Made My First Reverb Sale!

Some of you may remember that I bought an Alvarez acoustic guitar that, while gorgeous, was not a good fit for me, so I posted it on Reverb.

I received a couple of nibbles, and then nothing. I just let it ride.

Yesterday, I received notice that it had been purchased. As in paid for! Zounds!

So, today I packed it up in its original case with the original paperwork and registration form, paid Reverb for a shipping label, and took it to UPS where it will begin its journey to a new home. It was quite easy, actually.

And I lost money on the deal.

No, I had the price right, and even the shipping was correct. What bit me was the taxes. I tried to figure out all the costs (Reverb's take, etc.), and while I came close to breaking even, ultimately I lost money.

But it's okay. I needed to lose my guitar-selling virginity. Now that I've done so, I think I'll be able to trim the herd a bit. I'm not trying to make money, just free up some space and not lose money.

Another beginner experience for the OldStrummer.

Several years ago I sold an old Fender cable pull steel on Reverb. I made money on the deal, but Reverb's shipping calculator is way off! The actual shipping was twice what they calculated!

I have an app on my (Apple) cellphone called "With Margin." It's a handy calculator that I used as a starting point. Some of the values are guesswork, but if you enter the fees (shipping, packing, overhead, etc.) and other costs, it will tell you how much you need to ask in order to clear the break-even point. Fields include Item Cost, Selling Fees (%), Payment Fees (either % or $), Shipping/Misc and List Price. It got me close, so I wasn't just grasping at straws when I listed the guitar.

I didn't have to worry about any calculations, a guitar player left it in my practice room back in the 80's!
I set it up E9 minus the top 2 strings, and got started learning on it. (Those old cable pulls had "that" sound, think Bakersfield in the 60's!) When I got my 'Bud, I decided I probably wouldn't play it (8 string vs 10), and it was worth a little money.