Reverb LP Shutting Down

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by danielkov86, Jan 21, 2020.

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  1. danielkov86

    danielkov86 Playing Devil's Avocado Since 1986 Thread Starter

    Looks like Reverb LP is calling it a day. Kinda saw this coming when the main Reverb site stopped advertising LP on their home page. It was literally impossible to get linked over to Reverb LP from Reverb unless you scrolled to the footer.

    As a sometimes seller, I find this disappointing. It was nice to list an album at both RLP and Discogs.

    A Message From Reverb LP | Reverb LP
     
    Strat-Mangler likes this.
  2. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Yeah, the era of reverb has kind of come to an end. Artists are going with a more dry sound.

    I imagine Cowbell will be next to go. You don't need cowbell on hip hop.
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  3. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I remember when they came on the scene and some people (not necessarily here) were saying this was the beginning of the end of Discogs. lol
     
  4. Sprague Dawley

    Sprague Dawley Forum Resident

    Location:
    Japan
    Not surprised. That mental site did my head in for the ONE STUPID DAY I was selling on there.

    Signed up last June in the week of the discogs US tax kerfuffle doom and gloom, imported entire discogs 2,000+ inventory, which commendably was wildly simple. Quickly made a couple of sales, $200 in first day, wow, this place is gonna be great, screw discogs, Reverb is where it's at! Shipped the records off same day.... and was not paid a single dime by any customer. "You need to provide tracking number to trigger payment funds release" or something. Newsflash Reverb; Japan Post airmail, $10 worldwide and highly goddamn reliable, does not have tracking numbers. Which, for us non-US sellers, instantly reduces the whole marketplace to some sort of customer honesty system.

    Yeah, I can see that working well. What could possibly go wrong there, eh?

    "Yay, my records arrived today, better pay the seller. Although wow man, things are kind of tight here moneywise this month. I really can't afford it right now. Come on, need to prioritise. I need to pay the goddamn phone bill. Bummer, I'll have to email reverb seller and tell him the records didnt arrive."

    "Uh, just add trackable shipping"
    says helpful Reverb sales guy. Yeah, but Reverb doesnt provide the customer with any other shipping option besides that incredibly pricey default one. And elite-priced $22 shipping for 1 record seems a near-certain sayonara to 90% of potential sales.

    After that ONE DAY selling I put the whole store on permanent vacation mode. Reverb did eventually "clear the funds" I was owed but it couldve been down purely to the luck of selling to honest buyers. Pleaded with the staff to please remove my shop from their listings but they refused. Guessed they liked having nice cheap Japanese pressings as window dressing to lure in the punters... who then couldnt buy them from me.

    They cleverly reduced their site to a totally US-centric model at precisely the time they should've been pouncing on the potential worldwide market share opened up by discogs unveiling their July 1st plan to roger everyone silly with their dumbo US state tax collection scam. They HAD to allow regular airmail shipping like discogs does. Didn't. Now dead.
     
    Shawn likes this.
  5. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    There's no scam. Discogs is doing what many other sites, including Reverb, are doing, which is following the law. If you want to get upset with someone get upset with the States that passed those tax laws.
     
    Rodz42 and ispace like this.
  6. dkurtis

    dkurtis sonoftheFather

    Reverb is now history and Ebay is losing favor among sellers and buyers. These are difficult tea leaves to read.
     
  7. Audionerd

    Audionerd Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England, US
    I hadn't heard that about Ebay - is everyone migrating to Discogs?
     
  8. dkurtis

    dkurtis sonoftheFather

    Many eBay sellers are experiencing declining sales, and a few that I know have almost entirely moved there CD's and record listings over to Discogs. I rarely, if ever, even look at eBay listings anymore. Sellers are complaining about selling their product for belo0w market value, while others have seen their sale drop off entirely. Amazon and Discogs have stolen a great deal of the eBay market.
     
  9. danielkov86

    danielkov86 Playing Devil's Avocado Since 1986 Thread Starter

    As a buyer, I like Ebay for their return policy. If the record (or any item) isn't as described, I can return it no problem, even if the seller refuses. Discogs is similar if you use Paypal, but it just seems easier with Ebay.
     
