Question about selling w Reverb / PayPal

[popvulture]

I've got some stuff I'm trying to sell and haven't had any luck on here or Craigslist, so I'm thinking about going the Reverb route, despite lots of negative comments. Gotta sell it somehow...

My question is this. Someone mentioned that with PayPal, buyers can dispute sales something like 6 months after purchase? I'm assuming this is reserved for total assholes, but has anyone actually had this happen? Finally, if it does happen, what does PayPal do? Do they inform you that this is happening and you have a chance to dispute it on your end, or do they just take the money back from you?

Potential dickhead buyers are the only real reason I've shied away from selling stuff online. Maybe I'm being paranoid.

[resincum]

I think after 3 months you can no longer file a dispute.

I've never had it escalate too far, but when a dispute happens I believe both parties have to provide evidence. like if you have the USPS receipt and shit like that, you should be safe.

someone tried to get a refund out of me because they decided they had too many pedals after buying mine. made it seem like he spoke to reverb already and I owed him. hit up support and they had my back. looked into messages, saw I was trying to diagnose the problem etc (he was saying some shit about power supplies before coming clean about having too many pedals) . I thought he fried it and I was boned, but reverb support made it clear that sellers & buyers are equally protected& he ended up flipping it himself. I guess people try to pull a lot of slimy shit on there

I've had like 20+ transactions on there and that was the only sketchy one; I like reverb

[PeteeBee]

Regretfully not helpful, but I had an issue with reverb and PayPal recently. I had my paypal linked with my debit card but not fully with my account, so I was able to buy and sell things on here and everywhere else, but when I sold things on reverb it didn't process the payment. Turned into a big headache, which reverb was actually very helpful with resolving.

[popvulture]

I think after 3 months you can no longer file a dispute.

I've never had it escalate too far, but when a dispute happens I believe both parties have to provide evidence. like if you have the USPS receipt and shit like that, you should be safe.

someone tried to get a refund out of me because they decided they had too many pedals after buying mine. made it seem like he spoke to reverb already and I owed him. hit up support and they had my back. looked into messages, saw I was trying to diagnose the problem etc (he was saying some shit about power supplies before coming clean about having too many pedals) . I thought he fried it and I was boned, but reverb support made it clear that sellers & buyers are equally protected& he ended up flipping it himself. I guess people try to pull a lot of slimy shit on there

I've had like 20+ transactions on there and that was the only sketchy one; I like reverb

See yeah, stuff like that is the reason why I've been hesitant. BUT... good to know Reverb has your back. I think I was just terrified of some scenario where I'd sold a pedal for something like $300 bucks, then months later check my balance and $300 is suddenly gone because someone disputed it. Glad to hear you get a chance to provide evidence.

[echorec]

I started using eBay before I was even out of high school (now you probably have to be 18). Between eBay/Reverb/Amazon, I've been involved in thousands of transactions and never had a buyer or seller I couldn't handle (about 18 years of online trading experience). There's always going to be someone who's had a bad experience, but I don't think buyers on Reverb are any worse than those on eBay or Amazon. If you are professional and courteous, people will generally work with you. I've also never had anyone try to return music equipment to me more than two weeks after the item arrived. I really would not worry about someone getting buyer's remorse 6 months later. It's 2016, people have camera phones, and it's generally going to be much easier just to resell something, rather than going through hoops to get a refund from the original source.

(1) Put your shipping receipts in a folder or a drawer, in case you ever have to file an insurance claim for lost items (this protects you against the hosting site/PayPal/shipping carrier/any potential scam artists).

(2) Spell out your terms in your listings, whenever possible, because many buyers won't visit your shop page to read your profile. It also should be noted in your home page that you don't refund shipping. This also motivates people to resell the items themselves, instead of coming back to you for help. A scammer doesn't want to lose $15-20 to return things.

With Reverb, for example, you can define your refund policy and shop terms (no refunds, or if you want to use Affirm to boost your sales, then you adopt the 3/7 day policy: 3 days for used, 7 days for new). I've done about 100 transactions on Reverb over 3 years and only had 2 people request refunds (both times the pedal was just over their heads: IE Cygnet & an Echolution2). I reluctantly allowed them to return the merchandise less than a week after the sale, and both times I was able to sell it again immediately, so there wasn't much hassle there.

Sometimes, though, things will falter. It happens, so if someone contacts you three weeks later with a credible report, then I'd encourage you to point them to a troubleshooting forum or to aid them with possible warranty claims (if you were the original owner). If that's not possible, you may try to reimburse them a repair credit, depending on the item. Ninety-nine percent of the people I've sold to are reasonable and fairly easy to work with. Once a guy contacted me a year later about one of those green TC Transition delays. He didn't want a refund, but he was looking for warranty support. It had failed after extensive touring, and so I logged into my online account to produce the receipt info. TCE was willing to repair the item, because they received proof of purchase.

(3) Never skip the insurance. Sure it's three more dollars, but do you want to open yourself up to losing $300 instead?

If you've got more questions or concerns, just post them.

