Reverb insists on charging $2.90 Sig on any insured item?

[Guildedagain]

Sold some parts tuners, Reverb suddenly insists on charging $2.90 for a Sig nobody's asking for, or probably even wants to deal with for low priced items.

Had a 30 minute long chat with Reverb where I asked over and over "what dollar amount do Sigs start at" only to be told "If you choose Reverb Coverage than you have to pay for the Sig - nobody asked for - regardless of dollar amount of the sale.

With FedEx, I believe it automatically kicks in at $500.

The chat person got sick of it after a while and just left the chat without ever giving me a meaningful answer.

I've shipped lots of small items on Reverb before, never had to pay for a sig on small parts.

Brave new world where everything costs more everyday. Insurance on a small cheap parcel now coming in at 2/3rds of the shipping price itself.

Another touch of genius, the chat box obscures your account drop down menu and can't be moved, so when they ask you for the order number, you virtually have to open another Reverb page in order to access your account info.

 

[HeyMikey]

Obviously there is a reason for it. One can speculate that business is down and/or costs are up so they need to increase profit somehow without increasing seller fees again. You can speculate that there are more losses from the increase in mailbox theft over the past year thus necessitating additional fees to offset loss. For me, it’s just one more reason to sell direct through forums and CL.

 

[davismanLV]

Exactly, their services aren't free and it's your choice to insure through them or not. If it's too much for you to fathom, then don't utilize their services. Easy. Obtaining a sig has a cost associated with it, regardless of the cost of the item.

 

[HeyMikey]

That being said I am going to my local PO tomorrow to complain for the second time in two months about the driver not collecting a sig that I paid for on important medicine I have delivered. Just left it in the box on the street where things sometimes go missing. Didn’t even leave a slip for me to come pick it up. I don’t mind paying for a needed service except when the one selling it doesn’t provide the service they sold.

 

[Guildedagain]

Just burns ya up don't it? Shaking head...

 

[bobouz]

I’ve used Reverb a few times for purchases, as well as Ebay, but never to sell anything. Sorta detest the process of selling stuff, along with just being supremely lazy. Strictly sales or trades to dealers - not even consignments. When it’s gone, I don’t ever want to think about it again - which fits in with my “You’re an old retired guy, Job-1 is to relax” mantra!

 

[Uke]

Sorta detest the process of selling stuff, along with just being supremely lazy.

Oh Yeah! I do use a used guitar shop in town where I've put guitars for sale on consignment. The owner takes 20%, but 20% is worth it to me not to have to deal with the loads of crap (and crappy people) so abundant these days.

 

[Guildedagain]

Consignments are starting to sound good again, although I've never done one. My worst fear is a guitar not selling and coming back with a bunch of new dents, scuffs, zipper marks, etc. But it would be nice to take a bunch of lemon guitars that won't sell and just leave them there.

Back in the day my local consignment shop had a wall full of consignments, mostly by a character dubbed "Mountain Man" by the clerk, probably on a account of not shaving and bathing regularly, and the clerk refused to work on them, said they were "gross".

I'm thinking, you clean and tune these guitars, they might sell and you might actually be earning your paycheck, but nevermind I'll stop there.

 

[Uke]

I'm guessing that the risk of getting back an unsold/scratched up guitar has a lot to do with the shop you leave the guitar in. I've never had a problem with that, and I've used two different shops (in two different states) to put guitars on consignemnt. However, I can definitely see what your talking about happening in a shop where the owner or workers don't give a crap. I guess I've been lucky -- so far.

 

[Guildedagain]

See that's always been a sore point with me, what are they getting the 25% for, just having the doors open and paying a couple dopes to talk to people, or should the guys go through the guitars, clean and string, and extract a fee for doing that, mostly by way of the guitar actually selling and someone actually deserving a paycheck.

The attitude was "as is" as brought in by the customers, and then subsequently mauled by many stoners who had just come from Mickey Dee's etc, so you'd have grody guitars with ten year old strings, but hey, that can work in your favor sometimes, equalling low prices on guitars that need love.

This was an awesome local major consignment center for a big music store just down the street, so storage and a place to peddle junk but it turned into so much more than that, a giant guitar room - used to be a racketball court so 30' ceilings - with stacks all aroubd the walls and killer acoustics, a huge drum room, same acoustics - huge - and a huge pro audio/backline room, those were the days, browsing all of the stuff in there, finding the magic old bits here and there.

Hanging out was always beneficial.

One time, some maybe stoner guys come in with some ancient E-H pedals, a Crying Tone pedal and an Electric Mistress in the box, and the clerk Steve turns to me and says "you interested?" because he wasn't willing to pay their $75 asking price, so I bought them right there in the store ;]

Most pawn shops would kick you out forever for conducting business inside their shop, in fact it's illegal. But trying it would get you in trouble, yelled at for sure. You'd have to watch it happen on the sly, the counterman not interested in a Les Paul at the guy's price, just be cool, wait til he's gone, leave without being super obvious, and catch the guy out on the sidewalk before somebody else did, could be your lucky day if you had the cash in your pocket. All three city pawnshops were next to each other on a street downtown, all glass windows facing the street, if anybody seen you doing this you'd been toast, banned forever, but on smaller items because they knew somebody needed money they might let you "take it outside" with their approval.

 

[walrus]

Oh Yeah! I do use a used guitar shop in town where I've put guitars for sale on consignment. The owner takes 20%, but 20% is worth it to me not to have to deal with the loads of crap (and crappy people) so abundant these days.

I'm guessing that the risk of getting back an unsold/scratched up guitar has a lot to do with the shop you leave the guitar in. I've never had a problem with that, and I've used two different shops (in two different states) to put guitars on consignemnt. However, I can definitely see what your talking about happening in a shop where the owner or workers don't give a crap. I guess I've been lucky -- so far.

Me, too. My local shop is great, I've had great success selling on consignment. So much easier for me, and seriously, I don't mind if the 20% helps them stay in business, I've been going there since I was in high school. I once tried to sell a guitar to GC, they offered 60% of it's book value!

walrus