My first sale on reverb….

Well, if you can't beat the competition, BUY THEM. Then make them just as screwed up as you or EVEN MORE....

siliconprairienews.com

Reverb acquired by Etsy - Silicon Prairie News

Last Monday, Etsy announced its $275 million acquisition of Reverb. Reverb is a Chicago based music gear marketplace and community. According to Barron’s and Pitchbook, Etsy is not a frequent acquiring company. In fact, their most recent acquisition was Blackbird Technologies in 2016. However...
siliconprairienews.com siliconprairienews.com
 
RetiredUnit1 said:
Well, if you can't beat the competition, BUY THEM. Then make them just as screwed up as you or EVEN MORE....

siliconprairienews.com

Reverb acquired by Etsy - Silicon Prairie News

Last Monday, Etsy announced its $275 million acquisition of Reverb. Reverb is a Chicago based music gear marketplace and community. According to Barron’s and Pitchbook, Etsy is not a frequent acquiring company. In fact, their most recent acquisition was Blackbird Technologies in 2016. However...
siliconprairienews.com siliconprairienews.com
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That’s when it all changed. 👎🏻

Good for buyers, bad for sellers. Like eBay.
 
I've sold several pedals on Reverb. I've sold several pedals direct. I've even sold a few pedals through my favorite local guitar store (though not as many as I've sold direct to my friends at my favorite local guitar store).

That being said, my wife and I already had a business license and company set up when she was doing a lot of work through Etsy (before things got crazy over there), so once I started actually trying to sell anything, I set it up to where I could put together an accurate P & L and take anything that was purely for the business side off as an expense.

I'm not making a huge profit... or really any profit once everything gets thrown in... but honestly that was never the goal in the first place. I love building pedals, sharing the tone at a very reasonable price, and this is a way to make the hobby pay for itself... almost... kinda... sorta.... no, not really at all, but hey, who doesn't love dinos, right?
 
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Do any of you all sell on Gear Page or other sites? If so, are there any pitfalls?

I have sold in Reverb, but like others, I have to jack up the price to accommodate the fleecing of wallets. I would rather the buyer get a better deal.

I am not running a business, but want to sell pedals that I am not planning on keeping. I mainly enjoy the building and experimenting with the sounds. Selling them helps keep the budget neutral and the wife happier!
 
Guardians of the analog said:
That's what I like about Instagram. Always people out there looking for unique stuff. And many of us hobby builders prop each other up on their. If someone is looking for something and I'm not into it (wether for price, the circuit, or most often lack of time), then I will tell them to hit up a number of people who I support and vouch for their work. Best of all no sellers fees and that means I can be more empowered and flexible in what I charge.
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I'm not much of a social media dude. How do you go about getting your pedals noticed on Instagram?

Tags, following the right folks, description, etc?
 
jhaneyzz said:
I'm not much of a social media dude. How do you go about getting your pedals noticed on Instagram?

Tags, following the right folks, description, etc?
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Social media can be hard to be seen in. It takes time to establish yourself. First don't go showing janky work, put your best foot forward. Be realistic, you have to be honest with yourself about what your looking to sell and with others. Make connections, with other builders/sellers and pedal accounts. Tagging, get featured by other accounts, and be seen. Most important, treat people right and sell good pedals, they will come back for more, refer you and you will get commissions or sell what you don't use.
 
jhaneyzz said:
I'm not much of a social media dude. How do you go about getting your pedals noticed on Instagram?

Tags, following the right folks, description, etc?
Click to expand...
Tags and following the right people is a big part of it. Also following the tags that the audience you want to reach follows is important too. My ex and I made a little Instagram pedal building/selling page, and while it wasn't big by any means we were able to get a couple hundred followers just from that. The biggest thing that seemed to be successful with getting "exposure" was just getting the tags right and being fairly active with it. Getting on every day, even if only for a few minutes, to follow new tags and like/follow accounts that were part of the market you're trying to reach eventually started paying off. Kind of sucks how much of a grind it is though, and after a while it takes a bit of the fun out of it when it starts to feel like you're spending a bunch of time on something that doesn't really have that high of a return.
 
From what I've read so far, in addition to creating an aversion to Revurb...

I realise I am destined to failure if ever I attempt to build a pedal company, as I have ZER0 interest in social-bleedia such as


Twatter
Fecal Brook (endless streams of shi...)
Instacrammage
Snatchpat
dumblr
Pinterrorist
Dinkedlin
DikDok
Whatasap

:rolleyes:

If so-called socialmedia swips your flitch, great, but for me it's just grate — Alas, I'm "on" a couple of the aforemenschshunned splatforms, unnecessary evils of living in the currrant rage.


I suppose some consider this forum as social-media, but luckily for me I don't.
 
Feral Feline said:
From what I've read so far, in addition to creating an aversion to Revurb...

I realise I am destined to failure if ever I attempt to build a pedal company, as I have ZER0 interest in social-bleedia such as


Twatter
Fecal Brook (endless streams of shi...)
Instacrammage
Snatchpat
dumblr
Pinterrorist
Dinkedlin
DikDok
Whatasap

:rolleyes:

If so-called socialmedia swips your flitch, great, but for me it's just grate — Alas, I'm "on" a couple of the aforemenschshunned splatforms, unnecessary evils of living in the currrant rage.


I suppose some consider this forum as social-media, but luckily for me I don't.
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FecalBrook --- ain't that the truth!!!!
 
Guardians of the analog said:
This is my gripe with reverb. Everyone there is a tire kicker and wants to offer half of the asking price. The fees never used to be that bad years ago, now it's not worth it. I see diy builds going for 75-100 dollars all day, everyday. By the time you buy all your supplies and shipping fees and then factor in build time, you should not be getting 100 dollars for a pedal plus fees. Granted, a lot of those cheaper sales are pedals with blank enclosures and questionable build quality. I can only speak for myself but I have a high standard for my own builds, so if I sell to someone I put that same effort into their pedal. I put time into a build from conception to finished product and a lot of that is attention to detail. That's worth more than just the cost of parts and beer money to me. I sell to individuals who want a custom hand made pedal and appreciate the work that goes into it, and are gladly willing to compensate for that. I refuse to undercut myself. Building for friends/family is different of course. Having builds out in the world being used for making music, especially in front of people live, is way better than some low baller giving me 5 stars for selling him a pedal for cost of parts. My brother in Christ, If it's only 30 dollars in parts, build it yourself.
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This right here dude I’ve seen your work and I’d much rather pay you a decent price directly and avoid fees than buy the shit I see on reverb.
 
I sell 99% of my stuff on Ebay. Never Reverb. Now that Ebay has their own payout system the fees there are pretty decent. I currently pay myself $40/hr after parts and fees. I think that is a liveable wage in many parts of the country. I make enough hours of "hobby" pedal building to pay my rent and car payment every month. But my time isn't occupied by ornamental elements so I can get in and out cheaply.
 
steviejr92 said:
Ok so i know this isnt reverb. But i think this experience is worth putting on here. I just sold a pedal and sent it to Canada...and made the mistake to do free shipping. Holy crap on an item that weighs 1 pound im paying like 71 bucks with duties included. Lesson learned... 🙃
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Congrats, and that sucks!
 
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