Where do you sell your gear?

MNG

MNG

Inspired
Just wondering where and how folk generally sell their gear as I have no experience.

I've sold a few guitars through an online dealer recently, but there's a cost in doing that which, if split between seller and buyer, both benefit.

I have acquired a lot of high end gear over the years and am looking to downsize. I've noted that that kind of stuff doesn't seem to sell on this site so maybe the dealer is my best bet. Any tips you may have will be welcome.
 
I almost always post things on forums first, but I have only sold a handful of items and most of the time I just get ridiculous low ball or silly trade offers. I have never had an item not sell on e-Bay. You just cannot compete with the global reach that they have. You put in a good description, set a price and I usually go with a 7 day auction and it ends up gone. The only exception is when it's something extremely specialized and I just put it out there for a month in order to get hits.

Now people will complain about the fees and stuff, but I always set the price to adjust for them and it still sells. But then again I never ask stupid prices. Rule of thumb is that if I was looking and it doesn't make me think that it's a good deal than why would anyone else?

The other thing to consider is that it's a pretty well respected site and there are some protections for both buyer and seller.

And I have taken items into dealers and guitar shops and the prices they offer are offensive. I had a brand new PRS 513 and they offered me $1200. I mean it was brand frickin' new. I sold it on e-Bay for twice that in 3 days time. Of course anything they take in they have to sell and make a profit which is fine, but that doesn't mean that I am a charity.
 
eBay for me as well. I've had mostly great experiences as well. For popular things it's easy to sell and get good money. It's only with more obscure stuff where there's only like one interested party if that when it's difficult to sell. Same in any marketplace really. Supply and demand.
 
Craigslist first, eBay if item doesn't sell after 2-3 weeks. Sometimes straight to eBay when it's something exotic that I pretty much know I won't get a good price for on Craigslist. eBay very rarely disappoints. Mostly I get unexpected amounts amounts of money, but eBay fees (about 10%) bring the total down to "expected" levels. I figure, good for them, and good for me. I've unloaded tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear there over the years.
 
I use Ebay as well. The key is to figure out what price the item will finally sell for.

Then compute the fees for both the auction, any listing extras (such as 10 day auction), and any shipping fees that Ebay might assess.

Once you have all that, add those fees into your starting price and you are never disappointed.

Another rule of thumb, always estimate shipping using the most remote location to your zip code and add in your packing materials & insurance to the cost.

The Ebay shipping calculator never includes insurance and then surprises you at the end. I made that mistake once and never again.

Another rule of thumb is that cosmetic condition grades are always extremely subjective. Take tons of pictures so that they do the talking for that aspect of the item you are trying to sell.

I also avoid selling to the EU, since I had people bid things up to the moon and then expect me to discount the auction by the amount of VAT they would have to pay. Maybe I had morons for bidders in both cases that caused me to have Ebay nullify the auction & re-list for free, but I avoid that situation now and only sell in the continental 48 states and my sales have never been hurt.

Another tip that I use for higher sales, always start your auction at noon PST on a Friday with a 10 day auction. Then you get two weekends' worth of interested people looking at your listing and making bids.
 
Last edited:
In the USA, Craigs List is my first choice because there are no fees involved, face to face, money from hand to hand. Less delay, better communication between you and him.
Other than that, EBAY all the way….great system.
LAST! take to a dealer such as Musician's Friend or a local shop…they'll rip you off as far as you let them!
 
eBay shipping to continental US first. It's a good way to get your feet wet. Calculate the fees like the guys have already mentioned. Sell some small things maybe to experiment.

Also, eBay has a Global Shipping Program so you can list worldwide but you can select only the countries in their program. You pay shipping to a regional eBay center(cheaper than going across country), then they ship it from there covering it the rest of the way. Shipped a charvel custom shop to Greece and had no problems. I do my usual no bidders less than 5 or 10 points, and add disclaimer in the auction that customs charges are the buyers responsibility. You can call eBay support they are pretty helpful, but like anywhere else, you still have to do your homework. Like, the paypal fee is a little higher for any conversion, and the ebay cost is also higher which I DIDN'T realize but learned! Still, it seems worth it. Just cut out the NON-Global Shipping Countries and you're covered like selling/shipping in the states. It's not for everybody.

Good luck. Any learning process takes time and some pain.
 
I have the best results selling on eBay but I like to keep my auctions in the U.S., less issues. I have sold a few guitars over seas with no issues.
 
Here in the UK, I use Gumtree. Had loads of success on there. It's just like craigslist, but not as "dodgy" shall we say.
 
plexi59 said:
Craigslist first, eBay if item doesn't sell after 2-3 weeks. Sometimes straight to eBay when it's something exotic that I pretty much know I won't get a good price for on Craigslist. eBay very rarely disappoints. Mostly I get unexpected amounts amounts of money, but eBay fees (about 10%) bring the total down to "expected" levels. I figure, good for them, and good for me. I've unloaded tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear there over the years.
Click to expand...

I do the same.
Always love to do the local sale as it saves me to deal with shipping (and fees), but sometimes you just need a bigger market....and eBay has that.

