Your preferred place/method for selling gear

[popvulture]

I've always been much more of a gear hoarder than a flipper. I sell stuff now and then on Craigslist, but oddly enough I've never sold anything online and am curious if y'all can give me a few pointers. I've got a bunch of stuff I've been holding onto for way to long, and I'm realizing that keeping some of it is just plain stupid if I'm not using it and could put it towards something new. Plus I'm moving and need to downsize. Time to trim the fat.

First of all, preferred venue: eBay, Reverb, ILF B/S/T? Other? I hate dealing with Craigslist, so I'm only going that route with heavy stuff I don't want to ship (read: Tascam 388).

Secondly, what kind of return policy? I was thinking returns only for stuff that, for whatever reason, might arrive DOA. I've only had that happen once in all my years of buying shit, so hopefully I don't have to worry about that, but just in case...

On that note, do you insure stuff? I've had the best luck with USPS Priority (which others on here seem to like as well), but wonder if people typically pay for the extra insurance.

FWIW it's mostly pedals. In fact I think the only non-pedal thing other than the aforementioned 388 is a Roland VK-7 organ that's also heavy as shit.

Thanks in advance for the halp.

[Inconuucl]

A lot has to do with the item. There are items that would barely sell on Reverb that will sell here in a heartbeat, a vise versa. Everything here is super informal, so it depends on who you're dealing with. That's generally why I mostly only deal with those I recognize. The exception is purely selling, since I don't ship until money is in pocket.

Every package should always be insured at least by the free minimum. Tracking is basically a must nowadays.

[popvulture]

Yeah I'll probably put it all up on here first to see if anyone I know bites—that'd take a lot of the wondering out of it.

By "money in pocket" do you mean the PayPal payment has been sent, or do you mean specifically it's been sent and is all cleared/in your account?

Edit: the reason I ask is because I'm also a noob to receiving PP payments, so I don't know if there's any kind of limbo period, or if when it's sent, it's as good as in your pocket.

[Inconuucl]

convincing jwar.

aka letting him know it exists.

If that doesn't work, try Neonblack.

[rfurtkamp]

Mostly a case of "know your market" - here it's iffy, and very, very subject to the "what's hot" whim. Also this is not a top dollar classifieds IME.

Reverb I won't give my money to at this point, but that's another story.

I very rarely sell gear (since it has to be something I don't really see myself using any time in the future, which is pretty rare).

Returns only on DOA, you'll get hit with buyer's remorse constantly otherwise. Insure based on your comfort zone as well.

Be aware that someone has 180 days to file a complaint with Paypal, I shit you not.

[Jwar]

It works a lot of the times. LOL

So I don't use eBay to sell anything anymore. Why? Well to be quite honest, they are fuckers. Not only have I had people buy shit from me, and never pay, but they don't do anything about it either! The motherfuckers have to do it a ton of times in order for eBay to even ding them. There is also the fact that they charge you 10% on you sale there and then Paypal charges about 3%, so you're losing 13%. That's bullshit.

Reverb, I only use if I can't sell an item here or on Talkbass. So pretty much anything expensive. LOL! No offense you cheap bastards.

I prefer to sell on Talkbass over ILF any day of the week. ILF equals low ball offers and usually shitty trades that reek of cigarettes and beer. HOWEVER, I do have a handful of folks that I will buy, sell or trade with that I've had outstanding deals with. The same can be said for folks I will NOT trade with or sell to. I'll never say who though.

I only insure stuff if it's over 300 bucks. Otherwise I take the gamble. I've only got screwed ones out of hundreds of items I've shipped and that was fucking UPS, who I never use.

I don't do return policies unless there is a damn good reason. I don't buy into the buyers remorse bs. If someone has the money and they want it, then it's theirs, but if they ask for a refund, I'm never selling to them again. I've only had 2 refunds asked for ever and guaranteed I will never sell to them again. Don't fucking buy shit you don't want assholes. Now if it's broken or something, that's totally different. Shit happens in transit. It's happened to me. I usually contact the builder first. Most of the times it something simple and they will fix it.

Yea...that's all I've got for now. LOL

[rfurtkamp]

Yea, trades I almost never do. Too much hassle, too much risk for both parties.

That said, one of the few I was happy with I did here many years ago for a Blender RI that's been living on my board ever since.

[rfurtkamp]

That said, I *love* buying stuff here. So much good for cheap if you're patient.

[Jwar]

Don't get me wrong. I've taken trade risks on newbies just to help them out in a sense, but I don't do it often. When I do however, I know I may have to live with a bad decision. LOL.

Oh and cat hair in velcro. God damn you fucking cat lovers.

[popvulture]

Alright! All good tips, everything said makes sense.

I've never been on Talkbass, so I probably won't go that route... I can't imagine anybody would really wanna buy from me if I was just some stranger who popped up with a bunch of shit for sale. I'll probably start on here then see what happens with Reverb if I don't have any luck.

I didn't even take the eBay 10% into account. Fuck that. Also I'm with y'all on the whole trades thing, namely because I have never received even ONE trade offer that was a fair exchange, let alone something that magically happened to be something I wanted. Like the guy at my local guitar shop once said... "Yeah, I do trades. For money."

I'll get my shit together hopefully sometime this week, put it up on here and see what happens. For anyone interested, none of it will smell like cigs or beer

[peaches]

I did a pretty great trade on here, Cosmichorus for an Elements + cash. I know it is risky sometimes, but it payed off. I do generally use eBay for the convenience, but yeah, 13% hurts.

[Sardocasm]

I always go here and The Gear Page. I only go Craigslist if I really don't want to ship the thing. Seconded on the no returns. As long as it arrives in the condition advertised, that's the end of the transaction.

[space6oy]

here.

craigslist when someone isn't a pathetic lowballer.

[crochambeau]

Edit: the reason I ask is because I'm also a noob to receiving PP payments, so I don't know if there's any kind of limbo period, or if when it's sent, it's as good as in your pocket.

Paypal transfer to your bank basically puts those funds into total untouchable limbo for a few days, I think my average is three, but it can be more.. this is sort of the norm with other methods as well, if you NEED the money to keep going, expect it to take a week.

Take note, if you are relatively low paypal action up to this point, they also cap what you can transfer per month until you jump through a few more hoops, which is added delay. Probably not an issue if you just want to clear out some corners, but it can be a huge fucking deal if you have lost your job and are doing this to make rent (this was my situation a year ago).

I build, so I only really cover my expenses with insurance, with the expectation that it will be ME who is eating shit in the transaction if anything gets destroyed, that sense follows me while I'm packaging something so that it will not get destroyed. With other shit I'll insure it if I can't eat the loss.

I've had positive experience with reverb, won't do ebay any more. Direct contact/word of mouth is good, but places a bit more demand on trust. I won't even consider craigslist for gear, unless I'm meeting someone somewhere else (due to paranoia, mainly) - which eats too much fucking time. I've had decent luck rehoming the big heavy shit I've ousted with friends, you might take a hit on actual dollar value, but what you save on the shipping/risk nightmare might balance it out.

[PeteeBee]

I love trading on here. Or trades + cash by one party. I always try to offer things for sale at a good/great deal, bc I like you folks or some junk like that, which means whenever I sell something I lose money, whereas with trades it is consistently someone offering something I'd like and a very fair amount of cash to make up the difference.

Selling is a pain in the ass for me, not sure why. I just really don't like doing it.