Looking through Reverb Stats is very interesting. Some equipment gets traded on a regular basis. Some rarely comes up for trade. Not naming gear but there is a pattern in these stats. So what does this say? Well the gear that is in the top ten are NOT keepers. Some Elektron gear fairs better than others. Using that chain of thought should more consideration be given to gear right down the bottom. The gear that other users hang onto with no intention of ever selling. Food for thought perhaps.
2 Likes
It also indicates what might have become too valuable to keep. I enjoy my Tempest and mostly consider it a keeper but the value has gone up more than $500 since I bought it. Like I could have a Blast Beats and 100% of my original expenditure back if I was to sell it. Thatâs nothing to sneeze at and I turn the idea over in my mind daily.
4 Likes
I understand you.
I bought my OP-1 less than 500⏠and MM+ for 500âŹâŚ I just canât let them go, but the temptation has been there for a while.
4 Likes
I think youâre missing some information to be able to conclusively say that the top sellers are not keepers. We have no idea how many of a product are out in the wild. Korg has sold lord knows how many Microkorgs for example. It being in the top 10 probably indicates just how many of them there are and how popular it remains.
7 Likes
I canât draw conclusions about this best selling list, really.
1 Like
Youâre right that itâs hard to infer anything except general popularity of a product. Yearly trends are fun to observe, for example hereâs 2020
Generally you can see certain synth darlings fall out of favour over time. For example, the Minilogue used to be a staple and is now slowly dropping down the list and dropping in price. In a few years itâll be a âbargainâ until some Youtube influencer convinces people that they need it again for that â2015 analog renaissance soundâ. So it goesâŚ
The OP-1 stays ontop. To me this shows that, even if it isnt a keeper, there appear to be plenty of people who still want to buy or re-buy it, since prices havent dropped. Classic case of Octatrack syndrome. âyeah this is my 4th one and Im DEFINITELY keeping it this time!â.
5 Likes
Yeah, I think this is the crux of it. Perhaps everyone who buys an obscure eurorack module ends up selling it on Reverb, which means itâs definitely not a keeper⌠but youâd never know because itâll be at position 2000 on the list.
I think the indications are some reverb âusedâ listings are overpriced and subsequently the gear is not moving as fast as if it was reasonably priced for something that includes cat hair around the pot shafts and in between buttons.
Thank god we donât see a lot of listings featuring succulents.
1 Like
Itâs an indicator of what is widely available and what is cheap.
People donât start off with expensive, rare gear and things that are rare will rarely if ever show up on the site.
2 Likes
Itâs an indicator of people who will pay nearly new prices for used gear now. 
I used to sell there until the big commission hike a while back.
4 Likes
What do you use now? Ebay?
No, unfortunately I donât have a wide outlet after Reverb. Just post things on Modâs or here occasionally. I actually just didnât feel good about raising prices up high enough to cover Reverbâs percentage. Made me feel a bit dirty.
8 Likes
These sorts of sales related measures are rather blunt tools.
We heed something akin to the Nielsen Ratings system ( which surveys people in the US to measure TV watching and demographics ) for synths. Some way to measure what we use, what we like to use, and a little bit on why we use something, and who we are ( as a group ). Other more detailed data like our experience with reliability and opinions towards brands would be nice too.
Synth makers would love this sort of data, and they would be willing to pay for information that would improve their business.
Since itâs the amount of sales being counted, youâre essentially looking at the average joe sunday synth enthusiast who hasnât finished a track in 7 years but buys and sells gear as a hobby every week as your âsensorâ.
How good is this demographic at judging whether a specific instrument is actually any good and worth keeping?
5 Likes
The only indicator of whats a keeper :
Do I want to keep it?
7 Likes
If people buy it itâs good and if they sell it itâs bad right? 
I think it probably mostly comes down to raw numbers⌠like there is likely more digitakts out there than any other elektron so it is also the most likely to be traded. That and affordability, more affordable options often means less research and more willingness to just test it out and see. Also if it is a synth is a chain of synths with a clear upgrade path, ie, sold synth to buy upgraded version. I suppose someone could probably work out some sort of data algorithm of total number in the wild, to number of resales, to price and you might get an interesting data point for the average synth users attachment to different devices. The data probably wouldnât actually be very useful though unless you consider yourself the average synth user.
1 Like
(Best category for this.)
Reverb has put out their lists of the best selling gear for 2023. The lists are separately complied for the best selling NEW, USED, and the combination. This is for stuff that actually sold on their site, not listed, and is by unit volume not total amount of money.
The Good News â Elektron made the lists, many many times.
The Bad News â Elektron only made the Used and Combination lists. They are not on the top 20 New List â at all.
So looks like dump the Digitakt, and Digitone â though someone is buying it at the other end. The Syntakt is being sold used, but also is probably getting bought new as well.
Granted there are problems and caveats with these sorts of lists, but there you have it.
Go ahead and decide what else these lists may indicate, it would be interesting to hear your conclusions.
2 Likes
Weâd definitely need to correct for initial / new sales volumes to use this data as a measure of how much people want to keep things.
That said, the 2023 list has some real surprises to me. Two eurorack modules! The Maths and the Pamâs. I am absolutely amazed that anything Eurorack sells as much as the top 20 general devices, keyboards and grooveboxes. Euro addiction must be much more prevalent than I thought!
2 Likes
Itâs an indicator of what people are keeping, not what you should keep - that is all up to you.
1 Like