My guess would be 1- simply player turnover and 2- power creep.

The issue with 1):
the problem is with the way Wizzo's runs the SW (and to a lesser extent the D&D) minis. I don't think they do enough to support player bases in areas.

So what happens is a few folks get together and play, and have fun. Then real life intrudes, and players drift away. Soon there aren't enough players at a particular location to really support variety and competition, and those players quit and dump there stuff. They may not realize that 1/2 hour away is another location with 10-12 people per session.

The Wizzo's site doesn't even have a unique section for events and players. Trying to find people to play against is either thru DCI, or other sites. It can be frustrating.

The problem with 2) is:
Rebel Storm, Clones Strike, and Sith sets have been effectively power-crept out of competition. The uniques are better, the non-uniques are better costed in newer sets. People who have invested in these sets tend to feel they have been duped into wasting money, and attempt to dump the old sets either to recoup their losses and leave, or gain $$ to buy new.

Dude...I'm about 95% I have an extra Banking Clan Frigate that I would trade to you. If you happen to have an extra Trade Federation Battleship (the donut with the blue ring), I'll do a straight up trade with you. The TFB is the only thing I'm missing to complete my SSB set.

Full Collection sales are more common that you might expect. But its nothing new. For a variety of reasons people leave a game (not just SWMs). Much more than the two options LM listed, but those are both reasons some have stated in the past.

In fact Engineer and Barzilla (until he stopped this summer) made a ton of money off of buying full collections cheap - people rarely get value out of selling it all at once. And then reselling or trading the cheap finds.

Sometimes you even see someone who sold their collection at one point, and then comes back to the game. Just saw this with Figrin Dan on WotC forum.

So I dont think its a sign of anything about the game other than that you can probably get a great deal from those individuals.

Sweet, that would be cool. I think the Frigate I have is bagged, but it really doesn't matter to me if the TFB is or not. Just shoot me a PM.