[Kacey Y]

There's a pretty fair, straight forward process for mediating disputes on PayPal. If someone has a problem, they file a complaint and the seller is given a certain amount of time to respond. If no response is filed, they buyer gets a summary judgement in their favor and full refund. If the seller does respond, they're given a chance to work it out and if it doesn't pan out, then it goes to PayPal and they decide. I've never had to go that far as a seller and as a buyer only dealt with the summary judgement part, because the seller never sent the pedal I bought and just never responded. Reverb is also pretty fair and understanding as well. I think so long as you lay out your terms and price things with fees in mind on Reverb, it's fine. I've sold a few dozen pieces of gear there ranging from pedals to amps and instruments and not had a problem so far, except for one time someone buying a pedal and then wanting a refund before I shipped because they had buyers remorse. It was irritating, but I didn't lose any money on it and the people at Reverb helped me sort it out without much problem over a customer service chat.

[popvulture]

Thanks, y'all--super helpful/encouraging tips

[Jwar]

Pretty sure it's 6 months with Paypal now. I'd have to double check, but it was. That means they can open a dispute, but I've yet to have an issue like that and I've sold a fuck ton of stuff. Not a ton on Reverb, but in general, although I have sold on Reverb many times now. It works fine. What sucks is the extra percentage they charge you. You kind of have to figure that shit into your pricing. They also don't bill you for it for a month, so keep that in mind when selling. I've forgotten many times and had to take it out of my bank account to cover their fees. Wish they would just auto pull that shit. Kind of annoying.

Reverb also has bumping system, but if you're selling something unique, it won't help you at all. It's kind of a trick they use to gain extra capital because I swear that shit is worthless. It's never helped me sell shit. So I wouldn't use it unless you feel you have to.

For returns. I always stick to what they recommend even though you have an opportunity to do it however you'd like. Why? Well over the years of selling things, I've learned that if you offer returns, people are twice as likely to purchase. I have only had a return once on eBay and I've sold probably thousands of items online at this point. Not a bad thing if you ask me.

I'll second the insurance UNLESS it's a lower priced item and you can afford to risk it. I've done that many, many times and not had an issue. But it only has to happen that once to be a kick in the teeth. I insure over a hundred bucks on sites like Reverb or eBay. I almost never insure if selling to someone here or Talkbass or other sites. Again, I've only ever had one issue and it worked out in my favor in the end. Not all are as lucky as me though. If it's an amp or guitar, I always insure. Pedals, not so much. USPS is great about getting shit to you now, UPS sucks balls though. lol

I also want to say, I've had a bitch of a time selling anything that's not super hype in the last six months or so. People just don't have money right now it seems. Sucks ass for everyone.

[popvulture]

Yeah I've got some things that would probably do well with the TGP crowd, but I don't wanna deal with TGP, so... I think Reverb's probably the best bet. EBay charges a bigger percentage, no?

[Jwar]

Yea eBay charges 10% and PayPal charges 3.5%. I think reverb is still under 4. So much better option.

[popvulture]

Welp, put about 9 pedals up and one sold within a couple of hours at asking price. At the post office now... let's see how this all goes

[Bartimaeus]

I've sold almost a dozen bits of gear (pedals, synth modules, etc) and never had a problem. Bought a few things too with no issues. As a long-time ebay user, I've been very happy with the lower fee. That said, certain things just never sell on reverb, so I usually list things on ebay instead if they don't sell in a couple of week.

Thanks for the tips, echorec, that's some really good advice!

[repoman]

Reverb is super handy for selling stuff because I live in the middle of no where, so craigslist sucks but their fees have been creeping up. Still not as bad as ebay but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets there in a couple years. They just tacked on some other fee thing, has to do with the direct checkout where you now get hit with a fee for that. I had used that before to avoid using paypal. You can still use the direct checkout on reverb to avoid using paypal (and the idiotic 90 day or whatever return thing...I think).


I've sold about 50 things on Reverb, only had one issue (guy 'couldn't figure out' how to refund a returned item). Reverb was really unhelpful here and said they couldn't do anything even though they had access to all the messages/transaction where he admitted to receiving the return. Was super frustrating, finally got the refund after about 6 weeks when I contacted paypal.

[popvulture]

Una pregunta más...

So if Reverb has a sale, say over the 4th of July weekend or something, do you opt into it? I know they offer sales on "select pedals" etc sometimes, but I was just wondering mainly if they ever put your stuff on sale without asking.

Doesn't seem likely, but I figure ya never know.

[echorec]

Una pregunta más...

So if Reverb has a sale, say over the 4th of July weekend or something, do you opt into it? I know they offer sales on "select pedals" etc sometimes, but I was just wondering mainly if they ever put your stuff on sale without asking.

Doesn't seem likely, but I figure ya never know.

You have to go to your selling page and use the drop-down bar to manually add your items to sales. If your items don't qualify, then they can also be rejected (like listing new items during a 'used' event or listing guitars during a 'synth' sale).

It's a better time to buy than to sell from my experience. I sometimes inflate prices slightly, before bundling them with a sale code. People pay basically the same cost, but it lets those irritating bargain hunters feel like they've won something.