Reverb vs. eBay - your thoughts

[HSB0531]

As I'm selling something on eBay, I notice several of you selling on Reverb.

Whats the advantages of selling on Reverb besides lower "sold fees and no insertion fees?

Does an add there reach more people/same people/different crowd than eBay?

Thanks:

Jim

 

[Dave Scepter]

PayPal and final value fees 10% vs 3%... more viewers on eBay but Reverb is slowly turning that around

[murkat]

For me, I like it. I can list it, and stays listed till it sells.

If you have not set up an account, do so asap so you get some "time in cred" (like any other online situation).

sell small stuff or a bunch of stuff or big stuff, sellers look at feedback and gauge purchases accordingly.

Reverb staff is pretty good too.

all issues, if any, are dealt with quickly.

Nothing to loose, and all to gain.

Do it.

[DaveL]

 

 

a couple issues I find weird with reverb... if you're item doesn't sell right away,  seems like it gets

banished to the back of the search...

 

lotta lowballers and hagglers... thought I knew how to dispose of craigslist people pretty easily

a couple people I ran into on reverb were real grinders,   few people on there were too slick for me. 

 

 

 

[HSB0531]

Thanks for the input guys.

Maybe listing on both would get the widest audience.

So far the only drawback to eBay and PayPal (as Dave Scepter pointed out) is the final value fees:  11% to eBay and 4% to PayPal.

But Reverb is cheaper and it seems like the up and coming place to buy/sell.

Maybe both to get the widest audience, and if it sells on Reverb, more profit to me.

[Dave Scepter]

19 minutes ago, HSB0531 said:

Thanks for the input guys.

Maybe listing on both would get the widest audience.

So far the only drawback to eBay and PayPal (as Dave Scepter pointed out) is the final value fees:  11% to eBay and 4% to PayPal.

But Reverb is cheaper and it seems like the up and coming place to buy/sell.

Maybe both to get the widest audience, and if it sells on Reverb, more profit to me.

I've noticed some people that sell on Ebay automatically add the additional fees as opposed to Reverb... & that's why if I see something on Ebay first, I'll then check to see if the same item is on Reverb~ and most likely purchase it from there...

however, I've tried to sell one item "on Reverb" without luck... lots of low ballers trying to resell~

[BadgerDave]

To those who sell on Reverb:  If I list without the "make an offer" option, am I still likely to get lowball offers?

[HSB0531]

6 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

I've noticed some people that sell on Ebay automatically add the additional fees as opposed to Reverb... & that's why if I see something on Ebay first, I'll then check to see if the same item is on Reverb~ but most likely purchase it from there...

however, I've tried to sell one item "on Reverb" without luck... lots of low ballers trying to resell~

I had the same thing happen to me on eBay with low ballers.

I had 2 signed art, one starting at $900, and one starting at $1400.

The same guy sent me 2 questions:

I give u $100 (on the one starting at $900).

I give u $300 (on the one starting at $1400)

umm...No

 

[HSB0531]

14 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

I've noticed some people that sell on Ebay automatically add the additional fees as opposed to Reverb... & that's why if I see something on Ebay first, I'll then check to see if the same item is on Reverb~ and most likely purchase it from there...

however, I've tried to sell one item "on Reverb" without luck... lots of low ballers trying to resell~

I don't add fees, but what you said would explain some pieces being listed a bit higher than I would expect to see.

[murkat]

7 minutes ago, BadgerDave said:

To those who sell on Reverb:  If I list without the "make an offer" option, am I still likely to get lowball offers?

I have not have had that happen.

But,

I do all listings with make an offer option.

also, most of it (parts) listed  "as is" (no return).

also, if multiple people are watching an item, those who watch get notification of a potential offer.

Sometimes that alone can motivate a potential sale of, creating an offer/ bidding war.

I have experienced the above mentioned on some sale items.

[Sugartune]

Reverb is only gear, so it "caters" to that crowd. I've not been on ebay for at least a year. Pretty well as long as I became aware of Reverb. 

Some things do sit. The "bump" option has seemed to work for me each time I've used it. 

Very easy to make a listing and they always look good! 

Ebay does reach a wider audience, but I'm not sure that's always a benefit.

