Reverb - best thing ever?

[ajkula66]

my biggest fear of buying used/vintage is the “why are they selling?” Every instrument regardless of make or price has the potential to be a dog. Bad neck, etc. Can i trust a seller to be honest, or even have the same expectations of quality as me?

You don't have to trust the seller in any which way. On Reverb, there's a 7-day period in which the item can be returned if "not as described". If there's a defect that I can't figure out within a week, I absolutely deserve to be stuck with that instrument.

People sell stuff for a variety of reasons, and I never inquire why. That's their own business. What I do inquire via the message system - if not stated in the listing - is whether the truss rod works, neck is straight etc.

I've bought quite a few things on Reverb and was quite lucky this far. I don't sell often, but have had only one less-than-desirable experience which was a combination of many things which very rarely line up altogether in a single transaction. The others were outright perfect.

My $0.02 only...

 

[MTN.bass72]

I've purchased once from Reverb.. never again..

If I can't find it on here, in a store, or from Sweetwater, I'm not meant to have it at that time

 

[Ellery]

From a buyer's perspective Reverb HAS declined in the value of it's offerings. In the distant past I scored some very good deals. I still peruse Reverb's pages and have not been impressed enough to make a purchase in years.

 

[Daniel Piper]

There are plenty of great deals on Reverb. Just gotta be patient.

So many classified listings here and other places are not interested in shipping international. Living in New Zealand, where we are gouged for the 10 brands that are actually sold here, isn't fun at all.

I use Reverb a lot, hold items in my watchlist for months, focus on quality used gear, wait for deals or put in offers. I think it is great.

 

[matdras]

Long live the TB classifieds!!!

 

[Nev375]

I love reverb and ebay. Since I have esoteric tastes in gear made of unobtanium it's my only chance at finding what i'm after. Thank god for watchlists and notifications.

That said, the TB classifieds are even better.

 

[projectapollo]

Paying sales tax on a person to person transaction for a used item really surprised me. Won't likely buy an expensive bass on there again. My state tax adds almost 10%.

 

[Williethump]

Trouble buying online is you can't play it, heft it, hear it or easily return it. I bought a uke bass from Reverb a while back and thought I heard rattles. Tried 3 times to return it and got no response. Luckily for me because the squeaks went away and I can live with not perfect intonation for $200.
I'm old so I've been cheated at B&M stores more than online but I won't buy these days unless I can play it. CL still works for basses too, at least for me. Trouble is the seller or buyer could be a-vx, for religious or political reasons. Anyhow, mask up if indoors. Again. Let's try to stay safe. Again.

 

[7dollarbologna]

my biggest fear of buying used/vintage is the “why are they selling?” Every instrument regardless of make or price has the potential to be a dog. Bad neck, etc. Can i trust a seller to be honest, or even have the same expectations of quality as me?

same risk for new, but at least i can return or exchange it if i am not happy .

I always ask for a video of the seller playing all the notes on all the strings and pic of the parts - if they don’t do it, I move on

 

[Williethump]

I bought one new and still have it - poplar body, I guess the neck was okay (mine broke practicing a stage trick) - when I got my Fullerton Jazz Bass in 86 it was like night and day, that Squier was crap seriously. I think this seller is trying to deceive, he’s saying it come with original case, but these didn’t come with a case, just a green box with the Squier logo.

It looks cool with the maple neck. But over $1,000? For former kids nostalgic for the 1980s, that low decade.

 

[logdrum]

Preach alert:

Buy local or here on TB. Even my favorite seller of synths raised their prices, so I just call and she sells outside of reverb.
For me to lessen my woe - I really do my best what the yogi sages called Santosa. The practice of Contentment. I always ask myself if I am merely coveting or is this really something that can help[ me achieve my musical goal. If it is the latter. I will get the said item and if I was fleeced or it is not a good deal, so what? The item is serving a purpose. I am not scoring how many great deals I had.

