Rough Reverb Ride

[mcarter]

No argument there. You can avoid a lot of hassle like creating the listing, taking and posting pics, answering questions, shipping, getting paid etc. by going the consignment route but you pay for that.

I really don't mind the selling experience so much. I've been lucky and only had to deal with a handful of lousy buyers. I also have made several contacts weho have become repeat customers over the years.

That's true, most people on Reverb are good

 

[Guildedagain]

For real, ask questions, like what are you?

I usually have the grandest luck with this, things like a wife buying a guitar for husband who wants the same guitar he had back then, stuff like that.

I need a mature audience, young players weird me out.

It's always something, like bragging about playing with 13's and mile high action, "mastering the blues while still in high school" I have a whole repertoire of idiocies I can recall, and none from the older players.

 

[Guildedagain]

Where it sits now is that "in 5 days Reverb will let me know how its Dedicated Customer Service Team will decide."

In the meantime, I probably shouldn't spend the money but it's still in my account, but I'd like to spend some, how weird.

In the meantime, he has my guitar for 5 more days, I'm not liking this at all, but 50% chance they'll say "you're done" or the opposite, but in that case I can't even communicate with the guy, things like, don't forget to put all the case candy back in the case, and please pack it like I did, and insure it. I have no idea who would be paying for the shipping back, who the carrier would be, anything.

Just too weird.

I might even go as far as vetting someone after they've bought and paid for something with not a question one, which is very common.

99% of things I've sold on Reverb there's no comm between buyer and seller, even on an expensive guitar, but I might say something like "On the way in the morning, thx".

 

[wileypickett]

Make sure that the guitar the shop is looking at is the guitar you sent.

I sold a '60s Hagstrom archtop electric on eBay years ago, which was in nearly mint condition. After receiving it, the buyer messaged me with a litany of "undisclosed problems" -- everything under the sun, cracks, collapsing top, missing braces, electronics shot, etc.

I politely disputed his evaluation, but said I'd take the guitar back. (With all those problems, you'd think he'd WANT to send it back, right? No, he wanted a substatial refund instead.)

We went back and forth and finally he said, "Well, if you don't believe me, how about if I take it to [don't remember the name, but his local guitar repair shop] and maybe you'll believe them?" I looked the shop up online. They'd been in business for 30+ years, had nothing but good reviews, a sterling reputation, etc. I couldn't see them risking their high marks over this, so I agreed.

I called them after they'd looked over the guitar and they confirmed everything the buyer said. I was speechess. Finally I said, "I can't believe we're talking about the same guitar. This is a Hagstrom sunburst archtop, right?"

Silence on the phone. Then the guy calls out to his partner in the shop, "Robbie, was that Hagstrom a sunburst?" Silence. Then the partner says, "Tell him we'll call him back."

Turns out the buyer had the same model Hagstrom, but in terrible condition, and that's what he took to the shop. But for the fact that his was black, not a sunburst, none of us might have caught onto his scam.

At that point, I insisted on taking the guitar back and he returned it. But it came back poorly packed, and with the pickup harness removed and loose in the box.

I reported all this to eBay -- the attempted scam, the fact that the guitar wasn't in the same conditon it had been in when I sent it -- but because the buyer had sent the guitar back they sided with him and issued him a full refund.

I later sold it for more than my original eBay price to someone who was very happy to get it.

Scammers are creative. Be careful.

 

[GAD]

Wife is a smart cookie, she says "did you look him up on Facebook?", and I did, and as I guessed, a guy in his 20's, who looks like he has issues and proud of it, works for a Cloud Tech Co - left brained - and is partners with someone who posts pictures of themselves face half covered in blood, with splatter against the wall like they just bit off someone's carotid artery, no thanks.

Why is that relevant?

 

[davismanLV]

Wait, I thought you said the guy was a crazy nut-case. So why would you want to communicate with him more? Best to let Reverb handle him and you keep your distance. I think your time for "communication" has come and gone. I hope you get your guitar back okay and in good shape. Good luck!

 

[Guildedagain]

Why is that relevant?

I might have gotten a hint that this was not the guy to send my guitar to. Looking at his Facebook page, I can see this, and that he has nothing beyond a Squier.

And he's going out of his way to look demented in his pics.

I've done a lot of soul searching over the guitar, which is out of my reach now, and here's what I remember.

It beat out every other electric guitar, and I've had many over the years cycled in and out while that one stayed, it consistently beat out every electric guitar in tone and playability was never an issue.

It's the kind of Strat does Eddie just as good as a humbucker and a floyd, except it's stock.

A monster of tone.