New(er) site that I'm hearing great things about is Reverb.com
They only take 3%.
This could be a new musician's eBay if it takes off.
One of my friends has sold a bunch of items on here over the past month and is liking it.
 
I have never used ebay and I make a lot of money a year buying selling as a hobby.Most of the gear I buy for myself is bought from my "flip" money. Last year alone I was up $8k just from flipping. Would have been up more but sometimes you just lose a little. I have contacts that I know are looking for certain things so I always check with them first. Then I go with forums, then cl and then music stores as a last resort. As a side note, if you know how and when to buy gear, even selling it back to a retail music store I almost always make money. Rarely do I lose money and when I do its usually from a piece that I thought I personally wanted and paid market value for it.
 
Dpoirier said:
Anyone here use Reverb? It's a music-only auction site, and they claim to have the lowest fees. See https://reverb.com/page/why-reverb

I have not used it (yet)... just wondering if anyone on this forum has tried it?
Click to expand...

One of my buddies has sold a few items on this recently, he said it was easy (and obviously less costly).

I also found a white LP Custom on there, and passed the link on to another friend of mine that was looking for one.
He bought it, and the transaction went fine (and he loves the guitar).

So far, so good!

Seems like it could be great substituted for paying eBay fees.
 
Thanks for the feedback and helpful comments. I was hoping to avoid eBay but seems it's the most likely bet.
 
Everywhere. Anywhere. The market is over-saturated with gear.

Craigslist, The Gear Page (mostly dead as a doornail, crickets only), here of course, Facebook Gear Talk Classifieds and other similar sites. And then, when those don't work, ebay.
 
Craigslist is hit or miss. I find that unless its Fender, Gibson or PRS people generally don't know what it is and the item won't sell as quickly. Ebay is by far the easiest way to sell with global reach, but between Ebay and Paypal, you get hit for fees that can total 15% of the sale price, cutting into your profit. Also, when I tried to sell my Ultra on Ebay last year, I was surprised that Ebay wanted my credit card #. Its for their buyer protection. Basically, as I understand it, the buyer can return an item for most any reason. I felt this opened up too much opportunity for abuse. I'm not a big box retail store, so I'm not able to offer quite the generous return policy they do. I do my best to accurately describe the item and make sure the buyer has a happy experience, but its too rife for fraud.....the buyer could damage the item and demand a refund, have buyer's remorse or simply demand a refund and ship me back a box of rocks.

On Craigslist, I get the impression that people are gear-rich and cash-poor. I always get lots of trade offers, some good and some not so good ("Hey, will you take this stack of guitar magazines from the 80s for your American Standard Strat?"). And then there's the hassle of flakes, people who waste your time who don't have the money anyway, and people who want you to deliver the gear 40 miles for half your asking price.

I've had the best luck advertising on forums that cater to the customer base. For instance, after 3 weeks of nibbles, trade offers, etc. on Craigslist for my AxeFX Ultra, I put it on the For Sale forum here and was inundated with great offers on day one! Of course, everyone here knows what the AxeFX is and I get the impression are mostly serious buyers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: sam
shasha said:
And I have taken items into dealers and guitar shops and the prices they offer are offensive. I had a brand new PRS 513 and they offered me $1200. I mean it was brand frickin' new. I sold it on e-Bay for twice that in 3 days time. Of course anything they take in they have to sell and make a profit which is fine, but that doesn't mean that I am a charity.
Click to expand...

Guitar shops will always lowball you. They're not buying the guitar to play, they're buying it to sell for a profit. As a rule of thumb, they'll generally offer you half what they'll sell it for. Its like trading in your car at the dealer; they'll give you six grand for and turn around and put it on the lot the next day for twelve.
 
Another tip is if there is a Users Group on Facebook or Yahoo for the piece og gear you are trying to sell, join them and mention that you are selling said item with a URL link to your auction. You would be surprised by the amount of quality bids such marketing generates.

Also, I forgot, definitely estimate what the PayPal fees for your ideal price for the gear (including all the other considerations I advised you to estimate) and add that into the starting price. In case it is a high priced piece of gear, the fees from PP & Ebay combined can start to take a bite out of your profit margin otherwise.
 
Ben Randolph said:
Also, when I tried to sell my Ultra on Ebay last year, I was surprised that Ebay wanted my credit card #. Its for their buyer protection. Basically, as I understand it, the buyer can return an item for most any reason. I felt this opened up too much opportunity for abuse.!
Click to expand...

The Buyer protection is for items not received or not as advertised. I've bought and sold a lot on eBay and have filed 2 claims in 14 years (over 500 transactions). The first was a 'Custom Shop' Strat the ended up being a parts caster - I had to get a professional appraisal from a verifiable source for eBay to find in my favor. Last Dec. I bought an ES-335 from a seller with a feedback score of 474 and 100% positive; the tracking number was not valid and the seller responded once in a month -eBay charged the full $2,500 back to the seller. Turns out the seller listed a few guitars before Xmas and didn't ship.

EBay's fees are high but there are benefits.

I also find the descriptions of an item's condition to be pretty good on eBay, only 2 guitars that were significantly worse than described and both sellers were ministers!

Reverb.com looks good, I bought a couple pedals recently and got good follow up from the site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom