How to get the most you can selling used gear?

williamsbclontz

Silver Member
It’s about that time. Gigs are slowing down for the next couple of months and there are bills to pay. I have several things I’m not using I could sell for a little cash. But I’ve never sold anything online before, so any tips you guys have for me would be useful?

I’ve got nothing really too cheap to sell on Craigslist or anything so I’m mainly looking at eBay and reverb. Mostly snares and maybe a cymbal or two I’m looking to part with. Any suggestions?
 
Take good pictures. And lots of them. Describe item in detail and accurately. Ask a fair and reasonable price. Be conscious of how much it costs to ship. A snare coast to coast can be $40. A 3 piece kit close to $200. Offer to meet buyer within 180 miles to save shipping on something like a kit.
 
Take good pictures. And lots of them. Describe item in detail and accurately. Ask a fair and reasonable price. Be conscious of how much it costs to ship. A snare coast to coast can be $40. A 3 piece kit close to $200. Offer to meet buyer within 180 miles to save shipping on something like a kit.

Would you suggest I cover shipping on my end or let the buyer cover shipping? Only selling snares, no large bass drums or anything
 
I wouldn't dismiss Craigslist and Kijiji so quickly. I've bought and sold enough off of those sites to have been left with a good impression. Also, there's plenty of good stuff on there too, not just lower end stuff (it's the mid-end stuff that's hard to find). If you do decide to use those sites, do, as suggested, take good pictures - use good lighting, an uncluttered background, and properly display what you're selling.

One hassle with buying and selling online is dealing with flakes. To weed them out, I like to move the conversation from text to phone. I can often tell more about someone by talking to them on the phone than by reading what they have to say. If they seem curious and eager online, but hem-and-haw on the phone (or refuse to take the call at all), that's a giveaway.

Even if you decide to use eBay or reverb, make sure your add is clear and concise. Focus on both the content, and the format, of the add. Preview it before you post it (better yet, have someone preview it for you); ask yourself if it's an add you would answer. If your item is really all that in demand, this may not matter so much, but if you're selling something that others are selling too, you want to do what you can to stand out.

I would let the buyer pay the cost of shipping. Offering to pay the cost of insurance is a useful bargaining chip (so don't mention that in your add).

Alternatively, if you are selling high end items, have you consider selling them to specialty stores? I don't know where you're located, but there's a store in Toronto that only resells vintage drums. Perhaps there's one near you.
 
I actually prefer selling online and not local. Seems I encounter more flakes when dealing locally, but a sale is a sale. I never give out my cell number and prefer to keep all correspondence via e-mail on via messages. CL is dying, use FB Marketplace and various drum specific Drum Sell and Trade Groups on there as well. Much more traffic and views and no fees other than the normal paypal 3%. I've been selling on ebay since 2001 and just started on Reverb. Both have selling fees but ebay gets more traffic. I would recommend setting up a paypal account to start with. I always sell items with free shipping, but I factor it in my final price. One thing to consider when selling online is all of the various fees can add up pretty fast, so make sure to consider that when setting your price.
 
Take excellent pics and give honest, thorough descriptions. I don't use Ebay for anything. They kill you for fees. Use Reverb and have an active paypal account for both sending/receiving money. I'll use Craigslist for smaller items like stands, hardware, pedals, cymbals etc. Find drum/musician groups on Facebook that are local to you. I've sold kits on Facebook Marketplace pages. Just a note to remember: Shipping far from your location is expensive, especially for full kits.
 
I have had tremendous success selling on Reverb.com
I have sold snare drums, cymbals, microphones, and audio interfaces on the site. I take plenty of good photographs, and shipping is included. If an item does not sell quickly then I turn on the “offer” mode. That allows people to make offers below my listing price. Reverb handles the financial transactions on their site. And the money is transferred to my bank account Once the transaction is complete.

The fees are about half of eBay fees. Some people do not want to pay fees to sell their equipment. Not to me. I want to get rid of the equipment as fast as possible.
 
- Be honest and show details but remember that you're advertising, so use a nice first photo in a favorable light (showing everything at once if you're selling things as a package)

- Write a few lines in the description. End on a cheerful note after mentioning potential flaws. Don't be tricky but also don't bad-mouth your items if nothing is broken (like "this model is from the less desired period 1973-1978").
- Use a lightly damp sponge to clean up heads and shells
- Use all characters for the title, e.g. include some keywords like 'vintage' if you want to. Some people don't include words like 'snare drum' in the title, so some potential customers miss out on it.
 
