Classifieds - how do you buy/sell?

[Stokely]

Hello! I didn't want to post this in the Classifieds themselves, and considered private messaging a few other sellers about this...but I'll ask my ignorant question here, darn the torpedoes.

 

I'm embarrassed to say I think I have asked this before, but if I did my memory is failing me on any responses. I went year by year in search and could not find my thread if I did--I also went year by year trying different terms to see if anyone else had asked, so go easy on me!

 

Basically: how does one do "safe" selling and buying via classifieds if you are shipping? I have seen one or two reverb listings there, but mostly it's PMs and it's unknown how people are arranging things.

 

Obviously I know there is a 30 real post threshold, so do people just use trust? Some kind of escrow (which reverb would also be sort of) that takes a slice?

 

Sorry for the dumb question, just didn't see anything in the stickies or in all the seller posts. Obviously saving 5% or whatever it comes to be is a pretty big deal, but in the past I've used reverb for a bit more peace of mind (granted, with non-forum members). I'd also like to sell to other forum members just because I really enjoy this community even if I've taken more than I've given

[cphollis]

My understanding is that you're pretty much on your own buying/selling on this forum, much like it would be if you used Craigslist.

 

That being said, a much nicer bunch of people here who I have found trustworthy.

[Outkaster]

Well most people can be trusted here I found out. Most of the time when I am selling Leslie speakers I know what I am getting to just by how the person responds, Shipping is different. Ask to see Reverb or examples of E-bay auctions. What are you trying to sell?

[Docbop]

I've purchased from the classified ads on guitar forums I belong to over the years. I would only buy from people I knew were long term members and I would usually exchange a couple private emails and see how it felt before committing. I found I got better descriptions of the gear and condition it was in.

I liked doing it that way so they weren't paying fees to eBay or Reverb. Last buy off a forum if things to go south you can broadcast it to everyone and the person will resolve or disappear.

[Stokely]

Well most people can be trusted here I found out. Most of the time when I am selling Leslie speakers I know what I am getting to just by how the person responds, Shipping is different. Ask to see Reverb or examples of E-bay auctions. What are you trying to sell?

 

Electro 6 that I bought new and haven't owned that long, so it's a fairly pricey item. I think if it was my normal "bought used at way less than original new cost" gear it would be a bit less of a concern.

 

I'm trying for local first--and the first couple responses I've gotten reminded me why I dislike CL so much....

 

Thanks for the replies!

[RandyFF]

I bought my latest board from a long time forum member. This guy has sold things before on this forum, and the posts from that showed that he followed thru. In my case it was almost a deal too good to be true, but it all worked out

[KuruPrionz]

I've been an ebay seller since 2000 with 882 feedback at 100% positive. Recent fee hikes and new rules that I feel unfairly divide buyers and sellers have prompted me to look elsewhere for selling music gear.

Reverb is much less expensive for the seller and therefore often for the buyer. I've only sold 2 items so far and purchased one, everything has been fine.

 

I've sold on craigslist for years. I always put:

"Local cash only, I will not ship or meet in other cities" at the end of my ads.

It seems to eliminate scammers/spammers. I never get them, at all.

I also find it is a good indicator if the potential buyer includes a phone number in their response.

Since I use a phone that is never on the internet and has no passwords or credit card information on it there is nothing to hack but my contact list.

 

You can tell a lot about somebody with a short phone conversation. So far, so good. I've had a couple of "buyers" drop off the face of the earth. It happens.

 

I live in a muiti unit condo, there is a power plug close to my parking space (for maintenance use). So I could demonstrate something down there and the buyer will never know where I live except that it is in a gated 33 unit "secure" building.

 

I've often met buyers and sellers at the food court in our local Fred Meyer store. That is a comfortable place for everybody, public with cameras. No shenanigans gonna happen there.

[Brad Kaenel]

Basically: how does one do "safe" selling and buying via classifieds if you are shipping? I have seen one or two reverb listings there, but mostly it's PMs and it's unknown how people are arranging things.

 

Yes, it's an "honor system"; there are no financial or legal safeguards like with Reverb or eBay, for example. That said, this is a small, knowable and, in my experience, quite honorable community. I've had zero issues selling (and buying) lots of gear through our Classifieds.

 

Trust flows both ways, and the most foolproof method to establish that, in my mind, is a simple phone call. No texting, no email -- *talk* to the person you would like to purchase gear from, and work out the details directly. I think you will find that all of us who have gear to sell will do what is necessary and reasonable to make transactions simple and easy, and that sellers are genuinely interested to knowing that their buyers are happy. We all live in this forum together; people will know when folks are not treated well.

 

Send a PM to the owner of the gear you're interested in; include your private email and phone number, and ask him to send you his. If you can't get that far, find another seller.

 

[Mr. Nightime]

I bought my Neo Vent from a forum member. Sale went through without a hitch, and I still use it every gig. Only issue was the power supply failed after several years. Got a replacement, and it's still working perfectly.

