This is a confluence of things. New laws, but also Reverb growing and being bought out. They are trying to grow which means acting like a bigger business. You can still use Craigslist, Kijiji, Facebook if you want to avoid taxes.
The answer is in the mirror.
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Yeah I’m pretty much done with reverb. It’s not necessarily their fault it’s just paying tax on items I’m selling is dumb and I don’t have sales tax in my state and I’m not a fucking business I’m selling used shit. It’s just not worth it anymore. I guess it’s gonna force me to really think about what I buy moving forward.
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As a seller the fees are way too much.
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I just don’t have much luck with selling music gear on Facebook, local classifieds or forums. I used to buy and sell lots on forums like modwiggler years ago but anymore gear just sits and you get a few lowball tire kickers. I stick it on reverb and the gear it is generally sold in days. I wish it wasn’t this way but it is.
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Same here. I have a great local shop, and I’ve sold stuff through them before, but lately they’ve been so inundated with used gear that they haven’t been able to take anything for me. Also tried selling locally on Facebook, and this forum, with no luck. If you want to move something with any sort of haste, reverb becomes the only option.
The fees and exorbitant shipping costs mean I’m less likely to buy things because I can’t expect to sell them if they don’t work out without loosing too much money in the process. At this point I’m pairing back anyway, but the expense of selling (just as a user, not a business) has really curbed my interest in getting any more gear through Reverb.
I will occasionally get a survey from them, as I did the other day, and I always express this, for what it’s worth. I encourage people who feel similarly to do the same thing. It’s not likely to change their business model, but if enough regular users stop using the site, perhaps it will start hitting their bottom line enough for someone there to pay attention.
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I just saw that Retro Gear Shop which always came up in my searches was either suspended or disabled their account on Reverb.
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That would be funny if Reverb started kicking off brick and mortar stores as well for having some sales off of the platform.
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Even more funny as I didn’t know they had a website until I did a search after seeing their disabled listings.
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It’s not just reverb, all platforms fees have shot up. It’s ridiculous.
I try and sell via forums / local sites or whatever.
But I guess it’s harder with music gear being more specialised. Luckily I did a massive studio clear out before reverb was bought by Etsy and it had lower fees.
So i’ve been selling on reverb.com for many years now, and even despite the tax additions and fee increase, I have generally been satisfied with my experience. I’m a 5-star seller (though i never went through the motions to become “preferred”). Lately though, I have received a string of complaints from buyers who are claiming to receive their items in a state different from when it was shipped. I think i’m finally too fatigued to deal with the back and forth. I just took a perfectly reasonable return the other day and that was no problem, but many people are claiming small (and easy to feign) issues like missing knobs or “container was damage”. I ship everything insured and none of these buyers have attempted to make a claim. They are just messaging with complaints and attempting to get partial refunds or something similar. They have up to this point even left me 5-star ratings after the fact, or not bothered to rate. Is anyone else experiencing these issues? I am not a full time reseller, I just like gear. Just wondering if i’m just not cut out for the market, or if this is becoming a pattern.
buyer’s remorse. people return things because they can and they don’t mind being shitty. i’ve never sold on reverb. bought a few things. no issues.
i try craigslist for selling then ebay as a last resort… but i always check the “no returns” option and make it clear i won’t take a thing back if they just have a change of heart.
Yeah, or people are just trying to try things out but they gotta realize that they are fucking with normal people, not a business.
I had a guy dispute something with me like two weeks after claiming it was my responsibility as a shop owner to accept a refund because somehow the Akai Force he bought died. I had only had it for like 3 days (bought it off reverb) and sold it to him. I have no idea what he did to it but it was working when I got it and the previous owner had it (and apparently the previous owner before him lol).
But it was ridiculous that he was trying to bully me into accepting a refund when it was well past the return policy. He got a partial refund through reverb I guess but I didn’t lost any money. I don’t know what he was expecting when he bought used but if he wanted warranties (which it was still under warranty through Akai) he should have bought new.
Anyways, that’s my reverb story. In off loading gear right now and I have noticed a lot more flaky people and a lot more low balling than before. People buy the thing and then get remorse instantly. I guess that’s better than waiting until after it ships.
Also I’ve accepted offers and the person never ends up paying. It’s probably just gotten to the point where it’s become so popular all the shit heads are using it.
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On ebay it doesn’t matter if you check no returns, if the buyer claims a problem ebay will always side with them and issue them a refund.
Best bet is to sell local always
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I once sold an OP-1 (not on Reverb, and technically it was my friend doing it, as I shipped it to him and asked him to sell it) and the buyer found an issue with it that we had presumably missed (I only used it for a few days before deciding to resell it, my friend used it for a couple days as well). We agreed to cover all service expenses, he got it fixed and sent us the bill.
Well guess what, he changed the service fee from $70 to $110 in one part of the bill, but forgot to change it in the other. When confronted, showed no remorse, said that he didn’t trust us, also he spent the money on the taxi and wanted that money back too (could’ve asked). With him admitting the scam, we refused any refunds and that was all.
If he was honest, he would’ve got all his money back plus a little extra for the inconvenience, but I guess some people just have to try this bullshit.
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I’m not in the US, but for many years sold gear on the auctions where I live and never really had any problems and always perfect reviews. The only issue I ever had was a person that bought a guitar pedal and claimed it was broken because it wouldn’t turn on, and got nasty with me, but it turned out he didn’t realize you have to plug a cable in for it to turn on. 
Anyway, the last year or so, I just haven’t had the energy to deal with potential problems, so have unloaded gear to a friend that manages a music store. He gets me their best possible price, but it’s still a lot less than I would make selling direct. Most of the stuff I’ve sold him has been vintage gear, which is the stuff I worry most about with complaints, since one never knows when old gear will crap out and most stuff from the 1970s isn’t exactly pristine. For me, I think it’s just a matter of prioritizing my sanity over making the most I possibly can.
Most of it is probably just this:
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Ive been listing items “as-is”. Im all 5 stars as well so i suppose that helps. But maybe it scares some people off? Are you not interested in trying that route? I figure it might reduce any complaining, though i havent ever had any complaints either. But maybe my times comin!
And sometimes maybe its just the gas gods telling us to chill the eff out! 
I’ve had pretty good luck selling on reverb. I do as-is. Only return I had was someone who didn’t like that a rack ear was bent 4 degrees and I didn’t want the potential bad review. I’ve only done a few sales in the past 2 years though.
When you sell on reverb it’s like a shop though. Tied into consumer laws I guess.
Plus there is a trend of buying and returning, just look on here and you see lots of posts of people buying things and playing with them for few weeks and returning them. I’m pretty sure return policies are for faulty products, not try and buy. I know shops are different than individuals but it means shops will have to sell that product as a return or open boxed and take a loss.
I do hate selling on reverb or eBay and I’m only stressed about returns. Prefer local sales or on here and if there’s an issue I can fix it direct with the person fairly.
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Yeh I had one of these a few months ago on eBay, item in perfect condition, buyer took nearly a whole month before raising his ‘issue’, which was spurious at best, and was clearly just a case of buyer’s remorse. Caused me a whole lot of hassle, but mostly the frustration of having to accept a situation I knew to be a total fabrication and with no safety net on my side as a seller (ie eBay instantly siding with the buyer) was enough for me to decide I’m not doing this shit any more. Re-sold the item on reverb to a happy buyer, got rid of a few other bits on there as well, and decided im done with the buying/selling merry-go-round. It was one of the reasons that im kind of done with gear in general now. Just sick of it
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