Yeah, man. It blows me away that that’s a thing now. In Japan, where I live, it’s pretty hardcore. About the only place you can return something relatively easily here is Amazon, but other than that it’s yours no matter what when you walk out of the shop. If it craps out on you, they treat it as a fix under warranty, but that’s about it.
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Holy heck, I think I will never sell anything on reverb or eBay after hearing all this.
Never had any issues selling on elektronauts or modwiggler aside from it can take a long time…
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At the moment I’m going through a nightmare through another marketplace - audiofanzine/looper 
reverb was always a great experience for me, always dealt with nice cordial people, the only time I had an issue Reverb was very professional and quick at addressing it. It might cost a bit more but I wish I had gone with it again this time
Whenever I go to the Post Office a good 50% of the people there are posting returns, either from Amazon or some other online retailer. It’s the norm now that people expect to be able to abuse distance selling regulations by returning things that have nothing wrong with them and get a full refund (plus have the postage covered too), and they don’t seem to be able to differentiate between private sellers and large retailers, the expectation is the same. Internet has really done a number on consumer behaviour and it makes me wonder if the grand plan of moving to a rental model for consumption is all that bad when you look at the ridiculous churn that is caused by buyer’s remorse.
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Yeah, same here in New Zealand, returning something just because you don’t like it enough is inconceivable. It doesn’t seem sustainable to me - shops will have to jack up prices for everyone when policies are so open to abuse.
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Reverb…
When it works, is great. I got stuff at 30 - 40% discount in almost perfect condition (To my standards, I am not picky).
But when something goes wrong is terrible. I got once a package lost by USPS… NOBODY is there for you.
Is the end is like Craigslist with extra steps…
I had a successful shop on both Reverb and Discogs for many years but last year I deleted both of them as a way to boycott their fee increases. Reverb fees are almost 10% when you factor in all the hidden costs of selling. Not to mention it’s your time and labor and you’re also handling any customer service issues. they don’t have a phone # you can just call for customer service either.
Etsy stock has gone down (-34.71%) in a year. I hope their shareholders are happy. I don’t need anymore gear anyways and I’d rather sell locally.
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Is 10% that bad really?
For their platform that facilitates the deal and covering any loses if needed? Plus it is the gov that is pushing it to 10%, not even Reverb?
You’re better off selling on eBay when you get the final fee discount promotions. Its not the gov, else that would affect all marketplaces.
That’s ridiculous. It was already taxed the first time it was sold, and the income used to buy it was taxed too. How can you tax something that many times? Canadians should fight this.
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You don’t use something like reverb to get the maximum amount of money possible, you use it to get the widest audience possible and the quickest sale.
There are taxes and fees, just as there are on platforms like eBay (in the US anyway, even if the item is something used if your address is in a region that requires it).
There are only a handful of sellers and marketplace platforms that don’t charge these taxes now, and those few holdouts are pretty awful to work with if the transaction goes wrong. $150 or more in return postage awful.
You are always able to go platform free and find your own buyer and handle your own transaction details - and provide your own security.
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I’m probably cursing myself by saying this (just sold my m8 there, buyer should get it today or tomorrow) but I’ve never had problems on Reverb - I’ve made 43 sales with no issues. The people here who haven’t been screwed in some way probably just aren’t posting - and I’d bet the majority of us have had few or no issues. That said, I certainly get a bit nervous every time I make a sale precisely because of these horror stories. Which is why I take photo and video of the item working, and of packing process. It gives me some small way to fight back in the event of a scam.
Precisely. Things sit here or on MW or Reddit for months at a time. On Reverb they might take a couple weeks, assuming the price is in line with other listings. I underprice my stuff and it almost always sells in 2-3 days - I think the longest I’ve waited was a week and it’s just because there were 300 other listings for the same item. I’m not there to squeeze out the maximum value out of my gear, or give somebody a deal, I’m there to move it asap. It just so happens that underpricing things and exposing them to thousands of people makes them move quick.
