Holy crap, had no idea Reverb was so scammy

Yep - it's gotten amazingly bad just in the past month or so. Just like he highlights, these guys now put up hundreds of ads. Sometimes 50%+ of what you see is fake and not always easy to spot. They'll get reported, taken down, and then the next day the same ads come up under a different account from a different country. Complete whack a mole.

The scary thing is they are now hacking legitimate foreign sellers. I saw one last night using Dijkmans, a well-known store in the Netherlands. I was about to purchase and then noticed they only had one feedback, and Dijkmans should have 600+. Other than that, it looked completely the same.

I always wondered how it would play out if I fell for it, so good to know you should pay via Reverb as opposed to their PayPal option to quickly get a refund.
 
I posted this in another Reverb rant thread.

Trogly said one good way to tell is odd pricing, like $3,419.67 due to currency conversions. When you see prices like this, be wary.

You can also use google picture search using one of the pics from the reverb ad; and it may show it was used several times in other ads.


One reason I usually buy guitars new, in its factory sealed box, because I know what I'm getting and it can be returned,

Seeing how some people treat their guitars, no thanks; sure their tools but they're not disposable either. Damage and abuse don't give a guitar anything but a reduction in value, not character IMO. But it's your money, and it's why they make a killing selling guitars with factory abuse relic finishes...the guitar equivalent of stolen valor.
 
BABMusic said:
Check this out. This guy is doing a great service, and his video has funny moments. I had no idea that scammers had hundreds of listings!
Click to expand...

Seriously? 😒 anytime you’re buying used (sight unseen) over the internet it’s a 50/50 crap shoot.
 
I've never had a single negative experience, buying or selling, on the 'Verb. Haven't done any business this year yet, though....:oops:

I did have a weird experience on ebay last year, however. I bought a guitar that appeared to be legit and the seller responded to my questions, but ebay soon after cancelled the sale. When I asked for explanation, ebay didn't respond. The seller was long gone and hopefully permabanned also, so the whole thing just unhappened. o_O
 
Always good to try and strike up a conversation with the seller, that weeds out about 9 out of 10 scammers. Trogly talks about instantly dropping piles of cash on some of these things, it blows my mind. If I'm buying some esoteric Les Paul from decades past and spending many thousands, I've got to at least talk to the seller a bit.
 
I only ever use Reverb for stuff people don't care enough about to try and buy, setting themselves up for scams.
 
I usually ask for a phone number and like to talk to the guy first. Not that im expecting to get screwed but i find it easier in asking questions and getting on the same page with shipping.

Then I post a chat confirming what we discussed

I only bought maybe 4 items and sold one.
Haven't had any issues

Plus i only deal with US items

Some outrageously beautiful vintage Ibbys and yamahas in Japan that im tempted with. The shipping, duty fees and long haul don't make it worthwhile for me.

With Patience and you can find it here
 
70 Mach 1 said:
I usually ask for a phone number and like to talk to the guy first. Not that im expecting to get screwed but i find it easier in asking questions and getting on the same page with shipping.

Then I post a chat confirming what we discussed

I only bought maybe 4 items and sold one.
Haven't had any issues

Plus i only deal with US items

Some outrageously beautiful vintage Ibbys and yamahas in Japan that im tempted with. The shipping, duty fees and long haul don't make it worthwhile for me.

With Patience and you can find it here
Click to expand...
Right there with you on the Japanese stuff - I see so many guitars that I'd love to grab, but I just can't be bothered with the hoops to get them state-side.
 
It used to be that you could order guitars from Japan from Ebay and they would arrive in 4 days. I've bought 2 guitars that way, one being an old Fernandes and other a really old ESP with Fender headstock. Both prices were great and this was before 2024. I sadly had to return the ESP because the truss rod was completely broken. There are some great honest sellers from Japan on Ebay.
 
BABMusic said:
It used to be that you could order guitars from Japan from Ebay and they would arrive in 4 days. I've bought 2 guitars that way, one being an old Fernandes and other a really old ESP with Fender headstock. Both prices were great and this was before 2024. I sadly had to return the ESP because the truss rod was completely broken. There are some great honest sellers from Japan on Ebay.
Click to expand...
I have known quite a few guys on forums who have done very well on the Japanese used market. They definitely have some of the coolest stuff over there, either it was never exported or not in enough numbers to find it readily.
 
JonPearson1994 said:
I have known quite a few guys on forums who have done very well on the Japanese used market. They definitely have some of the coolest stuff over there, either it was never exported or not in enough numbers to find it readily.
Click to expand...

I've had zero problems buying two Edwards thus far direct from Japan via ebay. And I plan two more this year.
 
I looked into buying things from Japan but you sort of have to understand how some of these sites operate. They are more buyers' agents than seller and many of them show the same listings/pictures from other sites. I found a previous post that describes the process:

stratjacket

Thread 'NGD Caparison Dellinger - from Japan process'

Interesting process for buying, but it arrived safely today. I found it on Digimart (a Japanese site that consolidates many stores online). I used ZenMarket to facilitate.
For those who may be interested in buying from Japan, here was the process, cost and timing:

  • Created an account on ZenMarket and pasted the URL of the Guitar from the Digimart site into zenmarkets search.
  • Zenmarket verifies the guitar is still available and the price. Took about 30 minutes.
  • Once verified, I purchased the guitar through ZenMarket in Yen.
    • I paid Zenmarket and ZenMarket paid the...
  • stratjacket
  • Replies: 5
  • Forum: Rig-Talk
  • Like
  • Love
 
mbt64 said:
I looked into buying things from Japan but you sort of have to understand how some of these sites operate. They are more buyers' agents than seller and many of them show the same listings/pictures from other sites. I found a previous post that describes the process:

stratjacket

Thread 'NGD Caparison Dellinger - from Japan process'

Interesting process for buying, but it arrived safely today. I found it on Digimart (a Japanese site that consolidates many stores online). I used ZenMarket to facilitate.
For those who may be interested in buying from Japan, here was the process, cost and timing:

  • Created an account on ZenMarket and pasted the URL of the Guitar from the Digimart site into zenmarkets search.
  • Zenmarket verifies the guitar is still available and the price. Took about 30 minutes.
  • Once verified, I purchased the guitar through ZenMarket in Yen.
    • I paid Zenmarket and ZenMarket paid the...
  • stratjacket
  • Replies: 5
  • Forum: Rig-Talk
  • Like
  • Love
Click to expand...

I've definitely seen that trend. I find the one with the lowest overall price and make sure they respond to my questions. The first Edwards I ordered arrived at my front door in about 1.5 weeks. Could not have been a better experience.
 
While we are on the topic of Edwards, have any of you owned both Edwards and Tokai Strats? I've been strongly considering picking up either one for a while now. Was leaning more towards ESP Edwards with a Fender headstock. Is there a big difference in quality between the two?
 
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