# How "Out to Lunch" is Reverb... really?



## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

I bought this: 








...about 10 years ago at my local L&M. It was (if I remember correctly) $510. I think a week after I bought it, it dropped to $495... then jumped to $525. regardless... 

I needed an E/A and wasn't in the budget range for a Taylor, or even a Tak. It served me well for many years as my main gigging acoustic. It still plays great, sounds OK plugged in, stays in tune, and was basically a maintenance free tank the entire time I've owned it. Showing some signs of fret wear on the first & second. 
Last Christmas I bought myself a Taylor Koa. The Epi has seen no love since. (go figure)
So I thought to sell it. It is now listed at L&M for a whopping $729!! 

I was thinking of asking for $400, and see what I get. I thought to double check what they are going for on Reverb. I know, I know... Reverb are always high. But these prices... my word they are astronomically high! 

$584, $687, $731, $779, and this one... $981!! And it's in Japan and requires another $120 to ship! 

Am I under valuing a solid, but not blow your mind E/A guitar??


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## terminalvertigo (Jun 12, 2010)

List it for $2350.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

Need to filter for sold listings. But yes, Reverb will generally get you higher prices.


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## 2manyGuitars (Jul 6, 2009)

I'm currently liquidating an EXTREMELY large collection of non-music related stuff. I had been out of this hobby for nearly a decade and prices have skyrocketed in that time (hence me selling it all off). I have to rely on eBay for prices but as many of you know, there's asking price and sold price.

Whether it's eBay, Reverb, guitars, or anything else. I don't care what some idiot is trying to scam someone into paying for their item. Show me what it sold for.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

BlueRocker said:


> Need to filter for sold listings. But yes, Reverb will generally get you higher prices.



Ding ding ding!

Asking prices are meaingless (except as an indicator of what is too high because it's not selling). Just like the stock market, you don't value a share by the ask, but by the bid, or rather the intersection of bid and ask (a sale).

That's one thing I don 't like about reverb - you can't search for completed listings, only reference the price guide which is not as useful (no example listings to look at, only a price over time graph that doesn't take into account condition other factors, more esoteric items do not have a PG entry even if there have been some listings on reverb). Ebay is much better for that.


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

As mentioned, search for Sold Listings. Also, Reverb shows price history for well known items. And remember, sellers jack up prices to help cover the Reverb fees (about 8% for us).


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

Granny Gremlin said:


> you can't search for completed listings


Sure you can. It's in the filters. Scroll down to the bottom if using a browser.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Ya, I filtered by "sold" (after my initial post) and the prices certainly came down, but are still much higher than I would have thought. 

I am still on the fence if I want to move it. The case is not original, but it is a hard shell, specifically made for a "jumbo" body type.


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## Rollin Hand (Jul 12, 2012)

I would check Kijiji to see what similar items are going for in your area. Might as well ask at, or just below, what you paid. The market is weird right now.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Rollin Hand said:


> I would check Kijiji to see what similar items are going for in your area. Might as well ask at, or just below, what you paid. The market is weird right now.


I looked there first... nothing similar to mine right now. Or, as of this morning.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

I would add there are some problems with the Reverb price guide. Particularly when you look at a "grouping" like 2007-2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio, you will get sold prices for mint condition guitars with expensive aftermarket pickups and bigsbys, along side beaters with headstock repairs. When I look at the price guides I mentally draw a straight line through the middle of all the data points to get a sense of average price. If it is something unique, specific, or uncommon I'll look for the identical item if possible. Here's a good example which would cause the graph on the price guide to be all over the place - and sellers gravitate to the higher price points when they want to value their stuff for sale, despite them not being the same item.


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## Jeffery Young (Mar 5, 2019)

Just to add a couple of (unfortunate) points about searching the Reverb "sold" listings:

1. Fairly recently they seem to be pulling at least a portion of the sold listings, which I believe is mucking up the ability to get a complete picture on recent sales.

2. When you open up a sold listing make sure to check if there were "offers" - this often means the item sold for less than the price that is still showing on the listing.

You can attempt to cross-reference some of these things with the "price guides" available for some higher volume items, but it is tricky and as Blue Rocker mentions above the price guide lacks info on anything unique (i.e., upgrades) of the actual guitar.

All this to say that: a) looking at what things are listed at that have not sold, and b) reviewing sold listings without a keen eye can lead you to assume that items are worth more than what they might actually sell for. 

But... yes, prices have gone up. Just be careful about assuming by how much.


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

Wow, people have actually been getting $525 to $760 Epiphone EJ-200 2010s Vintage Sunburst Price Guide

Remember, sold listings don't actually show what it sold for. They show the price it was posted at when it sold, but if the seller accepted a lower offer, it's not reflected. The results of the Price Guide Search on Reverb is the only way I know to see the actual sell price against condition and date sold - Price Guide but as @Jeffery Young says above, it can often leave out crucial details about mods or extras. 

Most importantly, it leaves out location. Someone paying a higher rate than an available product goes for new here doesn't tell you if they, say, happened to buy it locally in a country that has a severe markup on products from that manufacturer or country and/or is super expensive to have products shipped in to.