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my experience has been mostly positive on Reverb as well. I’ve sold about 30 things since 2018, but with their values ranging up to $5k. I always try to sell here and MW first, and knock the prices down at least once, but then go there as a last resort (with slightly higher prices). as you said: bigger audience there. things that sit here/MW for months will sell in days there, usually.
only sale I’ve had an issue with so far was someone knocked off a star in their (positive) review. never told me why or reached out to me regarding resolution of any issues. just took a star. had one purchase issue where they packed kinda crappy and bent a rack ear in shipment; I got some cash to cover that. and a drum machine purchase where it wasn’t in the description that most of the buttons needed to be cleaned or replaced. seller never responded to my communication about it, but they’d already given me a break on the price so I just let it go (fearing retaliation in their feedback).
it’s not perfect. there are risks and it’s pricey. but it also sucks to sit on unused gear forever, to avoid it. I generally don’t fear buying from there though. you just have to be careful and smart about it, like you would anywhere else. if anything, I feel less scared than when buying privately, because there’s a safety net if the item never shows.
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I already have to mark things up a hundred over cash to break even.
Reverb used to be “by musicians for musicians” and promptly went to “for reverbs pockets”
money fucks everything.
I use[d] FB. They seem to have buy/sell groups in cities or regions. There’s one for BC and one Vancouver. About 90% of shit I sold was done there. In all the years on Nauts, I’ve sold maybe three things. Even at good prices. Reverb sucks, Ebay is shady, no one buys off Grid anymore. I hate hate hate FB, but made an account just to sell off my stuff. And the people I’ve dealt with have all been super nice. At least here in BC.
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When etsy bought reverb things got a lot worse. I’m strictly a buyer and buyers have to be on their guard too because sellers get away with all kinds of shit now. I got totally hosed a couple of times on purchases and while I don’t doubt that there are some shady buyers too, there are some really negligent sellers and reverb care has become a huge joke that can’t really do anything. Even offering reverb credits is basically like play money because it’s only good on reverb.
It’s a mixed bag, there are good sellers and bad sellers, good buyers and shady buyers. Total number of sales really means nothing other than the amount of transactions an account has completed. All platforms are equally risky at this point, and anything that seems too good to be true probably is.
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I’ve had pretty bad experiences buying on Reverb.
I’d say maybe a third of the stuff I’ve bought on there has had obvious issues and that the seller didn’t check properly.
E.g inputs that didn’t work, keys that didn’t work, knobs that didn’t work, oscillator changing pitch depending if key was depressed.
I’ve never had any problems selling though 
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Yeah, as a buyer I’ve had a couple of issues in the last few years - particularly with international sellers. I’ve bought some old gear from a couple of Japanese shops over the years, because somehow even after accounting for shipping costs it was cheaper than buying from people here in the US. It turns out that the pictures did not match the cosmetic condition of the units two of the three cases. They mostly work properly as far as I can tell, but I did feel a bit like the stores pulled a bait and switch on me. It’s a bummer because the main thing I’ve heard about Japanese shops is that they usually undervalue the condition of gear. I expect ancient equipment that’s been heavily used to look heavily used, but I also expect to be given an accurate representation of the condition.
I really didn’t feel like messing with international shipping for a return on a 20-year-old groove box I paid like $200 for, so I gave them a slightly lower rating with a review, and moved on with my life.
I bitched about this in another thread, but I cannot stand how often I see people listing a used item for several hundred dollars more than it retails for brand new. I really want to understand what is going through the minds of these idiots, and I really hope people out there aren’t stupid enough to give these people money.
I always feel compelled to send them snarky messages to try and understand what their problem is, but I always think better of it.
Obviously not a Reverb problem and more of a people who use Reverb problem.
I’ve generally had some positive experiences on Reverb. Have picked up a few bargains and actually had quite a few wholesome interactions with genuinely cool people on there.
The fees increasing over the past few years has been a bummer and made it a lot harder to buy and sell freely. I think though the economic climate over the past couple of years seems to have made a pretty noticeable impact on the amount of interest and traffic my listings have had on there.
Thankfully have almost sold everything I need to from my Eurorack setup and settling on a more focussed setup so will be glad to be using it less but if I’m buying and selling again tbh it’s been the best option by far for me. EBay is awful for fees and I’ve never had any luck on FB or discord and the like.