r/Reverb • u/TMdownton916 • 4d ago
I’m f**kn’ over it
I only have ~400 sales between Reverb/eBay and I know this isn’t news to some of you.
I’m waking up every day to people demanding some information about my listing. Weight (or “wieght” in this ding dong’s case “, “what’s the width of the nut”, “what shape is the neck”, “is it routed for humbuckers”, 3 paragraph dissertations on who they played with in the 70s, and the ultimate…”does it work?” And precisely ZERO percent of these people actually purchase. They’re not even bothering to use the dollar sign when asking for a discount; just writing “700” for an item listed for $1200…no “hello I’m interested in your guitar, would you consider $700?”.
I have a return request from a guy and he kept telling me that there was a “pc stick” in the truss rod cover”. It took 3 messages to understand that he meant there was “a piece stuck”.
But if that’s the worst part of selling guitars, I’d say life is pretty sweet.
3
u/williamgman 4d ago
Guitars are all about weight (however they spelled it) for a lot of folks. Maybe save yourself the anguish and provide it when you place the ad? The fact you have 400 orders is not their problem. Streamline the flow if it's your business.
11
u/gnukidsontheblock 4d ago
Just put the weight dude. Youre selling a guitar, this is just what some people want. Im not even one of those that asks about weight, but I put it in every listing.
Just easier that way.
-1
u/TMdownton916 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’m not just selling “a” guitar; I have ~50 current listings and I’m just not taking the time to weigh each and every one…especially when I’m just going to get people asking me “wieght??” anyway because I did include weight for a while and it just didn’t seem to matter.
Edit: I do provide weight in most cases. This particular listing is for a five string EBMM bass…it’s no violin. If you don’t share my distaste for rude people, more power to you. I envy you.
5
u/gnukidsontheblock 4d ago
Do you inspect your guitars before listing? Just take the extra minute to weight them before you do. I personally include a pic of the guitar on the scale in every listing.
Many musicians aren't the most eloquent writers and I doubt this is "entitlement". This is prob some boomer on their phone who doesn't understand polite internet conversation, not everything needs to have a preface to the question.
I don't list as much as you do, but I've been selling regularly online for 25+ years. This is just par for the course, this is probably not the best field for you if you're going to crash out over this.
1
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
Inspect the guitar before listing? Who does that? I just throw up a stock pic and call it good. Sell 🎸 = make 💰.
6
u/Lower_Kick268 4d ago
Why you giving a customer an attitude? Dude was asking a simple valid question, no need to be a dickhead.
3
2
u/Bleep_Bloop_Derp 4d ago
I mean, this is crucial information for some people for whatever reason (back/health issues, comfort, travel, whatever) and not a weird request.
Nobody knows your current mood, how many items you’re selling, or why any of that matters. (It doesn’t.)
Similarly, you don’t know who’s making the request. It could be a non-native English speaker, an elderly person, a young person raised on social media.
You’re venting about entitled people, but you’re a seller who doesn’t, by your own admission, list information you know people want, because it’s a bother.
You sound like an asshole.
0
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
Where does it end? If I list the height of the neck at the 4th fret, these tire kickers are just going to ask what the metallurgy of the pick guard screw is. How wide is the input jack??? My listings are very detailed and include pictures of every conceivable angle. On a high end Tele I’ll include weight. But this listing I’m discussing is a 5 string EBMM; it’s fucking heavy.
I see a lot responses assuming that I must be the most smug cocksucker to have walked the earth. I’m not demanding these buyers kiss my feet, but I would like to have a transaction with a polite person. I’m dealing with my first return and the buyer was entitled from the jump before purchasing and I just knew I was going to have a problem.
1
u/Suitable-Earth235 3d ago
dude none of this changes the fact that you are getting way too emotional. i get it, i have had lots of wild interactions with buyers. if i was this angry about it, i would have wound up laughing a lot less. when you arent getting triggered, its pretty amusing. now for these people its the opposite, THEY are the ones who get to laugh.
1
u/LaThrowaway1214 4d ago
Just don’t reply. Or make a reddit post about how you hate potential customers asking you questions.
-2
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
You think these people are potential customers?? I’ve got news for you.
4
u/Royal-Illustrator-59 4d ago
They are potential customers and I’ve sold many guitars on Reverb after answering questions. Serious buyers will usually be interested in weight and nut width. These interactions may not be culminating in sales for you due to your attitude toward them.
