My First Reverb Transaction - Thoughts

Kitarkus

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So I sold that 1974 Guild F-30 that I'd offered up here at LTG. I typically am able to sell good guitars on Craigslist, however, I had very little interest in the guitar locally. I ended up putting the guitar on Ebay and I listed it on Reverb as well (simultaneously). I had never previously sold on Reverb and although I had recently purchased an M-20 on Reverb...I had no feedback.

The Buyer began communicating me via message(s) on Ebay. Very quickly the same Buyer continued communications with me on Reverb. We messaged/chatted extensively and he had lots of good questions all of which were answered honestly and with additional photos provided. He purchased the guitar and we used Reverb's 'Direct Checkout' and I used Reverb to purchase/print a UPS shipping label with added 'Reverb Seller Protection'. The shipping cost using reverb was nearly 50% below my quote from UPS online. A no brainer.

I cancelled my Ebay listing promptly and received a generic email from Ebay stating that I may have violated their rules and could be subject to account termination. It infuriated me....but I do somewhat understand their computer generated position. I did not, as they are presuming, meet this Buyer and then proceed with a private transaction. The Buyer simply chose to purchase the guitar via my Reverb listing as opposed to through by Ebay listing. I'm not losing any sleep over Ebay's hurt feelings.

The guitar delivered on Thursday at about lunch time to the Buyer in New York. Reverb was holding my funds as per their protocol "until delivery has been confirmed". I heard nothing for 24+ hours and messaged the Buyer. The guitar arrived without shipping damage/issues...he loves it....he is super pleased....and he left me feedback. Reverb initiated the transfer of my funds after 5pm yesterday/Friday and I should have the funds in my bank account no later than Tuesday.

The Reverb process for a first time Seller felt a bit tilted in the direction of the Buyer. I'm sure that as a Buyer I would appreciate Reverb's protocol. I'm not complaining...I do understand...and I do have a degree of understanding that Reverb's process is to prevent fraudulent Sellers. Certainly Buyer had already paid and thus had his 'skin in the game' albeit held in a Reverb 'escrow' of sorts. Yes...Reverb deducted my shipping costs from my prospective proceeds thus I had no additional out-of-pocket for the shipping costs. I was, however, 'sitting in wait' after shipping my guitar across the country for most of a week...in hopes that the Buyer was equally honest...without any money in hand....in hopes that nothing went wrong which would prevent the release of my money.

Most of you likely have experiences of having been a first time Reverb seller under your belts. I thought this description of the process might assist those of you who have not yet sold on Reverb. Obviously Reverb is giving Ebay a 'run for their money' as Ebay recently reduced their fees for musical instrument auctions to match Reverb's fees. I dealt with an honest Buyer who received a guitar that met his expectations as had been described in our communications. I suppose I would have had similar anxiety with an Ebay Purchaser, however, with Ebay I would have had the money in my pocket prior to my shipment of the guitar. As I understand moving forward beyond my first Reverb sale, Reverb will initiate transfer of funds at the time that I add the tracking information to the website.
 

Alan_M

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I have had good experiences with reverb, as a buyer and seller. I have not sold a guitar via reverb yet, although I tried for a while, and gave up after little interest and getting tired of a bunch of tire kickers who had no real interest but wanted tons of info (a rare guitar, so people wanted to know about it, but not buy it) I have sold and bought a bunch of pedals and accessories. I have bought a few guitars and had good results. Ebay is a pain, but it reaches a really wide audience. I have good and bad dispute resolutions in both directions, and although reverb is tilted in the buyers favor, ebay is worse. Which worked out well for me in my last transaction. The seller totally misrepresented details about the guitar, but I had him so dead to rights that he immediately offered a refund. He did call me to dispute my initial assertion that it may be a counterfeit (Gibson), which it ended up being authentic, but not "new". SOMETHING happened where the nut was replaced with a crappy plastic, ill seated, chipped and poorly cut nut, and for some reason the neck joint had a bunch of 'stuff" going on that would never come from the factory, no matter how lax Gibson QC may be these days. It was otherwise in perfect condition, and a less knowledgeable buyer may have thought it was a great guitar. The seller claimed he and his business partner "totally checked it out" before shipping. which means either the seller is an unethical liar or a total dumba$$. Don't care at this point, I returned it for a full refund. My next step is to document the whole thing with pictures and send it to Gibson. The seller cannot claim he is selling "new" instruments without Gibson's authorization, and selling an obviously damaged and poorly repaired guitar as new is fraud. Who knows what they'll do, but I hope they spank him hard.
Oh the seller goes by "World's Guitar" on ebay, and as "Mr Gear's Emporium" on Reverb. Avoid this guy.
*UPDATE* this guy actually has a listing on Reverb selling the guitar I returned, or at least using the photos of it. The guitar actually has not been delivered to him on the return, so he's happy to sell it again knowing what i pointed out, or he is selling another and recycling pix of the same guitars for his listings. I think it's the latter. I accused him of this as well during our call and he claims each listing is showing the actual guitar being sold, which is a lie since I've seen him use the same pictures for multiple listings. What a dick.
 
