Where Are You Selling Your Unwanted Gear?

Warrior

Warrior

Power User
It's been a while since I've sold any unwanted equipment. Planning to list some stuff on Marketplace but may need to expand for more reach. Haven't used Reverb or eBay in a while so I'm curious where folks are selling their stuff now?
 
I used Sweetwater Gear Xchange last year for some pickups and it worked out ok. I took payment as a Sweetwater gift card.
 
Local cash sale only via local message board like Kijiji - mostly meeting up in "safe space" type monitored parking lots to do exchanges. Sounds old school but I absolutely despise the idea of long distance interaction with buyers, money transfers, fees, shipping ... Even local sale is so annoying that I've let a lot of gear go at ripoff trade-in values at my local guitar store. What I try to do most is only buy gear I need which follows the more or less carefully planned evolution of my music room and my playing tastes/needs (fyi I don't gig) to minimise the need to sell anything.
 
reverb, ebay, reddit... occasionally facebook marketplace. Facebook has the largest amount of time wasters/tire kickers... but the trade off is it's cash only, in person.
 
sprint said:
Local cash sale only via local message board like Kijiji - mostly meeting up in "safe space" type monitored parking lots to do exchanges. Sounds old school but I absolutely despise the idea of long distance interaction with buyers, money transfers, fees, shipping ... Even local sale is so annoying that I've let a lot of gear go at ripoff trade-in values at my local guitar store. What I try to do most is only buy gear I need which follows the more or less carefully planned evolution of my music room and my playing tastes/needs (fyi I don't gig) to minimise the need to sell anything.
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Never knew about Kijiji.

Yeah, I hate the selling fees and transfer of money.... all that crap.
I don't buy/sell very often either.
 
My last transaction was actually at a guitar center.. selling gear can be a huge pain in the ass so I figured I'd take it in to see if they would come even remotely close to what I wanted to get for it.

Surprisingly, I got offered pretty damn close to what I was hoping to get out of it, so I just took their check and deposited it into my bank account the next day.

It was a very easy, quick, hassle free way to unload some gear. I'd recommend at least taking it in and getting a quote.
 
I sell to an independent LGS. That particular one pays, IIRC, 65% of what they're going to sell it for, more if you put it on consignment (I think I consigned a guitar for 85%).

It's worth the lower "price" to me to be rid of the gear simply and have at least some money, but I also don't treat my gear as or have anything that would qualify as a financial investment.
 
Right now, nothing is selling, but I'm also only specifically selling nylon-string guitars.

I use a combination of Reverb, Sweetwater GX, The Gear Page, the Acoustic Guitar Forum, FB Marketplace and dedicated FB sell groups (typically nothing from those except some "likes"). I'm sure there are other gear forums out there.

The best protection comes from a local cash sale. Next is Reverb. I've done a ton of transactions on TGP over the years with very few problems.

Also, never forget that Pirate Ship is your friend. I've saved a good bit using them over Reverb's shipping, even with insurance. So for instance, you have a shipping quote based on their system, and actually wind up saving a few bucks using Pirate Ship, which simply helps to offset their fees.
 
Was selling a lot on Reverb and EBay, but the government dipping into any profit on top of 10% for seller fees, plus shipping costs is making this much less attractive.

Recently I have been using CraigsList, TGP, and local sites for sales. It’s much slower getting things sold, but I keep more of the money when I’m done.
 
I've been using Reverb for years to sell gear and haven't had any issues with transactions. Reverb does take a pretty big bite out of your earnings.
 
Most always, eBay. Selling in a fixed sale/make an offer format usually guarantees the fastest turnaround with least returns. Platforms like Reverb or FB typically let your gear sit for quite a while. This is OK for folks who aren't in a hurry, but can be stressful for sellers who might need cash sooner than later. Typically, if one sells their gear towards the end of the month, people are more financially-aware during this time and decide to buy luxury items based on what they've saved the previous several months.

The caveat is, be sure to package your item well (sometimes double-cartoned) with plenty of packaging material to insure your item's safe arrival and either require a flat shipping fee with insurance, or price your item accordingly so that shipping and insurance are listed as free, or part of your sale price.

If one chooses free shipping, you run the risk of being required to ship internationally, which opens a hole separate can of spaghettios.

There are scenarios which sometimes turn into good sales. My personal experience is that language barriers can sometimes be a source of tensions when business dealings are questioned or need to be handled with diplomacy.
 
Reverb. I don't like the fees and taxes, but you do get: (1) a wide buying audience that's looking only for music gear (unlike Ebay for example); (2) very good customer service, including dispute resolution; and (3) shipping discounts and protection when you use Reverb's shipping.
 
I list for sale stuff on Craigslist. Being in Los Angeles it's pretty easy to find buyers.

A lot of people want to do various apps for payments but once I establish I only do face-to-face cash transactions its not a problem. I remind people about this via text before we meet, usually at a musician friendly coffee shop near me.
 
MSS said:
I didn’t want to use Plaid on reverb but I just looked and it appears that now you can do a manual bank transfer. I may look into this further.
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Yes, I also don't care for another party getting involved. It's supposed to ensure that the platform never sees or has access to our sensitive personal data.
 
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