I noticed that the prices seem to be higher on Reverb. Good for selling, not for buying. Do you agree, or do you think the prices are pretty equal?
I think when it all settles out, they're priced about the same...or at least close to it. Like JohnJ said, Reverb has that option for making an offer if you don't like the sales price. Truth to tell, I've never bought anything off Reverb that I didn't ask for at least a few bucks off, and I've never had anyone not willing to give it to me. I think everything I've gotten on there has been between 10% and about 30% less than posted.
When I sell stuff on there, I actually price it 10% or so higher than I want to take for it and then charge shipping on it so that I can come down if someone asks. I'll usually either give free shipping or give a few bucks off. That way I can look like the nice guy that my dog thinks I am. The only time I haven't done that was a very specific pedal that was in mint condition I was selling that a guy hounded me for several days to cut the price in half for him because someone else was selling one at the time for half the price that was used, abused, and beat to heck. Dude would not leave me alone about it. Since he kept pointing me to the other pedal for price comparison, I finally told him that, since he was so fixated on the price of the other pedal he needed to buy it and leave me alone. The next day he bought it from me for what I had been asking. That's the only time I haven't come off the price for something I was selling. Except for that choosy beggar, I've never had a negative experience buying and selling there.
As for CL, I
love buying gear there so long as they'll meet me in a very public location for the transaction. Even then I've run into some really sketchy characters. If you look long enough, you can find some killer deals there.
Thinking of CL, I had this one guy that tried to low ball me for some exercise equipment my wife wanted to sell. He gave me a ridiculously low offer that I declined, and then he offered the same price I had just turned down with the demand that I deliver it to him, which I again declined. Then, for the same piece of equipment, I had no less than 3 people work out a price with me, tell me they were on their way to come pick it up, and then never show. A couple of days later I pulled the sell ad and posted it as a curb alert (for those that may not know, that means "it's on the curb and free to the first person that picks it up") because I was tired of dealing with the CL nonsense. Lowball McCheap@$$ somehow spotted it in the free section and started texting me that it was his because he had offered to pay for it, but now he wanted it for free and demanded that I deliver it to him because I was now giving it away. That was the last time I tried to sell anything on CL.