I only sold it to pay off some Dano bills, I overspent. And the Strat is bit heavy for me now, and I have/or had totally weened myself from vibrato use to concentrate on actually playing better.

Sellor Emptor

It's super easy to cancel a sale on Reverb, you just push a cancel/refund button and it's done.

Couple years ago, I sold the white Strat, Excalibur, and the guy wants to "see the guts" all these silly questions when it is all detailed in the ad and in fact has these magic 50's 60's Fender beveled polepiece Fender hot rod rewinds from unknown and unique rewinder, a million questions after popping the BIN, forget it, and as typical, a dealer with Strats totally inferior to mine asking more that I was asking for mine.

And that would have crushed me to send it to somebody like that, a guy trying to work me instantly after the "sale".

No sale.

That was the 1st time I ever used the "cancel" button, and boy did it ever feel good.

Wiley, you're scarin me to death here.

I'm going to trust that things work out fine.

 

[Guildedagain]

Wait, GAD, I missed it ;]

Why is THAT relevant?

Because to left brained people everything has to make sense, it's all numbers, it might not matter how the guitar played.

Governed by your right brain, like I, you would be more guided by your emotions. You'd be in love with it, or not be in love with it, you wouldn't be trying to figure out what's wrong with it, without saying a word about til 27 hours after receipt.

I'm going to have to be very clear in my ads; If there's an issue, or you don't like the guitar, contact me immediately to make plans to return it in the same condition.

Don't take it somewhere and come back and tell me "the truss rod won't turn enough to fix the problem" I swear it gave me heart palpitations.

And he never would tell me how they figured that out.

 

[mushroom]

These reasons are why I only sell on consignment through a shop owned by a friend of mine. More than happy to cover the extra consignment cost if it means I don’t have to deal with the stress. Plus it helps my friends small independent business.

 

[bobouz]

Through almost fifty years now, I’ve only sold or traded with guitar shops. No private sales & no consignments. I’m almost always leaving money on the table (depending on what I paid originally), but when the deal is done, it’s immediate & final - not another mental moment to be spent on that particular guitar again!

 

[Guildedagain]

Funny, both my Strats come from my friends brick and mortar shop, many moons ago. The owner's passed many years since, but a kid who started a zero got the business, a lot to handle actually, and it's still going strong. Guitar shop, guitars/basses/amps only, small shop, no room for drums. It's a real guitar shop.

So I was just telling the wife this morning; I think it might be damn good idea to consign there. I know everybody that works there, my guitars would totally be in good hands.

 

[Guildedagain]

I used to do trades with guitars stores, really dumb ones.

All right brained stuff.

I traded a small box 1968 Marshall 50W in for a Sound City 100W, and paid a difference.

The Marshall would be worth $10k now, the Sound City maybe $2k.

Drummer was too loud.

 

[walrus]

These reasons are why I only sell on consignment through a shop owned by a friend of mine. More than happy to cover the extra consignment cost if it means I don’t have to deal with the stress. Plus it helps my friends small independent business.

+1.

My local shop on consignment is all I have ever done, except for two cash sales to GC, and one guitar I shipped to Gruhn Guitars.

Oh, and one very interesting in-person transaction with wileypickett!!

walrus

 

[mushroom]

I have done one trade.

I had too many S100’s at one point so I went to put it on consignment. While I was waiting around for other customers I started playing a Greco Rickenbacker 330 which was really nice.
Then owner of the store came out from the back room with a DV52 which was their hire guitar.

So the deal was done. I swapped out a 70’s S100 for a DV52 and a Greco Ric copy.

 

[Rambozo96]

Accepted an offer on a guitar, over $500 off, seemed like the guy deserved it if he was going to take care of a guitar I've loved for 20 years.

Over 24 hours after delivery, and not one word, he contacts me to tell me that "he took it to a shop, and the neck has a "ski jump" that can't be adjusted "because the truss rod is maxed out." I've never had to do anything to the truss rod the whole time I've owned it, there hasn't been an issue, in fact the guitar has a dreamy neck and fingerboard, a cut above normal.

The best shop in the whole state he says.

I don't like this shop, they've always had a bad reputation, they've been brought up on forums for trying to pass off a refin as original, not uncommon, but not very impressive either.

I browsed a couple of their ads at the $5k price point, you get zero description of anything, nut width, fret life, etc, etc, you don't need to know.

I've never had a good outcome from someone taking a guitar they just bought, or even pre sale, to a shop. You're not buying a guitar from them, why should they tell you anything good about it?

One went like this before, selling a nice SG, dude wants to take it to his buddy at X guitar store. Guitar was $900. His buddy looks at it, "the neck's f'd up - gee, just like this one - "but I can fix it for $300", so price of guitar instantly went down $300 and I took it in disgust, and left, bad flavor in my mouth.

