Selling Guitars Online - Best Place Nowdays?

I’d only do in Person cash deals these days. Shipping costs so much, fees are high, seems half the buyers want a discount or claim “not as described” after the fact and all the selling sites side with the buyer. Way too much stress and hassle not knowing if your forced to give a fund after 45 days for someone to essentially “borrow” your gear, just like they do with retailers who have return policies.

give me cash, meet in person, safe area, daytime, all deals are final
 
lqdsnddist said:
I’d only do in Person cash deals these days. Shipping costs so much, fees are high, seems half the buyers want a discount or claim “not as described” after the fact and all the selling sites side with the buyer. Way too much stress and hassle not knowing if your forced to give a fund after 45 days for someone to essentially “borrow” your gear, just like they do with retailers who have return policies.

give me cash, meet in person, safe area, daytime, all deals are final
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In the past couple of months I've had three items shipped to me that disappeared. The sellers reshipped or reimbursed but that has made me leary of selling again.
 
In Italy we have mercatinomusicale.com where everybody can post an announcement.. Privates and shops.. The transactions are exclusevely between the parts.. Completely free... I ve also used reverb which is worlwide.. But there is a commission for every sale so you have to calculate the selling price considering that.. No extra for the buyer.. Transactions protected
 
TSJMajesty said:
I don't do any selling personally (yet, so I clicked on this thread), but a buddy of mine whose always buying and selling all sorts of stuff swears by Facebook Marketplace.
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Ditto. I've started using FB Marketplace. Ebay is a good backup and offers good protections; you can always limit who you are dealing with to those with good reps. I have not been a seller on Reverb, but I have read complaints that their fees are pretty high.
 
I've bought and sold a fair amount on Reverb. My last deals have almost all been pain in the asses though and I don't know if it'll continue. The last guitar I bought that was basically new was still missing a few things that should have come with it. I'll live. The last couples of used ones were REALLY not described well, and photographed just right to hide the defects. One guy flat refused the return I issued through Reverb. True to their word though, they got into it with the seller, and he had to send me a return label, I did get my money back. One guitar I would have returned had my repair guy been able to get to it sooner. I take some of the blame there, and it cost me a few hundred.

Selling? I don't know. I stopped using Ebay for anything, as people are basically crooks. Some people, in certain niche hobbies are alright, but if it's the kind of thing with mass appeal, you're just rolling the dice. As a seller, you can't win any appeal someone makes. I've had defective items that weren't even the one I sent returned to me. I had a few hundred sales on Ebay with zero problems. Then it seems like a few years ago, enough people realized they could game the system. Now, if it's something I think they'll get money for, I donate it to a local veterans org. If not, I hate it, but I just throw stuff out.

For guitars over the last two years, almost exclusively in person via CL or Offerup. I price them to sell, and have had people drive down from LA to buy. For me, it's not worth dicking around with trying to get top dollar off a site, when I'm going to have to pay them 10+% off the top anyway. I find the best price I can, and chop 20% off that. It usually works. I've heard FB Marketplace is good, but I'd actually need to be on FB and that isn't happening.
 
When you folks sell in person, do you let people try out the gear?

I'm not really comfortable with that, but one of the reasons I like to buy local myself (when I buy, which isn't that often) is so I CAN try the stuff out, especially guitars.
 
spagthorpe said:
I've bought and sold a fair amount on Reverb. My last deals have almost all been pain in the asses though and I don't know if it'll continue. The last guitar I bought that was basically new was still missing a few things that should have come with it. I'll live. The last couples of used ones were REALLY not described well, and photographed just right to hide the defects. One guy flat refused the return I issued through Reverb. True to their word though, they got into it with the seller, and he had to send me a return label, I did get my money back. One guitar I would have returned had my repair guy been able to get to it sooner. I take some of the blame there, and it cost me a few hundred.

Selling? I don't know. I stopped using Ebay for anything, as people are basically crooks. Some people, in certain niche hobbies are alright, but if it's the kind of thing with mass appeal, you're just rolling the dice. As a seller, you can't win any appeal someone makes. I've had defective items that weren't even the one I sent returned to me. I had a few hundred sales on Ebay with zero problems. Then it seems like a few years ago, enough people realized they could game the system. Now, if it's something I think they'll get money for, I donate it to a local veterans org. If not, I hate it, but I just throw stuff out.