[Dr88s]

I have both bought and sold on classifieds here. My buyer was very active here and the idea of being scammed barely crossed my mind. I guess selling to a new member with less than 50 or so posts may be a little more dangerous. Generally, have some back and forth messages about the item and you"ll soon get a sense if the buyer is legit and really wants your specific item.

[Konnector]

Hmmm.... I don't "ship", either as a buyer or seller. I've seen too many items beaten and bruised by the freight companies. (Mostly from my experiences at work.)

For used gear, I buy/sell locally using Craigslist. I want to see the item and try it out before I buy it, which is the more important reason. If I'm selling, I'll give the person directions to my place once he calls me on route and I know they're actually coming. So far it's worked out fine. Of course, if you don't live in a big city then Craigslist may not be convenient.

[Marzzz]

I generally have used Reverb, especially for guitar gear. For keyboards, I tend toward listing something here or at Gearslutz, and feel confident if the buyer had been on the forum for awhile. eBay had gotten too expensive, and to be honest Reverb has upped their fees a bit also, since they were bought out by Etsy.

[Motif88]

I"m fortunate enough to live in metro NY and have been a Sam Ash customer for 40 years... I trade in my gear. Despite the loss, it"s easier to deal with and get newer gear which I"ve been doing for quite a long time. However, I wish I had kept some of my classic gear.

[gd1]

I"ve bought and sold on various forums, Ebay and last week tried Facebook Marketplace with excellent results (synth sold and picked up within 2 days). I once traded a JD800 straight up for a Juno60 while on Vintage Synth. A huge leap of faith as I shipped first, waiting for its arrival before the Juno shipped. The JD box was trashed upon arrival thankfully I had plenty of other packing around it even at that a corner cap was broken but all else was fine. He shipped the Juno, the box was a mess but no damage to the synth. He still has the JD and I the Juno 9 years later. I"ll ship a rack these days but not a kybd.

[mate stubb]

I buy and sell either on this forum or on Reverb.

[J. Dan]

What do you mean by "sell"? I've never heard of such a thing.

[mauriziodececco]

Personally, never sold/bought hardware on this forum, because most of the sellers are in another continent :->.

 

I sell/buy on a french site (audiofanzine) and bought sometime from VI Control

 

My rule of thumb: small amounts, buying or selling, i trust people; here, VI Control or audiofanzine are places where people "live", usually people is ok, friendly and helpful; sometime, *very* helpful :->.

audiofanzine is larger, and there are a lot of people that just sell/buy and do not participate to the community, so you need a bit of caution, but the

site keep the transaction history and reputation of people, so you can check if a guy has been around for a while or not.

 

For medium/high amounts, i always sell hand to hand, no shipment; i want to be sure that the buyer is happy with what he buys, that he tested the equipment, and everything is fine when he leave.

This is somehow simplified by the fact that i live in Paris, where live around 1/6th of the french population, and probably half of the musicians.

 

Maurizio

[Markyboard]

...and to be honest Reverb has upped their fees a bit also, since they were bought out by Etsy.

 

I just sold something on Reverb the other day and I don't believe this is true- at least not yet.

 

Reverb Fee: 3.5%

Payment Processing Fee 2.75%

 

Maybe they increased their optional bump fee?

 

If you ship through Reverb the cost is close to half of going it on your own.

 

 

Whatever market you sell on I find talking to the buyer on the phone is the best way to set both you and the buyer's mind at ease. I also offer up my email and cell # for questions/advice at any time in the future.

[Biggles]

Depends upon where in the world you live.

 

There is more to this Earth than the USA.

 

Over here in the UK there are options:-

 

Craig"s List, totally useless

 

Reverb, next to useless

 

Marketplace, pretty useless.

 

Trading-in, variable since not all music stores offer trade-in deals and fleece would be a better term than deal.

 

So that leaves Ebay which at high fees mean you have to set a minimum cost to allow for the large fees and even allowing for that two recent keyboard sales resulted in the equivalent of me getting $500 more than I would trading-in.

 

Finally it is a private sale to someone you know or via local advertising.

[Stokely]

Thanks again for all the replies.

 

I think I'll make more of an effort to sell locally. Because the sale will help me buy something else I'm a bit anxious to git er done but I'll have to show some patience most likely.

 

I live in Orlando, so not a tiny town but I seem to get VERY few actual serious buyers for anything on CL so it gets a bit frustrating. One of the replies I got was so disjointed that it almost couldn't have been from a person, yet I would have expected a bot to make more grammatical sense

[RandyFF]

...and to be honest Reverb has upped their fees a bit also, since they were bought out by Etsy.

 

I just sold something on Reverb the other day and I don't believe this is true- at least not yet.

 

Reverb Fee: 3.5%

Payment Processing Fee 2.75%

 

Maybe they increased their optional bump fee?

 

If you ship through Reverb the cost is close to half of going it on your own.

 

 

Whatever market you sell on I find talking to the buyer on the phone is the best way to set both you and the buyer's mind at ease. I also offer up my email and cell # for questions/advice at any time in the future.