Back to the lame Reverb transaction, my guy says his first tipoff that something was wrong was "an inability to play harmonics at the 5th fret, due to a bow in the neck".

I'm thinking the harmonic nodes of a string are totally unaffected by the wood underneath, I don't care it if's pretzeled, or propelled.

He says the guys at the shop said the neck had a "ski jump".

After pressing for a description of this "ski jump", he says it's like excess relief under the strings - mind you I just shipped this to Seattle, one of the wettest cities on the West coast - and that "the shop couldn't fix it because the truss rod is maxed out"

I swear that thought of taking a guitar back someone reefed or broke the truss rod on is giving me super high anxiety.


Then dude goes on to insult the guitar "maybe it has a whole bunch of problems" and he's "going to give me a bad Wright up" all his comms are auto corrected like this, and that he's "definitely getting his money back" never actually said one word about shipping back.


I kept trying to get him to tell me that someone was actually tweaking on the truss rod to deem it "maxed out", and he would not answer the question, repeatedly.


Then told me to "stop communicating with me, I'm getting no where with you". Isn't nowhere a word? Nowhere Man, what's wrong with kids these days?


Wow, wow, and wow.


I could give a p00p about the money, I'd take that guitar back in a flash, but I don't even know what they did to it.


Caveat emptor my foot...

Sounds like some brain dead hick to me. Why is it that when you just describe the shop I instantly think of one that I won’t mention but hasn’t been well regarded in this group? This seems like a iffy situation, I hope it ends in your favor.

 

[Rambozo96]

Had I just not accepted his offer, I wouldn't be here. Huge lesson learned, weed out problem people by sticking to your price.

Dude went crazy on me, say he refuses all comms "I'm getting agro and trying to push him into a confrontation", so I can even talk to him about what they did to it - total deal breaker - or that if he did anything to it, I won't take it back. And we haven't even talked about shipping, and he wanted me to refund him today on Reverb, I had to deny the request and tell Reverb to read the comms to see who's getting aggro.

They've upgraded it to their special team, which will let me know what the h is going on in 5 days, with a solution "agreeable to all parties'...

I think that’s the best option the time being. If you had to take it back I’d go over it with a fine toothed comb and refuse a refund if there was evidence of any shenanigans. I don’t run into so many goobers on reverb other than some low ballers but usually their team seems to look into the cases unlike eBay who seems to side with the buyer by default

 

[Rich Cohen]

I sold a Guild F-47 to a guy in CA several years back. When he got it, he called me saying that the neck was "too small." I mean give me a break. I took it back and refunded him and sold it to someone else. Geez. I like the idea of selling on CL and meeting the person who's buying the guitar, just so everything is clear.

 

[tjmangum]

My standard response to buyer's who bmw (bitch, moan, whine) is to say, "So sorry to hear. Send it back and I'll give you your money back." A few who have bitched about shipping cost, I've sent a label just to be done with them. However, most when confronted with all or nothing - no renegotiating, say "Oh, I really like it. Never mind. I'll keep it."

 

[sretsbor]

Sounds like he might have buyers remorse and is looking for a way out or is possibly part of that subset of buyers that immediately claims 'not as described' and wants a certain amount refunded to them. As for all the things that the buyer is claiming is wrong (ski jump, etc.) hopefully Reverb will require that he provides documentation on the shop's letterhead so that it is not just him blowing smoke.

If you have the guitar returned to you I can almost guarantee that it won't be packed as carefully as when you sent it to him.

Your wife is smart and I do the same thing. Anytime I am considering buying something, if available I Google the sellers name to see who I'm dealing with. When you message most sellers on Reverb you can see their whole name. Facebook Marketplace is similar (when people use their real name). A couple of months ago I was looking for a specific mandolin and searched FB Marketplace and found one across the country for about $400, not a lot of money. Nonetheless, I liked to know who I am dealing with so I Googled the woman and immediately popped up several recent hits about her being arrested for embezzling nearly $1 million dollars from the company that she worked. Same name, same location, and her booking photo was nearly identical to her FB profile pic. Needless to say I did not buy the mandolin from her.

Rob

 

[Guildedagain]

The guy's had the Strat since the 7th and Reverb just sent me an email saying "it's not as described" "Because truss rod is maxed out" "findings attached" but no findings attached, sending guitar back.

The guy's had it 11 days, could have recorded a couple albums with it. Sending it back now.

Like suits people buy, wear to a wedding, return, "didn't fit" with wine stains. It cheaper than tux rental.

I'm not in communicado with the buyer - wanted Reverb to handle it - so I know nothing of shipping details, insurance, nothing.