Be honest with people and have the patience of a saint :)

As a side note (I'm flogging stuff at the mo) be prepared for some professional bullshitters and time-wasters.

Someone came to collect a kit this morning from ebay. Didn't pay and spent 5 minutes blowing out of his arse with various excuses of why he didn't want it despite everything being photographed and accurately described. Reported them to ebay. Skulleted cretin!

Remember
* Musicians are cheap
* The public are arseholes
* People are full of shit
* Mixed in between those three points are the genuine people who are an absolute pleasure to deal with.
 
Take good pictures. And lots of them. Describe item in detail and accurately. Ask a fair and reasonable price. Be conscious of how much it costs to ship. A snare coast to coast can be $40. A 3 piece kit close to $200. Offer to meet buyer within 180 miles to save shipping on something like a kit.

Actually if you go on YouTube and search shipping drums there are a lot of videos on shipping drums. If you nest the drums for shipping you can ship a 3 piece a lot less than $200. I recently sold a 3 piece 22x14, 13x9, 16x16 set on Reverb and it cost me about $50 to ship it. That being said, I ended up able to nest the 13 in the 16 because it didn't have a suspension mount. Even if you put the 13" in a separate box it would still be under $100 to ship the 3 piece set. It arrived safe and sound and the buyer was happy. I was happy because it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Personally, I am a fan of Reverb. I would also say spring for the Reverb shipping protection if you are shipping any cymbal or drum as well. It doesn't cost a lot more (it is based on what you sold it for) and they will come in and take care of any damage and you don't have to deal with it.

As for listing, good pictures are key and so is proper descriptions. You want to make sure you describe everything accurately as well, otherwise even if you set the ad to "as-is" you can still be stuck with paying for return postage if it isn't described correctly.
 
Be honest with people and have the patience of a saint :)

As a side note (I'm flogging stuff at the mo) be prepared for some professional bullshitters and time-wasters.

Someone came to collect a kit this morning from ebay. Didn't pay and spent 5 minutes blowing out of his arse with various excuses of why he didn't want it despite everything being photographed and accurately described. Reported them to ebay. Skulleted cretin!

Remember
* Musicians are cheap
* The public are arseholes
* People are full of shit
* Mixed in between those three points are the genuine people who are an absolute pleasure to deal with.

This is true. Honestly I don't use eBay at all anymore because it seems to happen a lot. You also have the people who ask 1000 questions and then disappear as well. This happens sometimes on Reverb, but it isn't as bad. At least with Reverb the Reverb staff has been good about being an intermediary if needed.

If you set your stuff to accept offers, you should be prepared to have tons of low ball offers. This happens a lot because there are a number of people who basically buy and resell on there as well. Sometimes you will actually get an offer from "The Mothership" which is actually Reverb themselves looking to swoop in and buy a bunch from you for 60-70% what you are trying to sell for.
 
eBay was a great place to sell stuff, then they raised their fees and made the fee structure byzantine. The last time I sold something the combined fee was 20% (ebay + PayPal). I’ve got to be desperate to list on their site.

That said, in the mid-2000s I sold all my film gear (it was depressing) to buyers all around the world: Romania, Andorra, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Oz. These buyers were appreciative and it helped lift my depression.

CraigsList here sucks. Every time I list something, I get the guy who shows up and low-balls the price. What’er they called? Skulleted cretin!

True story:
I was selling a Canon large format printer on Craigslist. The cost when new was north of $5000 but Canon had ceased all support & parts for it (that’s another story for another time). I wanted to get rid of it so I listed it on Craigslist for $1. These printers are the size of a small horse and weigh about as much. Lo and behold, the Skulleted Cretin shows up and wants it for free. We had words, to say the least.
 
Good question. It's a sorta psychology to buying/selling question. You need to increase sales price if you include shipping. That makes price look higher. On other hand, "free" has positive psychological impacts. Big retailers must get huge discounts on shipping when they include it in price of new kits and price is still a bargain.

Would you suggest I cover shipping on my end or let the buyer cover shipping? Only selling snares, no large bass drums or anything
 
What’er they called? Skulleted cretin!

