Selling Pedals on Reverb in '22?

[THX1123]

A couple weeks back I posted was considering selling some pedals off. The research I've done seems to suggest Reverb is a crummy place to sell nowadays. It seems Reverb was purchased somewhat recently by some corporation who made many choices that aren't considered positive. People complain about delays and issues with their proprietary payout system, inability to get support about payouts and disputes, random account suspensions before payouts, and dishonest buyers successfully gaming the system.

Is this true, in your experience? I am wondering if eBay might actually be better.

 

[bottlenecker]

A couple weeks back I posted was considering selling some pedals off. The research I've done seems to suggest Reverb is a crummy place to sell nowadays. It seems Reverb was purchased somewhat recently by some corporation who made many choices that aren't considered positive. People complain about delays and issues with their proprietary payout system, inability to get support about payouts and disputes, random account suspensions before payouts, and dishonest buyers successfully gaming the system.

Is this true, in your experience? I am wondering if eBay might actually be better.

I always liked ebay better, but all the good stuff went over to reverb. It may have been safer, but I got good results with some due dilligence on ebay. Reverb jacked up all the prices and were aggressive about fees from day one. I'd love to see it go back to ebay, or something different.

 

[Recce]

I sold a Gibson SG on Reverb a couple weeks ago. No problems. The day after I shipped using Reverbs shipping I received my money in my checking account. I think it was about 7% of what we agreed on in fees. As I recall that’s about one to two percent more than before. But, Reverb has the buyers and that is where it sold. I had tried to sell it on Facebook Marketplace for over a month before I went to Reverb. No real buyers.

 

[schmee]

I sell on Reverb with no issues and fast payment. Sold a pedal yesterday, took one day to sell it. Use their shipping service it's sometimes half normal price.
I bought a used 10" speaker from someone on another forum last week. It cost him $32.65 to ship it USPS! He could have shipped it flat rate for less. On reverb it's $12-$16

 

[BoomTexan]

I have 30 sales on eBay and 75 on Reverb. Reverb is so much better.

Firstly, Reverb bumps reach people who are more inclined to buy your product. eBay targeted ads just don't do it for me, they're wildly off. If I've bought three 70s Peaveys in the last month, why do you think I want a brand new DRRI?

Secondly, Reverb has better stock and better search functions. Its so much more user friendly, and has full mobile compatibility. For me, I travel a lot and might need to make listings or revisions or print out labels on the fly with my phone, something I can't do on eBay.
Reverb has safe shipping, which makes post office mishaps so much easier to deal with. I shipped a 2x15 cab a while back and it arrived in pieces. Reverb fully reimbursed me. Ebay doesn't have that feature.

Reverb charges less. Yes, they charge more than they used to, but I can deal with 7.5% no problem. Ebay takes much more, and if you take down a listing for any reason, they charge you their cut, no matter whether or not you sold it on their platform. I had to revise a listing for a Kustom 3 times and because they didn't let me edit the info, I had to take it down and put it up again a few times. They charged me $18. I was about ready to get on the phone and demand my money back, but I just can't handle another minute of that robocall crap they put you on.

 

[oregomike]

A couple weeks back I posted was considering selling some pedals off. The research I've done seems to suggest Reverb is a crummy place to sell nowadays. It seems Reverb was purchased somewhat recently by some corporation who made many choices that aren't considered positive. People complain about delays and issues with their proprietary payout system, inability to get support about payouts and disputes, random account suspensions before payouts, and dishonest buyers successfully gaming the system.

Is this true, in your experience? I am wondering if eBay might actually be better.

Etsy bought Reverb back in 2019. I still use it to buy small guitar parts, or a pedal here and there. It's definitely gone down hill a bit, but if you do your due diligence (as a buyer), you shouldn't have any issues.
Every one I've dealt with has been quick to ship, and items were as described. I tend to look for those who do repeated selling vs, someone who's one-off selling. YMMV.

 

[Cyberi4n]

Much prefer selling guitar gear on Reverb. Cheaper to sell, I seem to actually sell for more money, and I’ve never had a problem with their payouts. Also, their chat function is excellent, I can be chatting to a real staff member within minutes, who always seems to be able to help. eBay’s fine for low-cost non-guitar related items, or if I’m buying something, but probably wouldn’t miss it if they went under. I rarely sell stuff these days anyway.

 

[vjf1968]

A couple weeks back I posted was considering selling some pedals off. The research I've done seems to suggest Reverb is a crummy place to sell nowadays. It seems Reverb was purchased somewhat recently by some corporation who made many choices that aren't considered positive. People complain about delays and issues with their proprietary payout system, inability to get support about payouts and disputes, random account suspensions before payouts, and dishonest buyers successfully gaming the system.

