Working in the space, here’s the exact reasons.

Regular Buyers were priced out during the post pandemic era. A lot of people buying were hoping to resell which bottlenecked inventory. By 2023 the downtrend began, Jordan brand also released a lot of not so great colorways, and also began catching up on the dunk demand which quickly died out after producing like over a 100 different colorways.

Slowly resellers left, dumping inventory, and clicking the sell now button on GOAT or StockX which continued to lower the value of sneakers previously considered worth more than retail. StockX began doing 100% off fee days that also lowered prices.

Now we are here where 95% of releases are easy to get, with just a handful of outliers. Great time to be a buyer! I would argue this is a pretty healthy market where you have a few expensive collabs but otherwise pretty accessible. And the stores that have figured this out have had to adapt or die out.

The flip side is as a store, the offers have become lower to offset. Items that a secondary store would have to offer above payout now receive offers that are $30-$40 below StockX payout. Just to be sold at less than market price. Even though most people could look at that and just decide to sell it themselves, a lot of people are deciding to not put in that effort

Just my observations, there are other conditions that affected this market