Skullet = Someone with long hair who is going bald and is in denial (William Shakespeare) Skull + Mullet = Skullet

Cretin - Self explanatory!

That's a polite description of the idiot I dealt with 4 hours ago!
 
Thanks everyone this is really useful information. I’m probably leaning towards using reverb but I’ll still keep eBay on the table and look into it.

One last question. Sometimes I’ll see guys post something for sale on both reverb and eBay. If it gets sold on reverb is there any sort of fee for removing the listing from eBay? And if there is a fee is it still worth it to get more traffic on your item from both sites? If that question makes sense?
 
Depends on where you ship to/from. California to other parts of California. Louisville to St Louis. But sell a kit to someone in California and you live in Atlanta and it's $116 via UPS. Packing material/box/tape is part of price you incur, too. So figure $30 or more for box and material. To nest a kit and ship it that way you have to be VERY careful in packing it. For quote above I used box size of 24x24x16. You get into dimensional shipping at that size. With packing and such and the 3 drums and weight of box and everything you're looking at 50 pounds. But a 24" box probably doesn't allow enough room for packing material for a 22" kick (only 1" each side). If you goto 28x28x20 box size that shipping price increases to $140. Add signature required and you're up to $150. Add buying box and packing material and you're at $170. That's a lot closer to $200 than it is to $50. And a 28x box might not be big enough either. Depends on how you pack hoops. Shipping can be a nightmare.

I have sold A LOT of items on both eBay and Reverb and Craigslist. A lot. I live east of Mississippi. For a full kit I always try Craigslist first and give it a few weeks if I'm not in a hurry because they are usually local buyers. A lot of flakes and scammers, too. I never give them my actual address. I always meet at a McDonalds or somewhere. On most everything I sell on Craigslist it has been someone not exactly local, but within a reasonable driving distance that I could meet half-way to deliver a kit. Actually, every kit I sold in last two years has been sold on Craigslist to someone in another city that was close enough to meet halfway, which saved hassle of packing and shipping.

I go right to eBay or Reverb for smaller items like a snare or pedals or stands.

On other points to selling, make sure you take pics of interior of shells. If a snare, take pics of snares, throw, and butt plate, too. If I see a snare for sale and all it has is one overhead pic of reso side, I don't even bother with it.

Protect yourself with an accurate description and lots of pics. I have purchased two snares in last 6 months described as excellent that had issues with strainers. An excellent snare doesn't have a bent strainer or a strainer that was installed improperly at factory. I returned them even though seller offered "no returns sold as-is" because description was inaccurate and both eBay and Reverb protect buyer in that regard. The returns were easy no hassles and I did not pay for return shipping in those cases. If it has a defect it is best to call it out in ad. Don't disguise it and end up getting the instrument back. I've bought a 1960's vintage Slingerland snare with "a hitch in the snare mechanism" because it was a good price that reflected the defect. But if it had been described as excellent no issue/ sold as-is and $100 more I would have returned it.
 
Don't forget the classified section here on the forum, General Discussion. I have bought and sold here. Not a lot of traffic, but still another option.
 
If it gets sold on reverb is there any sort of fee for removing the listing from eBay?

Nope. But if your ebay sale is an auction and someone has bid on it, you can't take it down without being subject to negative feedback or maybe worse(rightly so).
 
From someone who is currently more on the buying end: Reverb is the first place I check, followed by Facebook marketplace, followed by GC Used (lots of junk, but sometimes hot deals.) Craigslist is okay from time to time, but in general, I'd rather pay a bit for shipping and have stuff delivered to my door than pay for gas and spend five hours driving around (which is generally my experience with Craigslist.)

Photos are key, and I'm amazed at the gross photos I find online. It doesn't have to be professional - something clear will do. A sound file or video is even better - especially with something like snares or cymbals!
 
Bad ad: only one pic and it's not of snare throw. No description. And they want 75% of new price. The price would be OK if they had pics of everything on drum top bottom sides and a bit more description other than manufacturer and size. What if top batter is toast? What if bottom reso has a hole? What if a rim is bent, or throw arm is bent.

https://reverb.com/item/19976233-tama-soundworks-5-5-x-12-snare-2017

I've seen a lot of these lately. It may be a strategy to avoid returns. If you just list as "Excellent", include one pic, and no description then it would be hard to return for any reason.
 
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