Is this true, in your experience? I am wondering if eBay might actually be better.

Been a Reverb seller since 2013

What killed it somewhat for Reverb was two things and I believe those two things ran right into each other. One was the requirement to withhold sales tax and the other was the purchase by Etsy. I always found Reverb to be less scummy than Ebay and their customer service always was on top of things if there was a problem IME. The real jerky thing Etsy did was raising the fees during the "event". It was a mean thing to do to some folks who were trying to make some cash to pay bills, being out of work because of said "event".

I have not seen any "improvements" that Etsy used as an excuse to raise the fees but I am seeing a lot more ridiculous listings with folks trying to flog off used gear above what it costs new. I'm talking stuff like that you can still get NEW.

 

[100LL]

I built an alternative website specific to guitar gear (see my signature line) but it hasn't taken off and I've lost the fire.

I found a lot of people here and some other forums that I frequent expressed frustration with Reverb recently. Reverb has some nice things going for it, even after their acquisition (such as their price guide, reviews, model primers, etc.) and it's a full blown soup-to-nuts marketplace. Ebay has a lot of that kind of thing too, but the system isn't specific to musical instruments so it's not as nice, trustworthy, helpful nor cool.

Reverb keeps 7.7% of your sale (plus a quarter, i guess in case you make a habit of selling ten cent picks individually, but it seems silly). That's getting up there!!

And then the buyer has to pay sales tax. That's a big time stinker.

My whole idea was to create a bring a trailer for guitars. It's an auction platform, pay a small fee to list and buyer pays a small percentage (2%) to help sustain the site. The transaction would be handled between the buyer and seller, so no collecting of sales tax or any other money as it relates to the transaction. I figured it was a good idea because often good sellers on the forums don't want to overprice but also would like the market to decide.

 

[THX1123]

All very valuable opinions. I think TDPRI folks are generally more reliable witnesses than randos.

I'll reconsider Reverb.

 

[bluesholyman]

I've had good success with Reverb as a seller and a buyer. No real trouble from either perspective, although fees have seemed to increase more than I would like.

I have had two buyers contact me with "hey, the pedal is broken, what are you going to do about it" messages. One individual did this a month after buying it and suggested it would be great if I could take it back and give him a refund. The other was about 3 weeks after it arrived, similar request.

I spelled out all the reasons why the pedals did not arrive "broken," in excruciating detail in the response, and my return policy was clearly "no returns" as i don't sell broken stuff. I was very courteous, very detailed, and suggested reasons why things might be a certain way (power issues, etc.) and/or they get in touch with the manufacturer - one guy had a broken knob, which wasn't broken when it shipped or arrived as he would have told me then. The other case was user error around power or something - he never told me specifically.

In both of those cases, the situations resolved themselves without any escalation, even though I told one of them if they weren't happy, they could escalate it to Reverb support and I provided them the link - I was that certain about where I stood and I wasn't going to sit there and debate it in messages.

EDIT: I do believe some users get buyers remorse, it's not what they think, and they try to find a reason to get it back to you, thinking you'll just refund the money and be done with them, reselling it again. The challenge with this is you really don't know what happened to it while they had it, so taking it back when you don't have to is a huge risk.

As a buyer, I have had one pedal arrived not working correctly, an analog (light bulb) uni-vibe style pedal that would stop pulsing after a few minutes when the dials were set a certain way. I described to the seller how to reproduce, gave them all the details and they accepted the return - never told me if they could reproduce it or not, but they refunded the money (several hundred $) - I suspect they reproduced it just fine once they knew how to set the pedal to make it happen - it was very repeatable.

I think you just have to be clear, courteous, and know your gear works and if something arrives broken or is not working correctly, let me know immediately and provide plenty of detail.

I even had a guitar arrive damaged by FedEx (that was a shocker) and the seller did not insure it sufficiently. I got a repair estimate and he cut me the partial refund and ate the loss. It sucked, I felt bad for him, but at the end of the day, he did not get it to me in as sold condition.

So apart from fees going up, Reverb has been a good marketplace. Since its now a commodity for the owners of Etsy, I suspect it will get more expensive like Ebay did and something else will eventually eclipse it. I haven't used Ebay for selling for several years now.

 

[Killing Floor]

Reverb is fine. And buyers are going through a dumb phase now where used pedals are selling for higher than new Even when they are still in production. Try it.

 

[tfarny]

I’ve had the same frustrating experiences on both eBay and reverb with buyers. Just a few people but enough to make you question whether the aggravation is worth it. And the fees are atrocious but you can charge much more than on Craigslist.

 

[THX1123]

Thanks for the advice folks.