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richardp69

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I do quite a bit of business on both Ebay and Reverb. My preference is Reverb because all they sell is musical gear. As a seller, I've run into idiots and aholes on both sites. As a buyer, same thing. Both sites pay a little more attention to sellers who have little to no feedback or transactions and personally, I'm fine with that.

Unless Ebay changed their groundrules they wouldn't release funds to a 1st time (or maybe even low activity) seller until the buyer did the feedback thing. Maybe it's changed now, I don't know. It added a bit of tension/anxiety to the newbie seller until that cash was deposited.

Ebay tends to get a lot of bad raps on the various forums/sites (including here on LTG at times) but I've found it a good place to do business. Their Ebay Bucks program is a nice perk and the special 24 month interest free financing periodically offered by PayPal on qualifying Ebay purchases is a great way to pick up some of the pricier gear you may be looking for and spread the payments out over time with no interest penalty.

I suspect I'm no different from most. Given my druthers, I'd much rather see a guitar 1st hand before I decide to buy it but that's typically not a viable option for folks that live in the boonies (like me) and have no major cities or good brick and mortar music stores anywhere in the vicinity.

As an active buyer, I rely on Reverb and Ebay for the majority of my gear purchases.
 

Quantum Strummer

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As a buyer who only sells—rarely as I prefer to trade—to my local guitar emporium, I love Reverb. I'm picky about who I buy from…and the more valuable and/or rare the item in question, the pickier I am. I've bought a few guitars that were less than sturdily packed, but none have been damaged in transit. Luck!

-Dave-
 

marcellis

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I've never sold anything -- only bought stuff on Reverb.
Mostly good experiences. The customer service was good too.
 

Sal

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I've done a lot of buying and selling on both sites always using Paypal. A seller on Reverb can choose to accept Paypal or use Reverb's Direct Checkout. I think as a buyer Paypal offers better protection and I'd rather keep all my transactions going through one payment system.
 

mavuser

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it is all such a PITA and now you may start getting tax bills in the mail soon. it is a goal of mine to transition my entire guitar trading hobby off of the internet and into my actual hands.

I have already eliminated the internet from my guitar hobby-ing about 95 percent of the time. even if i see something online, I would just rather drive 10 hours- pay cash, no shipping, no buyer protection, no seller protection, this aint guitar center...just the type of person I am. If I must ship, or recieve, I will. its usually just parts or an empty case, and even then, fingers crossed on all levels- as about 25-50 percent of all of those smaller brand new online accessories purchases, wind up getting returned (they just dont send me what they say they are going to send me...or it gets damaged in shipping...)

500-600 is my max value on shipping or recieving an actual guitar. just isn't worth shipping headaches and income tax issues to me. too many ways to sell locally on the east coast.
 

ClydeTower

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I bought my first Taylor, a 810ce, on Reverb. I was inexperienced at buying guitars online sight unseen at the time, and just sort of went for it. Luckily, it turned out ok. But I'm much more careful nowadays. I find many sellers aren't forthcoming about everything there is to know about their guitars. You have to be very thorough with due diligence and document everything. This was before new CITES regulations came into effect on Jan 2 2017. Since I'm in Canada, buying guitars online, through Ebay or Reverb has become quite tricky. Many US seller that post international listings, wanting to reach a larger audience, don't realize they need to apply for a CITES permit if exporting out of the states and their guitar contains Rosewood.

I had such an experience on Reverb when I bid on a Taylor 812ce that was "available" to ship to Canada. The seller, located in NC, accepted my offer, but did not realize (so he said) that he needed to have a CITES export permit. Apparently, some sellers on Reverb and Ebay knowingly ignore the regulations and take the chance that the guitar will make it through customs without getting caught. Since I had to cancel the sale, I reported the incident to Reverb and their staff was very helpful in making sure I got my money back. However, I did see the guitar reappear on Reverb a few days latter and it was still "available" to international buyers. I doubt the seller had time to apply for a permit, so either this was a scam or the seller is acting irresponsibly... and Reverb doesn't really care about it.

So the word is: If you're in Canada and shopping for guitars in the US on Reverb, you need to be doubly mindful of what you are doing.
 
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