Short answer, it’s not the 6.5 creed bubble that has popped. It’s the gun market bubble in general that has popped. During the pandemic, manufacturers couldn’t keep up with demand with shutdowns and such. So shops were paying top dollar for used guns just so they could have something on the shelf. Manufacturers have caught up now and now there’s a market saturation of availability, so the desire/desperation for shops to pay for those used rifles is gone. They’ll still buy really nice or rare or hard to get stuff, but the everyday stuff isn’t as desirable for them, because they can get it without issue now.
6.5 Creedmoor is extremely popular, hence why they’re on the shelf. I remember reading a statistic at one point that said something like 15% of all firearms sold for the last few years are chambered in 6.5 creed. That’s all firearms, so included in that statistic are bolt guns, shotguns, pistols, everything. When you consider how many different cartridges exist today as well as how many different types of firearms are available, 15% is a GIANT portion of the total sales. Manufacturers see that statistic and so they’re making more of them. If that 15% statistic equates to 35 to 40% of all bolt action rifle sales, that would mean that 40% of the rifles currently being manufactured and put on store shelves are 6.5 Creedmoor. looking around here, that seems to be the case.
The reason you are seeing them on the shelf isn’t because they aren’t selling, it’s because every manufacturer has jumped on the train. What you should be looking at is which of those available options is actually selling. I would venture to guess that there are tons of Ruger Americans And savage axis on the shelf, but things like a Tikka or a browning X bolt don’t stick around as long.
Your rifle currently retails for between five and $600 at your average shop. Most shops are only making between 10 and 20% mark up on new rifles, but I know from working at shops that the margins on used rifles are 2 to 3 times as high. Shops do that so that they have room to negotiate. The rule of thumb that we always went by was typically a customer could expect to get 50% of the maximum final sale price. In your case, that gun used won’t sell for more than about 450, so I would expect to get about 225 from a shop.