Just seen this thread for the first time, and consider it well placed.
Investigated some headphones and their pricing a minute ago and found a lot of reduced prices by 'open box' or 'refurbished', distributed by manufacturers like Sennheiser, Beyerdynamics, Hifiman ... and on selling platforms, and with prices down to 20 % of basic.
Seems, the HP-Hype is at is end and prices normalize according to performance.
Same may be seen with other electronic/audio stuff as emerging well performing gears are marketed well (supported too by some ASR reviews
) for more than competitive pricing.
I don't now (exactly
) the producer's and reseller's margines, but there seems to be place for interpretation, at least.
Sorry, no discussion about a special topic, more generally ....
... but wait: just got a RME ADI 2/4 SE at 2K€ ....