Buying and Selling Music Gear Online via Reverb.com

Some years ago, I discovered Reverb.com, an e-commerce site dedicated solely to buying and selling music gear, including instruments, accessories, and recording equipment. The site's power is that individual users can be buyers, sellers, or both. I had some guitars I wasn't using anymore, so I decided to try selling them on the site.

Setting Up Your Account

Creating an account was pretty straightforward. I entered my email address and password and created my profile, including an avatar. Once I was able to log in, the top menu bar looked like this:

Selling on Reverb.com

Notice the (Sell your Gear) button at the top of the screen. I clicked it, and the software stepped me through entering the name of what I was selling and what its characteristics were. They have a huge library of instruments and recording gear in their database, so you can start typing and it will find it. Or you can enter it from scratch if their database doesn't have it.

The system makes it easy to define what you're selling with great precision. Then you can write a description of it and its condition so that buyers know how "used" it is. It is important to clearly identify anything that's wrong with it, and upload new photos that show the product from all sides. When you're buying on the site you will appreciate the entries that are complete and honest. I know that if a guitar is 50 years old, it's going to have some "love marks" on it - that's completely understandable. But honesty is always the best policy for buyer and seller alike.

After ensuring that the title is correct, you can upload photos. Even if you're using a computer to do this, Reverb.com knows that your phone is a camera, so they allow you to use your phone to take new pictures and upload them to this new listing in parallel with your computer listing. That's really a great feature, and I have used it more than once. Of course you could always take pictures and then upload them to your computer and then to the website, but the phone method cuts out a few steps. Taking new pictures is essential to ensure that what the buyers see is up to date and accurate.

Next, you describe the product, first choosing a condition from "brand new" to "non functioning," or something in between. Then you enter a description, including any imperfections.

You can also connect a #YouTube video – either one that you created, or one that you found on the internet that shows the product. I have used both methods. The website has a Search function that helps you find existing videos on YouTube that you can link to.

Next you choose a price. Reverb.com will make suggestions based on what it knows about this item's history, but you are free to set whatever price you want. You can choose to accept or reject "low ball" offers. They also give you the chance to "bump" a listing for a possible quicker sale in exchange for them getting a larger percentage of the sale.

Yes, of course Reverb.com gets a percentage of the the order, but they are totally transparent about what that is, so you can set your price accordingly. If you're selling something that you really don't want to ship, you can set it to "local pickup only." One time I used this when I was selling some very heavy JBL studio monitors. A buyer drove from nearby Connecticut and picked them up, paying me cash. I was honest and marked the items as sold in Reverb.com and paid them their commission as if the sale had gone through the website. The sale never would have happened without their support, so it was the ethical thing to do. It was a win-win-win for me, the buyer, and Reverb.com.

You may also choose the area that you will ship to, limiting it to your own country, or within certain geographies.

Getting Orders

When a buyer accepts your offer and added a form of payment, Reverb.com will notify you that the order can be shipped. I had one case where someone accepted my offer to buy a large keyboard bag, and I was notified. But Reverb.com said not to ship yet because they had not added a form of payment. Ultimately the buyer backed out so I didn't ship it to them. But I have sold a lot of gear over the years on Reverb.com and it's been smooth sailing every other time.

They make the shipping process easy, too, with a built-in engine that scans major services like UPS, USPS, and Fedex for the best rates. They even sell special boxes made to ship guitars and other instruments in, which I have taken advantage of several times. But if you have your own preferred shipping service and account you can use it instead. It's completely up to you.

Over the years I have sold not only instruments but recording gear that I wasn't using any more. There's no sense in letting it sit around getting older and gathering dust when there is someone out there who can use it, and will pay for it. When I upgraded my studio to use SSL controllers for mixing I sold my Faderport16 on Reverb.com in a matter of days, for example.

I was inspired to write this article because just today I sold a steel guitar that I bought some years ago on Reverb.com, but it was time to sell it. I got this email from them when it sold:

Notice that they told me not to ship until the buyer's payment cleared. Less than ONE MINUTE LATER I received a second email with the OK to ship.

This is great news. I had bought three guitar boxes a year old and I still have one left. So tomorrow I will get out my bubble wrap, release the tension on the strings, give it a polish, and get this guitar out to its new owner.

I have had a product returned once because I picked the wrong keyboard model name. That can happen, so it's important to be as accurate as possible when setting up a product for sale. But Reverb.com is the honest broker and they make sure that everyone is protected in these transactions. I refunded the buyer's money, relisted the keyboard with the correct model name, and sold it to someone else a few weeks later.

Buying Gear on Reverb.com

I have also purchased a number of guitars, dobros, pedals, and the aforementioned SSL controllers on Reverb.com. It's a great place to look for anything and everything music. They have everything from the cheapest to the most expensive that you can imagine, and everything in between, in great numbers. I can't even imagine how many products are available at any moment in time, but it's in the hundreds of thousands. So you don't have to sell your gear there – you can simply be a buyer. Think of this website as the "Amazon" for musicians.

As an example, I selected "Dreadnought Acoustic Guitars" and there are more than 24 thousand of them available!

And it's not just guitars and keyboards: virtually every kind of instrument is available, as well as every kind of recording and sound reinforcement gear. There is a powerful search function that transcends the popular categories shown above. Just out of curiosity I typed the Indian flute "bansuri" (one of my favorite instruments in the world) into the search field:

Clicking on "Bansuri Flutes" revealed almost 100 different bansuris available for purchase, across a wide range of prices and conditions.

Conclusion

This is not meant to be an advertisment for Reverb.com, and I don't get any commissions from them for writing it. Rather, it's one musician to another alerting you to a service that might help you buy or sell instruments, recording or sound reinforcement gear. I hope this information is useful to my fellow musicians, recording and live-sound professionals.

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Grant Maloy Smith

grant@grant-maloy-smith.com

www.grant-maloy-smith.com