Reverb tends to be more US-centric, which is pretty good for USicans. Starting to branch out more, but still mostly USA. 

[velorush]

I would reiterate what everyone else has said (to the positive). The Reverb employees are incredible. I had two issues with my recent gear purge. In both I was able to (very quickly) speak to a real human who addressed my issues immediately (as opposed to eBay's very hesitant and distant Contact routine).  When I called them I was speaking to someone (an actual gear user) in Chicago, not a call center in Bombay.  Reverb even made concessions to me when one of my buyer's credit card was declined - they cancelled the transaction, relisted my item and gave me a bunch of "bumps" (moves your ad to the top of the search). 

The fees are radically lower and I don't get the feeling of scammers everywhere (like eBay used to be ten or fifteen years ago). One of my items was even purchased by a Reverb employee.

I think the interface to set up and manage ads is superior to eBay (but it's been a while since I've used eBay, maybe it's better now).

Yes, I did get low-ball offers, but I used that to begin a conversation and in some instance was able to reach an acceptable deal.  I also received a message right after listing an item that my price was too low.  You know, the guy was right - I raised the price and it sold within the week.

I just see no negatives to it (by comparison).  You could say the Reverb audience is smaller, but what good does it do to pitch a guitar you're willing to ship domestically to a guy looking for lederhosen shipped to Austria?  It is market specific and has reached critical mass sufficient to present a worthwhile audience.

[tommy p]

Everything folks are saying rings true to my experience with Reverb, but I still like it better than eBay.  I boil it down to this these days:

Reverb = good

eBay = bad

[ZR]

I've never used Reverb. Been on ebay for many years. It's been really great for me. Maybe I've just been lucky. I haven't sold anything in awhile but the Ebay offer feature was nice in that you could set the parameters for "auto answers" to your offers. IE. You want to sell your guitar for $1,000 but will take offers. But, you can set it up so that offers under a certain amount get auto-rejected, for instance, you don't want to accept offers below $800. Offers above $800 you don't mind dealing with as you may be able to work something out. Not sure if Reverb does it that way.

[unfun75]

Strictly speaking music gear, Reverb all the way. For a weird collectible or CD that only one other person in the world will appreciate, eBay.

[Caddie]

I don't understand why some sellers/buyers get all twisted up about lowballers.  If its an insultingly low offer just ignore it.  Thats probably what most shoppers do when we see a price that we deem egregiously high.  As a seller, if you really want to sell something, here you have someone who was strolling down the guitar aisle, your guitar caught his eye, made him stop to check it out, and he went the next step and ran an offer up the flagpole to see who salutes.  A lowballer is often just testing the water.  What would you sell it for?   Now the ball is in your court.  Make a counteroffer. Don't be snarky about it.  "Thanks for your offer of $tree fiddy won (that's $351 for the noobs here).  I can't go that low.  II'm asking $1250. I can offer $1149."  Its kind of a poke in the eye counteroffer to the true lowball, bottom feeder.  But at least you have a discussion going.

When you find apples in the produce dept that are priced at $7.99/lb do you find Bob the manager, shake an apple in his face shouting "You greedy bastard....!"  No.  You go to Whole Foods and buy their apples for $7.99/lb. Why?  Because they have a Starbucks Cafe, full length mirrors and a couch in the ladies room, Purell everywhere, and great lighting.  Its a great shopping experience which adds costs, so its worth it.  The other guy at the plain old grocery store is greedy. 

Moral to the story:  Learn how to take lotsa of really great photos for your listings.  Maybe include a $5 Starbucks Gift Card too.  Cheers!

caddie

 

eBay is my last option.  Go Reverb.  Screw PayPal too!.  Reverb has their own safe "money laundering" service.

[BadgerDave]

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 with well over a thousand transactions and a 100% positive rating.

Never had a seriously bad issue until recently.

I decided to sell my 2003 Gibson Les Paul 1959 reissue.  Its a beautiful guitar and one of the best R9's I've ever played.  I assumed it would be a quick and easy sale.

The first buyer cancelled the sale within minutes of the end of the auction with no explanation.  I decided not to contest it and just resisted the guitar.  The second auction ended at virtually the same closing price and the buyer paid immediately.  I shipped the guitar and the buyer sent a nice message saying how much he liked the guitar.