For guitars over the last two years, almost exclusively in person via CL or Offerup. I price them to sell, and have had people drive down from LA to buy. For me, it's not worth dicking around with trying to get top dollar off a site, when I'm going to have to pay them 10+% off the top anyway. I find the best price I can, and chop 20% off that. It usually works. I've heard FB Marketplace is good, but I'd actually need to be on FB and that isn't happening.
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That's the kind of stuff that makes me hate humankind. That's overstating it a bit, but there's just too many people out there who only look out for themselves. An "acquaintance" of mine, who's a bona-fide millionaire, with like, 16 paid-for rental houses, a waterfront home, & 2 awesome boats will think nothing of taking his 5 year-old string trimmer, buying a new one, sticking the old one back in the box, and returning it. Shit like that ruins legit stuff all around, and makes others so leery of everything related to commerce, as well as many other things in this world. I truly hate it. It really tries me, trying to maintain an above-reproach attitude in my own affairs.
 
I've had decent luck with Reverb. Of course it's the recipient that is always the problematic part. What you call 'mint' is different than what they call 'mint', etc. A small ding is worthy of a $200 refund. You know the type.

But the process itself has been pretty seamless, so I go there.
 
Reverb, mostly, here too. I often list simultaneously on EBay and note in both that it is for sale in other places. I intentionally “under-describe” gear, and rate it a grade lower than I think it is, which doesn’t at all affect my price. It tends to eliminate issues, and I get a lot of “better than described” feedback. I’ve had the odd issue here and there, but it’s a very small percentage overall.

I also use Craigslist for local sales, and have done a few forum deals, both without issues. I hear Facebook Marketplace can be good, but FB blows and I dumped it years ago. There's nothing I want to buy or sell bad enough to get me on that site. But if you’re an FB’er, it might be worth looking into.
 
Lots of great advice here. I got scammed selling some Apple Airbuds on ebay several years ago and haven't used it since. I sold a few guitars on there with no issues but that was long ago. I've used Reverb without any issues but it's been a while.

I've sold some stuff on FB with no issues as well. I think I'll definitely give the local market a try before trying Reverb.

I seen a guitar almost identical to mine sell for $5,795 on ebay. Kind of blew my mind! The ad says the seller is a music store in Japan.
 
Warrior said:
Lots of great advice here. I got scammed selling some Apple Airbuds on ebay several years ago and haven't used it since. I sold a few guitars on there with no issues but that was long ago. I've used Reverb without any issues but it's been a while.

I've sold some stuff on FB with no issues as well. I think I'll definitely give the local market a try before trying Reverb.

I seen a guitar almost identical to mine sell for $5,795 on ebay. Kind of blew my mind! The ad says the seller is a music store in Japan.
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What happened with the eBay transaction? Just curious because it seems like they try to offer decent protections.
 
fcs101 said:
What happened with the eBay transaction? Just curious because it seems like they try to offer decent protections.
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It was in 2018 so the details are a little foggy to me. Basically, I sold the Airbuds to the seller and the shipping address was different than his account. Come to find out, someone had hacked into someone else's account, purchased the airbuds and was trying to get them shipped to some business address where he could pick them up.

It to resolved but it was a hastle trying to explain the problem and have them sort it out.
 
skunc said:
I enjoy selling gear through this forum. It makes me happy to know that my gear is going to part of the FAS family!
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Click on the people you're working with and see what their activity is. If they are very new accounts with nothing but a few posts and all in the Classified section. Those are not FAS people, those may be brokers and people flipping gear for profit.

Of course, some are showing up, just to unload one piece of gear and that's fine. Just be careful and keep your BS radar on high PRF.

There was an account years ago, "alibaba" or something like that, that was just spamming the board in a way that was very shady. I and a few other people called attention to it and that account was gone in short order.
 
Dave Merrill said:
When you folks sell in person, do you let people try out the gear?

I'm not really comfortable with that, but one of the reasons I like to buy local myself (when I buy, which isn't that often) is so I CAN try the stuff out, especially guitars.
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In general, I don't have people over to my house. The exception was selling a studio desk. I don't want random people coming over and seeing my gear. The last year and a half, this is especially true in general because of covid.

So most sales, I've had people just happy to get the gear at that price, and they can tell I take care of my stuff. For an amp I sold, the guy obviously wanted to hear it, so I lugged it to this Starbucks I know of that has an outdoor area with plugs. He brought his guitar, and rocked out for 10 minutes. It was awesome. People were coming off the main street for the show. For a couple of guitars, where people wanted to hear them, I brought along my little battery powered Yamaha 10X. One guy brought some of those Boss wireless headphones.
 
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