Reverb.com Price Increase

[Markyboard]

From an email I received this morning:

 

I"m writing to share upcoming changes that will enable us to significantly grow our marketplace so that we can help you reach even more buyers all over the world. Beginning on August 4, 2020, we are increasing our selling fee for the first time everâ â from 3.5 % to 5%.

 

 

Still about half the price of ebay, significant shipping discount and I just completed yet another very pleasant transaction last week selling a PC2R that sat out there for well over a year.

[BluMunk]

Hah! I just logged in to post this.

 

Businesses have to do what businesses have to do, I guess. But increasing the fee over 40% feels very much like a money grab.

 

And, their email is bullshit marketing garbage, starting with the title "Growing Together".

 

Here are the "benefits" we're going to get from this major markup:

 

• Investing over 30% more in marketing initiativesâincluding SEO, online video advertising, and other digital advertisingâto get your inventory in front of more buyers from around the world.
  
• Expanding by more than 25% the capacity of our global customer support team focused on assisting you and your buyers as we grow.
  
• Increasing by more than 40% the capacity of our product team focused on creating and enhancing seller tools and services to increase the visibility of your shop and inventory.

 

 

Maybe there are some benefits here for retail shops that use Reverb as their online store/platform, but for us schlubs who use it to occasionally buy and sell used gear, this is a losing proposition.

[KuruPrionz]

I wish it was not happening but I am sure it was inevitable. Typically I only ship to the lower 48 states so "expanding" does me no good. I shipped internationally for a while on eBay but there are too many problems. The time Italian Customs kept a package for over 2 weeks comes to mind.

 

Reverb has grown, one can only work so many 14 hour days before the world becomes a bleak and bleary place.

 

Still not only less expensive than eBay but far less cumbersome. Ebay's practice of taking their cut of your earnings once a month at the end of the month is tedious and inconvenient. Reverb's method of taking their fees from each sale as it happens is much more effiicient for all concerned.

 

Everything gets a chance to sell on craigslist first, it's a limited resource up here but no shipping and no fees is appealing.

[AnotherScott]

I wonder if this will help Free Music Tribe gain any traction. They do at least have the resources of Berhinger behind them.

[ElmerJFudd]

Disrupt with low fee. Get market share. Raise fee.

[KuruPrionz]

I'll have to check but eBay matched Reverb's fees for their Guitar section only - 3.5%. This was surely an attempt to maintain market share.

If eBay stays at 3.5% for guitars, I may go back there to sell guitar related items.

 

I'm fairly new to Reverb and like it but 1.5% adds up over time. I've been on eBay since 2000 and have 886 feedback at 100% positive. I do like auctions for selling some things, you can get higher prices for some items than you would selling at a set price. Staging the auction makes all the difference.

 

I am loyal to the dollars in my wallet, everybody else can go fish.

[Marzzz]

Reverb is still better than eBay for me- just finished doing several transactions, all went well. 1.5% on a $1000 item is $15.00, I guess I can work with that.

[Doerfler]

Reverb is still better than eBay for me

 

I haven't bought or sold anything used for a while but agree with Marzzz here

[KuruPrionz]

I agree with Marzzz too, overall I prefer Reverb.

 

Sometimes I sell photography equipment, eBay wins there.

 

If I start an eBay 10 day auction on a Thursday so it ends on Sunday afternoon (gotta accomodate the East Coast bidders!) and open with a 98 cent starting price, I can often get more for an item than I would expect.

It is also important to time it to end in the middle of the month, the first paycheck of the month is the one people spend on bills, the second has more "discretionary" potential.

That strategy only works if the item is something lots of people want. More obscure items are better put up on Reverb.

 

On Reverb, you start high and consider Offers - which will always be lower than your ask price. On the other hand, timing is not as important and overall the experience is much smoother on Reverb. I am committed to staying with them for the most part.

[zxcvbnm098]

Don't forget they are now under new ownership, which surely has something to do with the increase.....

[tunaman]

That"s too bad... they should spend more time and resources trying to get their service out there more broadly, rather than raising their rates. Standard supply and demand principals - more customers at lower rates equates higher profits and growth.

 

I had no idea they were out there until I stumbled on them when searching for my Kronos last October. Reverb is now my first go-to, but looking at the volume of listings there as opposed to eBay they are far behind the curve... raising their rates won"t help, I"m afraid.

[Docbop]

I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner. I expected it to happen right after Chicago Music Exchange sold Reverb. All in all it's just part of business and as other say they are better than the alternative. As long as things stay the same or get better then all is good by me.

[Dave Bryce]

Businesses have to do what businesses have to do, I guess. But increasing the fee over 40% feels very much like a money grab.

To me as well....and I'm not sure what they can do to improve that much to warrant this.

 

Disrupt with low fee. Get market share. Raise fee.

 

I believe they're doing killer business right now. I've sold a bunch of stuff there over the past month or so. I had planned to keep selling stuff leisurely there as I'm reconfiguring my studio...but now I'm probably gonna see how much I can get to move this month to try and avoid this.

 

dB

[midinut]

It figures. Just my luck. db is getting ready to unload a ton of really cool gear and I'm broke! Sheesh!

[ChazKeys]

I only pay £1 to sell on eBay. I get a "sell anything for a £1" offer about once a month so I just hang on until the offer comes around. However, I'm aware this offer may not be available to everyone. They still make their 3.5% from PayPal anyway.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

The main reason I love Reverb is because conflict resolution over their deals is a lot more evenhanded than you'll get on Ebay. Ebay's resolution process is very heavily weighted toward the buyer, and there are any number of scams that leave the seller basically helpless and that Ebay won't touch.

 

Just one example: a friend of mine posted a Korg workstation (a Triton, I think) on Ebay. He figured he'd get top dollar for it because it had, among other things, the fairly rare MOSS daughterboard in it. He sold it and shipped it, and the buyer claimed that it had arrived without any daughterboards in it. He filed a complaint with Ebay, my friend got dinged for shipping both ways, got back an empty workstation, and had a sale-abuse flag posted against him, while his buyer walked off laughing.

 

I won't buy anything off Ebay that costs more than $100, and I won't sell on Ebay at all if I can help it. Reverb helped me find a really good buyer for some vintage gear I sold recently and the entire process was painless and polite.

 

Just my 5L worth.