The OP makes it seem like Reverb was some sort of cool hang out that got trampled by corporate culture, which is a nice idea but is unfortunately pretty far from the truth. Reverb was started by David Kalt, who also started OptionsXpress, which was sold in 2011 to Charles Schwab for a billion dollars. Pretty much the definition of big and corporate. Pretty much every guitar dealer, online or brick and mortar, moved from Gbase to Reverb almost immediately as it offered a better platform for sales. In my opinion, the thing Reverb did the best was to allow individual sellers a way as easy ebay to list their items. Gbase didn't do this and lost out on all of these small sellers. I spoke with a number of dealers who hated Gbase but were stuck with it and were just waiting for someone to come along with a better version and Reverb did that.
As for the market being down, it's just not true. The marked ebbs and flows. I'll admit to knowing very little about the new guitar market but I am quite tuned into the used and vintage market as I make a good part of my living selling guitars. Some guitars that you couldn't give a way a couple years ago are hot today and some that were hot a year ago are stacking up unsold on ebay and Reverb. This is how it's always been in any used/collectables market and if you don't have the capital to sit on "cold" instruments until they come back around or aren't willing to adapt quickly to what the market wants, you won't last long in the business.
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