Today I got a notice from PayPal that he is disputing the sale.  He claims that I misrepresented the item because a 2003 R9 should have a brown Lifton case.  Mine had a black Gibson Custom Shop case.  He says the difference in value is between $300 - $500 and he wants me to send him a refund.  He's already started a PayPal dispute, so my PayPal account is frozen with a $3,500.00 negative balance.

I'm done.  

[DaveL]

12 hours ago, BadgerDave said:

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 with well over a thousand transactions and a 100% positive rating.

Never had a seriously bad issue until recently.

I decided to sell my 2003 Gibson Les Paul 1959 reissue.  Its a beautiful guitar and one of the best R9's I've ever played.  I assumed it would be a quick and easy sale.

The first buyer cancelled the sale within minutes of the end of the auction with no explanation.  I decided not to contest it and just resisted the guitar.  The second auction ended at virtually the same closing price and the buyer paid immediately.  I shipped the guitar and the buyer sent a nice message saying how much he liked the guitar.

Today I got a notice from PayPal that he is disputing the sale.  He claims that I misrepresented the item because a 2003 R9 should have a brown Lifton case.  Mine had a black Gibson Custom Shop case.  He says the difference in value is between $300 - $500 and he wants me to send him a refund.  He's already started a PayPal dispute, so my PayPal account is frozen with a $3,500.00 negative balance.

I'm done.  

 

Yikes... what a weasel.   I would fight that one.   You might want to call them and explain that you have backup from the

buyer that the guitar was acceptable,  I don't think they can arbitrarily award partial refunds like that,   If you had pictures

of the case in the ad,  I'm not really sure he should have a beef. 

 

btw: recently sold my 58 RI on the gear page,  I just felt if I posted 10% less than what it would have been

on ebay... I could find a buyer,  and also have the luxury of screening a little better before hand...   

[MCChris]

13 hours ago, BadgerDave said:

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 with well over a thousand transactions and a 100% positive rating.

Never had a seriously bad issue until recently.

I decided to sell my 2003 Gibson Les Paul 1959 reissue.  Its a beautiful guitar and one of the best R9's I've ever played.  I assumed it would be a quick and easy sale.

The first buyer cancelled the sale within minutes of the end of the auction with no explanation.  I decided not to contest it and just resisted the guitar.  The second auction ended at virtually the same closing price and the buyer paid immediately.  I shipped the guitar and the buyer sent a nice message saying how much he liked the guitar.

Today I got a notice from PayPal that he is disputing the sale.  He claims that I misrepresented the item because a 2003 R9 should have a brown Lifton case.  Mine had a black Gibson Custom Shop case.  He says the difference in value is between $300 - $500 and he wants me to send him a refund.  He's already started a PayPal dispute, so my PayPal account is frozen with a $3,500.00 negative balance.

I'm done.  

I knew you'd come around eventually.

[Jakeboy]

I have bought lots on eBay but never sold there....but I opened a Reverb account months ago and have been selling there. I dig it. 

I list my stuff fairly low, so it sells. Reverb is gear heads selling to gear heads....what's not to like other than the occasional FH that is bound to turn up anywhere?

Over the last year I have slowly purged down to essentials and added some choice pieces and pedals. I don't want or need much more other than a cool Keeley pedal and anothe Shishkov.....but I gotta save for that one!

[velorush]

16 hours ago, BadgerDave said:

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 with well over a thousand transactions and a 100% positive rating.

Never had a seriously bad issue until recently.

I decided to sell my 2003 Gibson Les Paul 1959 reissue.  Its a beautiful guitar and one of the best R9's I've ever played.  I assumed it would be a quick and easy sale.

The first buyer cancelled the sale within minutes of the end of the auction with no explanation.  I decided not to contest it and just resisted the guitar.  The second auction ended at virtually the same closing price and the buyer paid immediately.  I shipped the guitar and the buyer sent a nice message saying how much he liked the guitar.

