I have been really surprised by the increase in Ebay auctions, we used to see 40,000 items listed in the bikes section on ebay, now it's 70,000+ items listed in bikes on a daily basis.
I heard on the radio (PBS's "Car Talk") that the value of used cars is going up because people are forgetting new cars and just buying and maintaining used cars. Since I don't see much movement in used-bike prices I imagine that this might be happening in the bikes market, too.
While many many people might be selling stuff due to tougher economic times, new players might be entering the market to buy used bikes due to tougher economic times ("hey, let me get a bike so I can save on trips to work", or "hey let me give up on my car collecting hobby and focus on bikes which are cheaper ...")
In general ebay prices in the past 12 months don't seem to have changed very much, but the volume of items sold may have changed. Before the economic collapse, there was a bike-boom due to high gas prices. Now because of the economic collapse, there might be a used-bike-boom due to deflation and lowered incomes ...
- Don Gillies
San Diego, cA, USA