Say what? What do you mean, ship thru Reverb? That would be a hell of a good way to sell, UPS for shipping a long and heavy board is $50-60?

[Stokely]

Shipping is quite a bit, yes.

 

"Shipping through reverb" I don't understand, when I sold it was up to me to arrange shipping, and up to me to put that into the cost (or not) ?

 

My work packs and ships for employees (we pay the biz office) and gave me quite a range depending on the zip code. For my v-combo packed in a soft case and box (around 60 pounds iirc), the local ups store was going to charge 160 bucks to ship.

[mate stubb]

Don't EVER use a UPS store unless you want to pay double. Pack it securely yourself (you DID save the original box, didn't you?) and take it to the actual UPS office.

[eric]

I have many virtual and real friends via this forum. I've done countless deals based on the network here. A few of us have even bought and sold or traded the same gear back and forth with each other. I have a triumvirate of close friends made on this forum and we always give each other "first right of refusal" before any gear is advertised. There's also the MAKCFH crew from NC, VA, DC, MD that gets together almost annually (usually at Markyboard's house, but other venues as well). Many gear deals have gone down via this group. I am usually able to move many things via these connections without even listing the items.

 

Not long ago, I had a couple of extra Nords that I posted here and sold them to longtime members who I've seen posting for years/decades and it's like connecting with an old friend.

 

When I need to go outside of the forum, I started using Reverb a couple of years ago and it works well. I was an early eBay user from late '90s, but my user ID was hacked and taken over after about ten years, so I pretty much had to start over and I abandoned eBay entirely. This was also around the time that eBay was flooded with retailers and resellers vs. individuals selling cool niche gear. I never even look at eBay nowadays.

 

I've only used Craigslist once or twice to sell a vehicle and that experience gets weirder every time.

[Markyboard]

 

"Shipping through reverb" I don't understand, when I sold it was up to me to arrange shipping, and up to me to put that into the cost (or not) ?

 

 

True. What I meant was once your item sells you then have the option to create your UPS shipping label from the Reverb website. They must get a bulk discount and I found it to be significant. I went to the UPS website, input the dimensions and weight with the shipping info and the cost was nearly double that of generating the UPS label on the Reverb site.

 

Yes a full size keyboard like the PC3K8 cost around $60 for a UPS shipping label from Reverb. But iirc it was over $100 doing it directly on the UPS site.

[Stokely]

Ah I see, I didn't realize you could do that.

[gd1]

Do most still use PayPal for those non cash transactions?

[Docbop]

Do most still use PayPal for those non cash transactions?

 

 

I like to use PayPal for buying things and for my Skype lessons, because I don't have to give my credit card to people/places I'm not familiar with. Also when getting something from Europe they automatically do the exchange rate. I especially like PayPal for subscriptions since I can cancel the payment myself and not rely on some company to do it.

 

For the rare person who doesn't do PayPal if I know them from a forum or emailed and have a good feeling about them I will go to bank get a cashier's check and send it overnight to them.

[Outkaster]

I have many virtual and real friends via this forum. I've done countless deals based on the network here. A few of us have even bought and sold or traded the same gear back and forth with each other. I have a triumvirate of close friends made on this forum and we always give each other "first right of refusal" before any gear is advertised. There's also the MAKCFH crew from NC, VA, DC, MD that gets together almost annually (usually at Markyboard's house, but other venues as well). Many gear deals have gone down via this group. I am usually able to move many things via these connections without even listing the items.

 

Not long ago, I had a couple of extra Nords that I posted here and sold them to longtime members who I've seen posting for years/decades and it's like connecting with an old friend.

 

When I need to go outside of the forum, I started using Reverb a couple of years ago and it works well. I was an early eBay user from late '90s, but my user ID was hacked and taken over after about ten years, so I pretty much had to start over and I abandoned eBay entirely. This was also around the time that eBay was flooded with retailers and resellers vs. individuals selling cool niche gear. I never even look at eBay nowadays.

 

I've only used Craigslist once or twice to sell a vehicle and that experience gets weirder every time.

 

Eric same is me really.

 

[J. Dan]

I used to do buy/resell through eBay quite a while now don't use PayPal and will only eBay if I can use a credit card. Here's how it started: initially you could tie PayPal to a credit card, which is how I used them figuring I got additional protection from the credit card in the event that fraudulent online activity were to occur. When PayPal started requiring that it be tied to an actual bank account, I never supplied that info. On top of that, the email I used for everything was tied to a domain that I owned. I let it (the domain) lapse briefly enough that a company picked it up and still owns it to this day (not doing anything with it) and will graciously sell it back to me for $5000. No thanks. Can't do anything with the original PayPal or eBay accounts without that email. On top of that, onetime I tried to do a small online donation ($10) and thought I was selecting a credit card payment option, which somehow ended up being PayPal credit, after which point I have a collection attempt from PayPal for $10 when my intention was to either use my card or just not make the donation but it couldn't be reversed apparently. I have since done purchases on eBay under a new account if they take credit cards.

 

Otherwise, local transactions, cash, money order, or Zelle.