Today I got a notice from PayPal that he is disputing the sale.  He claims that I misrepresented the item because a 2003 R9 should have a brown Lifton case.  Mine had a black Gibson Custom Shop case.  He says the difference in value is between $300 - $500 and he wants me to send him a refund.  He's already started a PayPal dispute, so my PayPal account is frozen with a $3,500.00 negative balance.

I'm done.  

One simple question in your defense: was the Custom Shop case in the listing (either photographed or described, or both)?  If so, you cannot be responsible for the buyer's lack of research or information.  You showed what was for sale; the buyer bought it. End of argument. Caveat Emptor. 

Of course, the reason I ended involvement with eBay is that such logic, though flawless, will not be considered admissible in the dispute. 

[Michael_B]

I'll share my vote for Reverb:

1. Lower fees.  I'm registered with a variety of their preferred seller type programs and on some transactions, my total fees (listing and "direct checkout") come to 5% instead of nearly 13% using eBay and PayPal.  To offset the higher eBay fees, I list the items at a higher price on eBay.  

2. Less Traffic.  The downside of Reverb is their significantly lower traffic.  I haven't noticed any meaningful difference in the quality of the traffic.  I haven't noticed any significant difference in the percent of messages that are low-ball offers.  I share @Caddie's view of low-ball offers. They don't bother me, at all.  I usually just reply "Thank you for the offer.  I'm not prepared to sell it at that price, at this time." 

3. Better custom service.  I rarely need it, but it's nice to know that through Reverb's chat window, I can quickly chat to a gear-familiar person in conversational English.

4.  Affirm.  Reverb offers buyers a buy-on-credit service called Affirm.  I signed up to accept Affirm.  I don't think it cost me anything.  To my surprise, ~25% of my sales since have involved the buyers buying with Affirm.

Both services put all the risk on the Seller for up to 180 days.  I've come to believe that this isn't quite as risky as it sounds and I believe their likelihood of finding in favor of the buyer diminishes over time.  

[mc2]

I've used ebay for 15 years. It has evolved into a VERY pro buyer setup where weirdos and scammers can zing you if they want to. The fees have become high. The customer service stinks.

But EBAY is THE main player, with a much higher audience, especially in the musical,instrument niche. It has a MUCH larger international buying audience.

I have used Reverb the last couple of years as well. It is a nice operation with lower fees but also a MUCH smaller audience.

Since Reverb is ONLY music gear, the buyers are pretty much dealers looking to score gear to buy and flip or broke musicians -- all looking for a lowball score. Bit there are some decent, legit buyers as well.

I have sold some painless, high ticket items on Reverb. I have also bought some good deals there. If you don't mind the smaller buying pool, it is a great operation.

I don't think I would ONLY use Reverb and completely eliminate EBAY. A better solution is to list the same item in both places and, hopefully, be able to persuade your buyer to buy it off of Reverb instead to save fees.

** BE AWARE.....I discovered a PayPal glitch. If you use the same PayPal account linked to BOTH EBAY and REVERB for your sales and buy the same item on both places...PayPal,cannot see that. Once you pay for the item on one of the places, it shows as "paid" on both. Totally screwed me up. 

For instance, if you spot a pickup or tuners you want, one on each Reverb and EBAY...and buy both items. After you pay for one and go to pay formthe next one, it says "paid."  So, I figured I wasn't paying attention and must have paid for BOTH. My sellers....who had different IDs on both places, also got confused. He saw both his items sold but didn't realize he ONLY HAD ONE!!

So, he thought both got pais because of the PayPal glitch. He shipped me one and not the other but it showed he had shipped BOTH. Because of the PayPal glitch, we both thought we had paid for both and shipped both. By the time we emailed back and forth over a few weeks and finally figured it out, we had both gotten pissed off thinking each was scamming the other. We finally both realized it was EBAY AND PAYPAL and the glitch carried over to Reverb.  We had both left each other negative feedback. We both tried many times to get EBAY to remove it....which they said they would and never did. After like a dozen emails and calls, we both agreed that it seemed impossible to get the idiots at EBAY customer service to correct the glitch or remove the feedback despite their assurances that they would. 

In hindsight....it could just all be some calculated EBAY and PayPal effort to dissuade customers from using Reverb.

[HSB0531]

Thanks everyone for both great advice and the info on both.

MC2: thanks for that info on PayPal too.