  10. dkswaff

    dkswaff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Badstreet, USA
    Isn't Ebay more of a market driven economy? It's worth what someone is willing to pay. It seems way to many CD's or records on Ebay are exorbitantly priced in hopes of catching that one unsuspecting buyer into paying inflated prices for things.
     
    Man at C&A and Shawn like this.
  11. markshan

    markshan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    No loss.
     
  12. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    You should see some of the prices on Discogs. Some sellers are hoping for the same type of buyers on there. lol

    I noticed that more sellers are option for BIN on eBay than before. Just an observation that's more anecdotal than anything else, but it sure feels that way. It seems like sellers aren't willing to take the risk with auctions.
     
    Shawn likes this.
  13. dkurtis

    dkurtis sonoftheFather

    I know that expected value and true market value can be worlds apart, but many who list on eBay set the starting bid well below a 'reasonable' value to encourage bidding. Problem is, fewer individuals are bidding. I haven't even looked at eBay in over a year, and I was a bidder who would win 80% of my bids. I was aggressive if I wanted it. I now just communicate with sellers on Discogs and buy what I want, at a price that I know will secure it. Given identical records listed on both Discogs and eBay, eBay will realize between 50% -60% of the listed Discogs price. A $100 listed Discogs record will sell for $50 - $60 on eBay. That is mainly due to the fact that a record is usually listed for only 7 days on eBay. That is a too narrow of a window to catch the eye of the right bidder. eBay also charges to list an album regardless of the outcome. Discogs allows sellers to list their entire inventory at the prices they want.
     
    quicksrt likes this.
  14. dkurtis

    dkurtis sonoftheFather

    Brook Benton - Brook Benton Today (Vinyl, US, 1970) For Sale | Discogs

    Phil-the-record-headhunter is coming after you and your head. I really like the way he added the $5 shipping charge there at the end - $7,400 ....... plus five dollars for shipping.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2020
    eddiel likes this.
  15. ZiltoidtheOmniscient

    ZiltoidtheOmniscient Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oregon
    I guess I'm part of the few who will actually will miss Reverb. I was able to find quite a bit of vinyl there and did not have any issues. There navigating was simple and easy.
    I'm still looking for another site that specializes in vinyl and yes I know discogs is out there but I find there navigating is difficult and distorted compared to Reverb.
     
  16. Rodz42

    Rodz42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I've actually experienced better ebay sales and fetching higher prices than discogs. So it probably depends on the title, seller etc
     
    dkurtis likes this.
  17. Rodz42

    Rodz42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    a couple things:

    there are free listings on ebay now. the amount depends on the type of account but everyone gets at least 50 a month. Been that way for a long time

    auctions have been dead for years now. It's all about listing the item as a buy it now
     
    dkurtis likes this.
  18. Etsy bought Reverb.
    They retrenched Reverb back to musical instrument sales.
    Reverb.com is still ongoing, just NOT for selling vinyl.
    Reverb gave all vendors notice of the change.
    Buy & Sell Music Gear Online
     
  19. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    You must not listen to hip-hop since the cowbell is one of the signature sounds of the 808.
     
  20. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Yes but eBay has lost so many sellers to other venues. And raised their fees to the point of sellers having to raise their prices to cover the higher fees. The buyers no longer seeing the nice deals and so they’ve moved on to some degree. Then the sellers who remain on eBay don’t see the traffic that they once did and it’s a domino effect.

    I saw a few still sealed LPs I had go for peanuts on eBay. It got really bad where you had to pay to list and risk your item selling at a big loss. Or start the item higher and pay a higher fee just to list. So those 50 free listings per month are the way to go for sure.

    I’ve just gone back to eBay selling after a 8 or 9 year layoff. And I’m doing it expecting fewer sales. It’s fine - I’ll list at the price I want and hold out until I get my price. This is fine but I’d never depend on it to pay the bills.

    eBay is now just a way to meet buyers whom you can harvest to your other venues for additional sales outside of eBay. I’d hate to have to live on less than minimum wage like many eBay sellers do.

    Oh well, we’ve got discogs and the classifieds here as alternates. Not bad if your up for the work.
     
    Dave likes this.
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