I like Reverb. At least in the past I have. I’ve spent way to much money on that site. I, also, used to use it to sell gear that I didn’t necessarily want anymore. And this post is going to be a little complain-y I’m sure.
Before Etsy bought them (or whatever their parent is called), I used to sell a bunch on there. I say it was a bunch. I definitely wasn’t a store, but every couple of months I was selling something…a pedal or some piece of gear that I wanted to turn into credit to turn around and get something else. And I was pretty constantly buying something. Then they got bought.
Since then, it seems that the selling fees went up. Looking on the site, it appears that they have a selling fee and a payment processing fee that, together, come out to be 8%. It always feels way more than that thought. It used to not feel that way. Nowadays, if I price my stuff where I think is fair, then add on shipping in the amount that I feel like I can drop off and look like a good guy and still end up with a price I can live with, then subtract out the fees, it seems like I’m only getting about 70% of what I want to get. That’s not that much better than I get at the local GC if I take stuff there. And, at the GC, I don’t have the headache of trying to sell stuff (but that’s another story).
Then, Reverb has started this thing where, no matter what the condition of something is, they have front and center the comparison to new pricing. So, you’re buying a busted, hoopty something, and almost before you see the price, you see it say “$XX Typical new price, $XX Savings.” You know what, it’s not new, so I don’t care what the new price is. It’s used, so show me the comparison to the average used price. Also, sometimes it shows a dollar amount savings from new and sometimes it shows a percentage. Standardize that, and make it the percentage. Dollar savings, to me, is meaningless. If you’re going to make me look at the price as compared to the new version, then I’m doing that math in my head anyways.
Of course, that doesn’t really matter at this point since I’m not buying much on there at this point. Sellers have gotten to where they’re asking too much for used gear. So, if you’re going to buy new, there are a lot of options, and Reverb is only one of those. And I’m not really selling there anymore. With fees what they are, like I mentioned up there, it’s almost not worth it to sell there anymore. I’d rather just collect pedals in a box and take them all to the GC all at once and avoid the headache of having to pack and ship and hope that someone doesn’t stiff me.
Now, mentioning all that, I’m about a hypocrite too. I still buy stuff there way too much. In fact, I’m waiting on a pedal to come in now. Should be here in a couple days. But I can’t think of the last time I sold something there. Although it’s about time that I either get a box full of pedals together to take to the GC or give up and start selling stuff on there again.