Selling on Reverb

What I am hearing is, the people who rely on selling websites are defending them, and the people that are involved in selling as a hobby are saying it sucks.

It's only a matter of time before everyone thinks it sucks.
I disagree. I am a hobbyist with hundreds of transactions. I used to try and move on a lot of gear.

What people are saying is if you go onto a selling site as a hobbyist with your head up your ass you expose yourself to risk.

As with just about anything in life, if you are going to play the game well, you have to take time to learn the game and how to play it.
 
As with just about anything in life, if you are going to play the game well, you have to take time to learn the game and how to play it.
Who wants to play a game selling their gear? Especially when the rules are stacked against you. Reverb is doomed.
 
Who wants to play a game selling their gear? Especially when the rules are stacked against you. Reverb is doomed.
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.

I currently have over 350 sales on Reverb and over 150 sales on eBay.

I have never had a return. I have never had a partial refund. I have never had a damage claim. I have never been scammed.
 
This is first time that i have problem on Reverb,on first day buyer complain that there was small dent on cardboard box (then is not as described) ,i refused the return but then he complain about one switch "probably" not working properly, asked him for video and nothing. The he wanted return it again but this time he will pay back shipping and here i make a mistake for accept return just to end this. Now he can ship back with no time limit.
Yep, you fucked up. Probably nothing wrong with it, he just doesn't like it/want it. You press hard enough for proof, and they disappear. Been there, done that. Can't be a pushover dealing with what is OBVIOUS buyer's remorse. Anyone who offers to pay to ship it back wants to unload it/just doesn't want it. HUGE red flag.
 
......yet.
Wait, I thought the rules were “stacked against“ sellers. At 500+ sales, if the odds were so bad surely I would have been burnt by now.

Scams are dependent on some combination of greed, stupidity, ignorance, naivette, etc from the mark. I think that so long as you don’t allow yourself to be a “soft target” and you have selling practices that mitigate the risk, then the likelihood of getting “scammed” is much less than many would seem to believe.
 
Wait, I thought the rules were “stacked against“ sellers. At 500+ sales, if the odds were so bad surely I would have been burnt by now.

Scams are dependent on some combination of greed, stupidity, ignorance, naivette, etc from the mark. I think that so long as you don’t allow yourself to be a “soft target” and you have selling practices that mitigate the risk, then the likelihood of getting “scammed” is much less than many would seem to believe.
I guess it depends on the what you are selling. If it's a bag of picks, the risk is nothing. I am sure your 500+ sales are not all 3k guitars.
 
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.

I currently have over 350 sales on Reverb and over 150 sales on eBay.

I have never had a return. I have never had a partial refund. I have never had a damage claim. I have never been scammed.
You are either incredibly lucky or you are lying/exaggerating.

You can make your settings and your descriptions say "Absolutely NO returns no matter what!" all you want. Reverb decides where the money goes and if they decide you are giving a refund...you are giving a refund (unless you closed your bank account and good on you if you did).
 
Just as an anecdotal response from someone who does use the site, and quite a bit over the past year; roughly $30k in purchases and orders each, not only have I personally never had an issue with the way Reverb handled a situation, but their Safe Shipping has saved my ass multiple times with poorly packed items, or as a seller, sometimes shit happens.

Reverb has paid thousands of dollars out for safe shipping claims mostly to me for items the seller claims were damaged in transit, sometimes I could see damage to the box, sometimes not. Reverb didn't care, and they have also paid out claims on my behalf, always with a generous amount or an offer to pay what the maker quotes for the repair.

Packing skills have gotten so poor over the last ten years...I don't know how I would feel about buying or selling something not covered by their safe shipping. I have gotten items like a racked pair BLA preamps that had been knocked around a bit, but probably no significant damage other than tweaked ears and connecting plate...50% ($400) refund. I had a buyer hot-swap a 500 series module, frying it, reverb covered his repairs and it cost me nothing else.

I personally have nothing bad to say about Reverb. My only complaint is they are often too easy on the buyer, more than once the buyer has received a full refund and kept the item...never made sense to me.

PayPal can eat my butt and balls.

I choose to sell my most expensive items on Reverb because of their safe shipping. Usually I can sell for a bit higher price than the forums and add shipping charges on top. I know the 1099-K will suck, but personally I feel that having the peace of mind with safe shipping is worth it to me. People can bitch all they want, but it's all about priorities. I can skip going out to eat a few times to make up for the fees, and then I can sleep well at night while my $4k amp is being tossed around.

Obviously, good packing skills make a big difference and I never let down my guard in that sense.
 
What I am hearing is, the people who rely on selling websites are defending them, and the people that are involved in selling as a hobby are saying it sucks.

It's only a matter of time before everyone thinks it sucks.
I lose money buying and selling gear like most other hobbyists. I rely on it for quickly selling gear, it is quite good for that.

I can't imagine this is the case. Fake news.

agreed. I have never heard of this before...
 
I lose money buying and selling gear like most other hobbyists. I rely on it for quickly selling gear, it is quite good for that.



agreed. I have never heard of this before...
It is a fact,Buyer has no limit to ship back and right now buyer responded after 10 days with tracking number but he is not give me a pickup date, can be 1 week or 1 year from now(just created label with tracking),is a typical scammer. I am pressing on Reverb's staff that they write return policy to 3 working days time limit to ship back or refund request from buyer will be canceled.
 
It is a fact,Buyer has no limit to ship back and right now buyer responded after 10 days with tracking number but he is not give me a pickup date, can be 1 week or 1 year from now(just created label with tracking),is a typical scammer. I am pressing on Reverb's staff that they write return policy to 3 working days time limit to ship back or refund request from buyer will be canceled.
Wait, I thought it was "fake news"?
 
I thought Reverb was great in its infancy. You could sell/buy stuff without having to pay tax. The selling fees were only 4-5% if I remember correctly, which were significantly lower than eBay/PayPal's 10% cut. Nowadays though the fees are stupidly high, you're taxed on everything and on top of that you're going to make me do extra paperwork when tax season rolls around just for selling things I already own? Fuck off with that nonsense.

I stick to Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or guitar forums to sell my stuff now. It does take longer to move but I don't have to deal with all the bullshit.
 
Lets also not forget the Paypal 180 day policy with returns. If you accept Paypal for payment, even if Reverb return window expires you still have to deal with Paypals policy. Just ridiculous!
 
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Lets also not forget the Paypal 180 day policy with returns. If you accept Paypal for payment, even if Reverb return window expires you still have to deal with Paypals policy. Just ridiculous!
I have no other option, only Paypal on Reverb
 
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I occasionally sell on Reverb, and aside from stupidly high fees, my experience has been good. I have only had an issue once where a buyer tried claiming an interface defective when I know it wasn't. Reverb sided with me but I just discounted him the cost of a pot and gave him detailed instructions on how to replace it. He was happy with that result. As far as expensive stuff like amps and cabs, I have never had a transaction where I didn't have a conversation with the buyer before making the deal. So, I knew what the person was like prior to the purchase and that really helped dealing with any problems. I considered making my own buy/sell/trade site with significantly lower fees and active scammer weed out effort. Also provide an escrow service for trading by mail, so there's more assurance for stuff like that. Not sure what the interest on something like that would be.
 
I considered making my own buy/sell/trade site with significantly lower fees and active scammer weed out effort. Also provide an escrow service for trading by mail, so there's more assurance for stuff like that. Not sure what the interest on something like that would be.
That would be fantastic, but I imagine it would take a lot of work to make it happen.
 
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