Monday, August 3, 2020

REVERB.COM, AN AWESOME PLACE TO SELL GEAR

GET RID OF STUFF YOU'RE NOT USING OR DON'T NEED

I'm often one of the last people to try something new. I've been using eBay since it first appeared and I've sold hundreds of items there. Now I've got a new fun place to turn my unused gear back into cash, thousands of dollars of cash.

If you have the time to wait I think anything will sell on Reverb. The platform is very easy to use on an Apple computer. I have not experimented with the Reverb app on mobile yet.

It takes a little while to find everything you need but it's all there. One of the most important tools is the shipping estimator, this lets you predict your shipping cost. I wanted to sell my Behringer X32 mixer but the size of the box made me think it would cost $200. When I ran the actual box dimensions and weight Reverb gave me an awesome price on UPS, only $68 including insurance.

Reverb has arranged some killer price discounts with UPS which makes selling larger items like keyboards and guitars possible.

I've completed 81 sales on Reverb in the last 75 days and earned nothing but 5-star feedback. USPS flat rate boxes make things easy and they ship from my front door instead of a visit to the post office.



I had one weird transaction with a guy, I bought a digital delay through Reverb, it was junk. I returned it but the guy did nothing to refund my purchase price instead claiming it was damaged in shipping to me. It was a clear bait and switch with photos of a clean piece of gear which was nothing like the beat up piece of junk he was trying to palm off on me.

I kept all our messaging in the Reverb program so they could see all his lies. It took a month to get through to Reverb support about my issue but they immediately refunded my money direct to my bank account, problem solved. Reverb then took it up with the seller.

Reverb suggests contacting and messaging a seller if you're thinking about buying something, ask if the picture is the one you'll receive, ask if there is anything wrong with it, do all of this in the Reverb message system and it can help if you get involved in a bad deal.

Ask if the seller has the materials to pack the item safely, one item I bought off Reverb came in a thrashed used box and it was literally filled with trash as filler. Fortunately the item made it here unscathed and works perfectly, just as the seller told me before I bought it. It was a $500 compressor for $70 so it was a great deal but I hated the trash part.

If you sell something for "local pickup" you need to be sure the buyer can press a button on his purchase page, this tells Reverb your buyer has received the item and this unlocks your money payout. Don't let the gear leave without the seller pushing that button. As the seller you won't see the magic button. After the buyer pushes the "item received" button in just a few seconds you're clear to release the gear to the customer. As the seller the item will show on your "orders" page as "received", make sure you have that before releasing the gear.

FAST PAYMENTS DIRECT INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

I set up my Reverb payments so they go direct to my bank account. If I sell something today I usually receive the money the same day as the sale, it's amazing. If you sell multiple items you get a big money transfer at once. There is a page on Reverb where you can go and see every detail of any single transaction or see the aggregate payment totals. Anything you sell on Saturday or Sunday will payout the following Monday evening. The speed with which Reverb pays is amazing.

DON'T OFFER FREE SHIPPNG

One thing I learned is don't offer free shipping. Use the shipping estimator and put the shipping cost off onto buyers. Reverb does not appreciate the value of free shipping in a price you post. I advertised a Line6 pedal for $200 with power supply and free shipping. Reverb kept telling me my price was too high and I did not show up correctly in $$ low-to-high search because free shipping has no value to Reverb. I switched all my sales to lower prices with additional for shipping, I'm still selling everything I post and making more because the customers are paying the shipping prices.

Free shipping also causes customers to pay more in sales tax because Reverb treats the whole sale as taxable in most states. This means that even though you may have accounted for the shipping cost in the price you're asking the customer will be paying tax on the total, which means they're paying sales tax on shipping.

Shipping is not taxable in many states so it can be additional savings for your customers to consider shipping separate from the purchase price.

I may add more details to this article as I learn more. Reverb is an amazing internet marketplace for musicians.

Good music to you!