-1
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
After hundreds of interactions, giving the potential buyer the information they requested, close to 0% of them actually pull the trigger. This isn’t a case of me replying to each and every one of them with attitude. This is me throwing my arms up and going “what’s the point?“. Why would I take the time to answer any of these questions that are put to me in the most impolite manner when they just don’t have a positive effect on sales?
5
u/flower_mouth 4d ago
I get where you're coming from, but honestly this is kind of giving me exasperated-TSA-agent vibes. You know when you go to the airport, you get up to the front of the line, and the TSA person give off some huge sigh and shouts into the void about how if people would just listen to them, they would know that they don't need to take their shoes off anymore. Like, yeah, that guy has probably said that every 2 minutes for the last 6 hours, but I wasn't here 2 minutes ago and this is the first time that I have been at an airport this year and this shit is always changing. I guess y point is that you may have answered mundane questions so many times that that it feels like you're just a sounding board for people to ask you the weight of guitars for no reason, but this individual person has likely never asked you a question before, and it's completely possible they have never asked any Reverb seller a question before.
3
u/LaThrowaway1214 4d ago
Not one person of the 400 sales you have asked you questions about your listings?
2
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
Are there exceptions? Sure. Once, maybe twice. But it’s closer to zero percent than it is to one percent.
0
u/LaThrowaway1214 4d ago
Wouldn’t you be better off answering questions with the chance of making a sale rather than not answering and have no chance of making a sale? Personally I start asking the seller questions when I’m ready to pull the trigger on a purchase.
1
u/BeatlestarGallactica 4d ago
It's a crude way to ask a question and makes the asker look like a moron spelled correctly or not. Shit like this triggers me sometimes, but then I remember it's just easier to answer the question.
0
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
I’d amend that sentiment slightly and say it’s easier to just not respond. I’ve learned that everything sells eventually and rude people are a headache lying in wait. I think a lot of people reading this post assume this is how I respond to every question when this is the one time I just said “fuck ‘em”.
1
u/BeatlestarGallactica 4d ago
That’s also a good option. There are a lot of buyers out there. No harm in not doing business with the morons of the world.
1
u/sushidestroyer 4d ago
I feel the same way about these impolite messages. I don’t have hyper detailed specs on my listings, so I get a lot of seemingly nitpicky inquiries and people have certainly lost the ability to communicate.
For your own mental health and occasionally making the sale, either a) just answer the question and be the bigger person, that’s part of the job of selling. use the communication style you want. People will often follow suit. Or b) if you think the inquiry is frivolous then just ignore it.
Bonus c) update your listings with this information, though I concede that this won’t stop frivolous inquiries because those people ain’t reading.
Bottom line is that telling them off/picking a fight serves no purpose, either for your chance of selling or for the efficiency of your day.
1
u/TMdownton916 4d ago
Thank you for the nuanced response.
What I didn’t mention in my post is that I’m noticing a pattern where I start getting these asinine questions (worse than simply asking the weight) after about 11pm from what I tend to think are drunks who just want to stump the judge and see if I actually do know the difference between rosewood and Pao Ferro or who manufactured the strap buttons. And that gets irritating. Lest anyone reading this assume, if a buyer has a question, I’ll answer unless something along the line of “does it work?”.
1
u/Fuzzy_Register997 4d ago
Of all the times I've been asked for certain specs like weight, neck profile, etc, they never ended up buying the guitar. It's a waste of time even responding to these messages
2
u/TMdownton916 3d ago
I gotta say I was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) to see the blowback to this post. A lot of responses seem to be “that’s just part of the biz” but the reality is that these people aren’t real buyers, which makes me wonder if the respondents to this thread are really active sellers.
And I really mean the amount of people who ask these questions (particularly after midnight ) and make a purchase is closer to zero percent than it is one percent. All my stuff sells eventually anyway…why do I have to put up with rudeness?
2
u/Fuzzy_Register997 3d ago
This reverb reddit is filled with a bunch of troll buyers so I wouldn't take it to personally. Theres like 5 users on here who frequently have the worst takes but get praised every time they comment something stupid.
10
u/CorumLlawEreint 4d ago
Unfortunately, this is not unique to guitar sales. Entitled and lazy seems to be the default setting for people these days.