Domain Trading Seniors

[observer]

A lot of people say the domain business is down, Afternic etc. die slowly. I wonder how much better it was in the "old days", before the new technology crisis? Certainly a lot of money was spend in this time, and some lucky people managed to register a great geneneric .com, but on the other hand, it was far easier to find unclaimed names, wasn't it?
So did it look only like the domain business was busy, because more domains have been registered (in absolute numbers) than today, filling greatdomains categories? Or was there really a larger number of sales, and higher prices achieved?