Now if I am buying or getting into transactions because my goal is to profit, then it is a different mindset. At the end of the day even with that goal in mind. Am I making money to live or living to make money.

And yes reverb.con sucks - but for synth and modular gear, my favorite seller will sell to me directly (favorite as in I bought 4 things from her). I think in total I bought 6 things from that site. Will not sell through there. Ebay left it a long time ago.

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

Do common people even sell on ebay now?

They do. I've recently found a Roland JUNO-G with almost perfectly working screen (a well-known issue of the model) there for $240. Unfortunately it was in UK, so the shipping doubled the price. But nevertheless, good deal still could happen there.

 

[CoffeeLove]

Or just a bunch of stores posting stock at inflated prices to cover the reverb “profit grab” on every sale? And then private sellers mostly matching those prices cause they hope they can.

I dont seem to see many good deals on the basses i am interested in. Either i have amazing taste and basses i want are all in high demand (high prices) or reverb is a bit crap.

My apologies if i state the obvious. I was out of the scene for 10+ years.

The "why" has already been explained, so I am about the solution. My fix for this is to "bypass" the middleman/Reverb/Evil-Bay/Etc and contact the store directly, assuming it is an actual business. This has worked for me on many occasions and gotten fair pricing. However, most of the time I now just look on the local Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for the next cool bass-deal to come along at a crazy-good price, and bam, new gear at a super low price. Granted, I only buy or trade used gear, but it has kept me in the green, not a money pit of red.

 

[moon-bass]

but imho any savvy shopper knows to bypass the “advertising platform” and contact the sellers brick and mortar shop direct. You can always get the product at a price that does not have the site fees built in.

This is all great until something goes wrong and you don't get the protection that the site/platform.gices you. Ime an unscrupulous seller does this. If someone messages me and says "contact me off Reverb" etc. That's a huge red flag. I also turn down deals on TB here where someone insists on "friends and t" payments

 

[fdeck]

I think that the days of grannies discovering their late hubby's mint '62 P bass in the attic and selling it for $50 to get rid of it were maybe the first 5 years of eBay. The "deals" are gone because the online marketplaces provide a way to check comparable prices for virtually anything, leading to more uniformity in pricing. Also, if that P does show up for $50, there are 10000 buyers who will try to snap it up and flip it, and the next seller will charge the market price.

 

[dkelley]

For me, reverb is a place to find extremely high asking prices of instruments, so that if I end up with an instrument I want to sell, I can link to the reverb listing to show people in the local craigslist how good of a deal they're getting by buying locally from me.



Ok - not actually true, for the most part, but I personally don't do international buying and selling, so reverb is more of an interesting curiosity to me than anything else.

 

[NOVAX]

Craigslist! craigslist: a lot of people say they don't wanna deal with the flakes and the freaks and the low bawlers but I don't take that personally

 

[CoffeeLove]

Craigslist! craigslist: a lot of people say they don't wanna deal with the flakes and the freaks and the low bawlers but I don't take that personally

Me too. I offer what I want to offer, and if they come back with a snide comment (rarely happens) then o well, would not have wanted to deal with that person anyways. Of course I am always nice about it in the initial email

 

[bigcupholder]

Reverb fees are ridiculous. I recently had a guitar posted on Kijiji, Facebook and Reverb. The Reverb price had to be $300 higher to cover the fees.

We should all support other platforms that don't gouge us so much.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

The used market has inflated and fee structures have definitely played their part in it along with increases to shipping costs and the natural progression of used prices keeping pace with new prices. Unfortunately, this is the “new” reality for used prices. Like the car market, I expect things to calm down eventually, but it’s only natural for prices to rise over time.

I always get a kick every time I go back to my childhood home. I have an old copy of Musicians Friend in my old bedroom. IIRC, the new price for an EBMM StingRay in that ad was $1,399 circa 2004. Yeah, I wish lol.