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## Stephenlouis (Jun 24, 2019)

To me most of the pricing on reverb are "fishing" prices. I have sold stuff quickly on reverb by asking a reasonable price on an item that is priced in the fishing range by another seller. For the rest of my hobby/collections I use eBay sold price search for a pretty realistic picture.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

I use a music store to sell my stuff on Reverb, so I get what I expect and the extra cash goes to them for doing all the work. 

I have never bought or sold anything personally with Reverb. But I have located sellers and made deals outside of Reverb. Otherwise forget about me buying from them. I tried to locate a seller only three hours away but failed to do it, so no deal. 

Great for selling, lousy for buying.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

KapnKrunch said:


> Great for selling, lousy for buying.


I've only sold one guitar on Reverb, and got a fair price offered within 24 hours. I also purchased one guitar - from Chicago Music Exchange through Reverb. I can only say that I wish every online transaction was a positive as this one was, and I highly recommend them.


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## FatStrat2 (Apr 7, 2021)

I don't think it's so much a Reverb issue as it is a seller's issue. Unclear if it's just musician sellers or sellers in general.

CL, Kijiji, pawn shops, Reverb - all of them have some crazy used musical instrument pricing and it's been like that for the last couple of years. Many times these items are higher than L&M or Tom Lee sells for new w/ no observable difference between the products. Go figure.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

BlueRocker said:


> Need to filter for sold listings. But yes, Reverb will generally get you higher prices.


Reverb has fees thus higher prices.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

.


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## Always12AM (Sep 2, 2018)

Granny Gremlin said:


> Ding ding ding!
> 
> Asking prices are meaingless (except as an indicator of what is too high because it's not selling). Just like the stock market, you don't value a share by the ask, but by the bid, or rather the intersection of bid and ask (a sale).
> 
> That's one thing I don 't like about reverb - you can't search for completed listings, only reference the price guide which is not as useful (no example listings to look at, only a price over time graph that doesn't take into account condition other factors, more esoteric items do not have a PG entry even if there have been some listings on reverb). Ebay is much better for that.


You hit the nail on the head. The obsolescent nature of the Reverb sold price graph is that I can throw a Waterloo guitar off of a balcony and sell it as wood chips for $17.

I have sold maybe 2-300 music related items and received asking price maybe 3 times. And that was usually when I was asking a good chunk lower than what every other swinging dick on kijiji was.

If someone really wants something, they’ll save up and buy it for retail. In my experience, it is rare that someone is willing to pay a reasonable price for something once it has been removed from the store and exposed to non store air.


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## David Graves (Apr 5, 2017)

The other thing that Reverb's sales history, or price guide don't tell you. Is where the listings were sold at. I promise you that PRS, Music Man and Mesa (just as examples) all sell for a lot more used outside of North American than they do here. They're simply more expensive there to begin with, and they're not as common.


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## JivRey (Jul 2, 2016)

I guess Reverb is turning into the Montreal used market, or the other way around. Same difference 😆


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## jaydubz (Jan 17, 2021)

I think Reverb prices have gone insane on 2021. There are used items for near or even above MSRP the last few months I checked when it's literally in stock at multiple online retailers. I found so many good deals in November and December 2020. I guess I'm just gonna wait it out and see what kind of discounts retailers will do for holiday season this year.


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## Mike_Blaszk (Sep 16, 2021)

I've sold a guitar, two sets of pick-ups, a pedal and a power supply and bought a bridge pick-up and two pedals off of Reverb. You definitely have to do your homework on the pricing of some of these things. Some people have an inflated sense of value when it comes to their gear, some products are being sold by international sellers who have to pay more for certain brands/products overseas (e.g. Mesa in Europe) and a lot of products are actually just full priced items being sold by large dealers. As someone else mentioned, a great starting point is taking a look at the Price Guide if one exists for the item that you're looking for and attempting to make an offer lower than list price, if that option exists. However, I will completely agree with you that a lot of items have rocketed in price over the last year. I think like many things, the demand for these items has increased because of Covid limitations, a drive to online shopping and inflation (I bought my Orange TH30 for $1349 brand new about 3 years ago and they are now selling for $1619 new at L&M). Also, Reverb is great for selection, large membership and transaction security, but this usually means higher priced items because of site fees and bidding competition. You'll usually always get a better price in a private deal on a forum, kijiji or elsewhere.


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

I'm thiking about selling my Klon KTR. In my opinion Reverb is undervaluing everything. 

Yes, these 2 statements are directly related.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

Okay Player said:


> I'm thiking about selling my Klon KTR. In my opinion Reverb is undervaluing everything.
> 
> Yes, these 2 statements are directly related.


Thankfully ive never smoked crack..Yes this statement is directly related


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Well… it’s up now in the FS section. I’ll see what interest I get.

Thanks for all the feedback.


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## GAB1980 (9 mo ago)

Granny Gremlin said:


> Ding ding ding!
> 
> Asking prices are meaingless (except as an indicator of what is too high because it's not selling). Just like the stock market, you don't value a share by the ask, but by the bid, or rather the intersection of bid and ask (a sale).
> 
> That's one thing I don 't like about reverb - you can't search for completed listings, only reference the price guide which is not as useful (no example listings to look at, only a price over time graph that doesn't take into account condition other factors, more esoteric items do not have a PG entry even if there have been some listings on reverb). Ebay is much better for that.


Exactly, the prices tell you nothing. The sold prices should be publically available. Especially when your trying to find a good number for selling some gear and you really don’t know the value.


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