Etsy is buying Reverb.com

ugh

Sounds like we need a competitive Real Gear Online marketplace.

Reverb is an, unpredictable, weird company. I was one of the first ReverbLessons.com music teachers (educational part of Reverb.com) & for 2 years the amount of students went up, at least, 50%. Things were going beyond well that they even increased payments to teachers & started paying weekly instead of bi-monthly. Into the 3rd year they folded & lists of students & records were sold to another company in San Diego,CA.

Wait, is Etsy buying Reeverb or Ruhverb?

That would be a hole in the market for sure...but goodness, Reverb has been a godsend.

I like Reverb too. Well laid out, easy. Fun to browse. Easy to buy and sell.

I agree that stuff on eBay is likely to sell faster with a wider audience. But man, you’ll pay for it. 10% selling fee is too much. Might not be bad on low dollar stuff, but if you’re selling a $2k compressor, that’s 200 bones up and gone. I’d rather wait a bit more and keep some of that in my pocket. Unless I’m desperate.

I live Reverb. I've never had a problem with them, have found their support robust and their fee structure transparent and fair, especially when it comes to shippers - FedX and UPS - Reverb has the clout to go to bat for you when the shipper fvcks up.

My daughter crochets hats - she'll start one during first period (rising HS sophomore) and have it done and sold for $20 by the end of the day. Having been self employed most of my adult life, I encouraged her to sit down with me to look at her time and materials as I want her to understand a thing you make is more then the cost of the materials - your time is important and valuable. She was also interested in expanding online. So we looked at similar products on Etsy and found that Etsy is really just a slow walk to the bottom. There is no way any of the makers we looked at are making a fair wage, let alone a living wage, for the products they make.

What does that mean for Reverb? Don't know, but the buy out gives me pause.

So true. I've been looking to pick up an AMS RMX-16 and those things have gone to absolutely insane prices compared to just a year ago. The new ones that come up seem to be priced on the "wow, here's one for a ridiculous price. Maybe I can get even more for mine."

Other than that, it's the only place I list anything and the experience has been nothing but good. Fees are fair which is good to have considering how greedy eBay became.

My one and only Reverb transaction about two years ago was shite.
After purchasing an item from someone in Hawaii, Reverb cancelled the transaction without notice causing me to incur about $80 in non refundable exchange rate transaction fees.
Although the sale was cancelled within only five minutes of initially going through no amount of correspondence with Reverb got me any of the fees back which Reverb said were bank charges and nothing to do with them.
The sale eventually did go through and I had to pay the transaction fees again.
Reverb blamed the cancellation on an “Algorithm” which had detected what they said was “suspicious activity”.
When I asked them whose algorithm it was and what was the suspicious activity it detected they declined to comment.

Never had a problem with Reverb.com - I've made hundreds of sales/purchases over the last 5 years without any issue.

I hope it is business as usual under the new ownership.

Agreed. Hard to see this as a good thing. When the CEO in the article describes Reverb as “Etsy for musical instruments,” it made me think that either he doesn’t actually understand what Reverb is, or that I don’t actually understand what Etsy is. Very few people on Reverb are making custom items for sale and doing BTO options.

I’m so tired of non-musical companies purchasing musical companies.

But hey, maybe I’ve misunderstood Etsy, or the nature of the buyout. Certainly possible.