Sigh...Reverb increasing selling fees

[tippy5]

Bought and sold a lot of guitars on eBay and Reverb. But I do remember the early pre internet days of putting in 10$ ads with no pictures, under 25 words, for 4 days, in the local paper. Or the index card at the instrument store.

Or the time late 80's where I commissioned my 82 strat to a guitar shop that didn't pay me ($400) for 9 months. I would go in and they said they had to take it down and put it upstairs because it wouldn't sell. After a few months of that excuse I asked to see it. Then the owners gave me 3 partial payments over another couple months instead of admitting their obscured transaction. So ever since then I have not commissioned a brick and mortar. Plus I am always worried of new dings because I take care of my guitars.

Selling face to face at your home is usually great but boy there are some long waste of time looky loos, in the room. I met guys that would come and play songs and have all manner of life stories about the bands they were in or stages they missed. Because I was raised in pop up, or after work, jamming I didn't mind some of it. But there were so many long musical talks and then an hour later offering you half of what the price was.

In 95 I started the eBay guitar acquisitions. It was OK but it was around 7%. Then came Paypal and it went to 9.5% commision. That took some steam away.

Then Reverb out of nowhere came out with 2.5% commision. It was very inexpensive and smooth to play in the GAS mode. They also had real people that were helpful to both sellers and buyers. Then they raised it and added to PP if was like 6%.... so we endured.

Then the costs....shipping costs almost doubling last year. Now 9.75% tax hits... well the costs of GAS definitely went up.

But still I remember those newspaper ads you had to renew for 6 months until a buyer came around. We are lucky to have Reverb and eBay. It used to be less costly. But it still is a good way to sell and buy gear, even with their upcoming increase.

Luckily at 64 I sampled 175 guitars over that 20 year period and learned alot about what guitar suits me and for what type of music. Some guitars just come alive in your hands. Your fingers can execute better with the sound palette, "your" string tension, the nsetup, and the design layout of feel - that is YOU.

[gr81dorn]

I think the worst part of it isn't the money, it's the very insulting way that they framed it in their announcement. They're trying to pitch it to us like it's a huge help to all of us that they're gonna raise the price so they can continue to grow Reverb outside of the USA and we'll have more and more buyers for our stuff. There's literally a setting that I assume the vast majority of USA sellers choose that only makes your products available in the continental USA. I know I for darn sure have that selected. I can't think of many things I own I'd like to ship to Bulgaria (or wherever) less than a guitar.

What they should have done instead is give us a more honest and reasonable explanation. Kinda feels condescending to use the word "together" how they have when we weren't part of the decision.

Ultimately, when David Kalt owned Reverb, I actually sorta believed they were fully taking a musician-first approach to all decisions (I'm sure they weren't fully, but he's a legit guitar guy, despite his background and his wealth). When he sold it, the letter he sent out promised it was in good hands and things wouldn't change, just get better. Of course that will always be said, but this change really benefits no one but Etsy.

Ultimately, it's a free country and they can do this and we can choose to use Reverb or not. It's still the best marketplace ever created for this stuff and 1.5% isn't gonna kill it, nor is it gonna turn us all away after we get over the initial shock and frustration. I just don't like the way they are trying to sell it to us.

[personatech]

Reverb came into being largely because eBay raised its rates to unacceptable levels (and, later, eBay dropped its rates to match those of Reverb when they realized they were losing a lot of business). I fully expect some Internet musician/entrepreneur will do the same to Reverb. Frankly, if the folks running GC were smart, they'd be the ones to step in.

[imus586]

gr81dorn - agreed - despite a little bit of obfuscation, the wording of the announcement is basically all about how raising fees is a good thing for the company

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by personatech

Reverb came into being largely because eBay raised its rates to unacceptable levels (and, later, eBay dropped its rates to match those of Reverb when they realized they were losing a lot of business). I fully expect some Internet musician/entrepreneur will do the same to Reverb. Frankly, if the folks running GC were smart, they'd be the ones to step in.

The "same people"...Wall Street, who run Etsy and thus Reverb, ARE running GC.

That's the whole entire problem for all three businesses.

They are all three being run to "maximize and manage" ROI/profits for the Wall Street Shareholders/Corporate Executives...not to "maximize and manage" being a fun, fair, profitable, and equitable place for the sellers to conduct their business.


We need another man just like Stan Jay...with 50 million in his pocket to spend on setting up a platform...

Too bad that Elon Musk isn't into Guitars like he is Cars and Mars...sigh...{;-)


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[esimms86]

FYI, I received an email this morning from Reverb. Effective August 4th they are upping their seller’s fee from 3.5 to 5%. Of course, sellers will have to factor that in when determining a for sale price.

[dnf777]

Why the move away from
PayPal? Many of us have gotten comfortable with their service and security.

[sdelsolray]

Who wants to bet how long it will take eBay to raise their selling rate (for musical instruments) higher to match Reverb?

[jpbrooks]

Originally Posted by MartinGibsonFan

Does anyone use Facebook Market Place?

J

Facebook marketplace is great. I’m thinking about creating Profile just for selling and figuring out how to market to other areas. Reverb has definitely lost my business.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by MartinGibsonFan

Does anyone use Facebook Market Place?

J

Yes, but it appeals more as a local market option, the same as Offer Up and a slew of websites who would love to commandeer a portion of ebay (and Reverb's) market share.

A lot of these have their own set of problems, so it's buyer (or seller) beware.

Unless you're located in a large metropolitan area many of these options just aren't going to interest the much larger market that's part of listing on ebay, Reverb, or larger consignment sellers such as Elderly, Gruhn's , etc.

I recently sold some big ticket guitars through Elderly and received many times the price that might have been available locally. There just aren't that many in the local market that will pay 3 or 4 thousand dollars for any guitar.

I could be "enraged" by Elderly's 15% cut, but that's a bargain for the market that my instruments reached. Deciding to turn a nose up because a good market option has decided they want a larger part of the pie might just prove to be cutting your nose off to spite your face.

It might be like becoming indignant and deciding you'll just have a garage sale and sell that boutique guitar and keep all that profit for yourself.

[Matts67]

Originally Posted by dnf777

Why the move away from
PayPal? Many of us have gotten comfortable with their service and security.

PayPal was great until they changed their fee policy. Now, if you refund a payment for goods and services (or even an eBay purchase), they keep the fees. So if you buy a $4000 guitar from me and decide to cancel the transaction, and I cancel / refund to re-list it, PayPal keeps $116. As a seller, when I go to refund the payment, it only gives me the option to refund the full amount, with the $116 coming out of my pocket.

[MarkF_48]

Anyone ever bought or sold used gear from Sweetwater's Trading Place? I've browsed through it, but that's about all.
https://www.sweetwater.com/used/

[SuperB23]

I got a letter today saying that the final selling fees on Reverb are going up from 3.5% up to 5% in August. Ebay is still at 3.5% for music instruments. It seems like a lot of people switched to Reverb over the last few years but I might be headed back to good old Ebay. Ebay is quite expensive to sell other items but they kept the instruments fairly low for now. Most other categories are 10%.

What do you guys think?

[RP]

AGF Classifieds, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace look pretty good. Ebay? Not so much...

[vintage40s]

It surprisingly expensive to sell on Reverb. I just sold a D-35 today and it was:
Box bought online $25
Materials for reinforcing and packing box $12 (mostly Gorilla Glue).
Shipping UPS $62
Reverb mandatory "Safe Ship" insurance $84
Reverb 3.5% sale fee $117 (going to 5% in August)
Total $300