacs (which I collect).

After the close-out frenzy of the first 6-8 weeks (or so) of the year, the number of actual empeg players for sale at any point in time has stabilized at almost always between 2 and 6, and frequently just 3 or 4. It seems that about 2/3rd to 3/4ths of these are new in the box units as opposed to units actually used in a car.

Right now, as I write this, there are 3 on eBay. This observation, by the way, only applies to the US eBay site. Usually there are none on most of the other country specific eBay sites, though there is a 10gig model on the German (eBay.de) site at the moment.

So... What do I conclude from this???

1) That during the closeout, a large number of empeg players went into the hands of speculators who purchased them with only the intent to flip them for a profit. We all knew that some did -- but just how many?

2) That those who sell these "new" units are aware enough not to flood the channel with too much product at once, in an effort to capture the best sale price.

So understandably when I see auction text that says "Hurry! You may never get a chance to own one again" I just roll my eyes.

And thus, I pose this speculative question to all my fellow forum members: When do you think the steady flow of “new” empeg players for sale (from eBay mostly, but we can include other car audio retailers with some empeg stock left) will come to end, and we will no longer be able to quickly set up a friend with one of their own, or snare a NIB replacement or backup unit for ourselves?

Of course, after that day, empegs will still trade hands, but they will be predominately used units and take some patience to locate, or they will only be acquired after convincing a longstanding empeg owner to relinquish a “backup” unit?

Myself, I had originally though the flow would end before the summer did – HA! Simpleminded me…