Max's guide to selling music gear on eBay

Seems fairly straightforward, doesn't it. You want to sell an item, you list it and a week later someone's bought it. That simple?

No.

The basic fact of an auction site such as eBay is that most people who sell on it haven't the first idea of how to be a successful retailer.

Of course, very few people do, and that's why a lot of people waste and lose money on eBay (and also how eBay itself derives a large portion of its profits). I myself have nowhere near the kind of knowledge and experience it would take to be a successful retailer. However over several years of transacting on eBay (around 90% of which was music gear) I have learned some helpful tips.

1. Know your item
This one should be a no-brainer, so it's surprising how many people are selling stuff they know nothing about. That's just about forgiveable in the case of someone selling a large volume of randomly acquired stock, but it's unacceptable when you're moving individual items. If you walked into a store and the staff didn't know anything abouttheir products, you wouldn't buy anything. The same applies here.

The thing about music equipment is that it's by its very nature a specialist product, and therefore being vague about it will not be satisfactory. Tell me the make and model of your average guitar and three minutes on Google should in most cases tell me what I need to know about it - So, really, there's really no reason why the seller shouldn't do that and save the buyer the trouble.

The plot thickens, however, when you're dealing with an older discontinued product. Necessarily, details about that kind of product will be less easy to find. You of course don't have to put the extra effort in to find them, but I suggest you do if you want the item to sell well. Fortunately the internet is a virtually inexhaustible supply of detailed information about even the most esoteric of products. A few months ago I sold a dusty old amp head I found in a corner of a practice room. A couple of hours of research with just the make, the model and the serial number told me the year of production, the place it was made, a host of relevant technical specifications, and crucially how much I could expect it to sell for. As a result of that, people viewing the item knew exactly what I had for sale without having to look elsewhere - which they may not have bothered to do themselves.

The point is that knowing what potential bidders want to know about your item, and including it in the listing so they don't have to go off and do hours of research, is essential if you want your item to sell well. Don't swamp your listing with paragraphs of detailed text. A few bullet points covering the essential features of your item, followed by comments about its condition and past use should be fine.

Guitars, basses, similar instruments:
- Make and model
- Date and place of manufacture
- Type of woods
- Main technical features (number of frets, type of bridge, pickups etc.)
- Any modifications from stock, any repairs

Amplifiers:
- Make and model
- Date and place of manufacture
- Main tech features (wattage, number and size of speakers, type of valves, channel functions etc.)
- Any modifications from stock, any repairs

2. Be honest
I wish this could have been an NB of point 1, but unfortunately there's so much bullshit out there that this deserves a point all of its own. This is perhaps more specific to guitar gear because of the ridiculous prices that some vintage and rare items go for, but I've seen it in all areas of eBay.

"Vintage", when it comes to guitar gear, has a more specific definition than you'd think (especially given the way the word gets bandied around in some circles). Vintage implies not only items over a certain age, but also of a certain quality. Generally for music gear, in order to be considered "vintage", your item needs to have left the factory before 1/1/1980. But that doesn't mean that any old junk built in 1979 is vintage. The item also needs to be all original, i.e. not refinished, not refurbed, not had any significant parts replaced; and the item needs to be collectible, i.e. it is likely to increase in value from the point of sale.

As an example, a Fender Stratocaster from 1963 with all original 1963 factory parts and the original finish intact, will be a highly desirable vintage piece and will sell for in excess of £10,000. However, if that Stratocaster has at some point had a 1992 neck added to it, it is no longer vintage and will sell for a fraction of that amount. On the other hand, an old Kay acoustic guitar from 1969, even all original, is not considered to be vintage, because it has no collector value, and it would be expected to sell for no more than a current model of similar specification in similar condition.

Fortunately for bullshitters, "rare" is a much more vague term, which can be used to describe pretty much anything if you broaden your parameters enough. I just don't use the term in listings at all, even when selling an item which is genuinely rare, because on eBay it has become meaningless. If you really want to make the point that your item is rare, however, you need to be sure that it meets the following three criteria:

- It is no longer manufactured
- It was only manufactured in very limited numbers
- It is extremely difficult to find one for sale

Beyond the "vintage" / "rare" consideration, it's obviously just important to be truthful about your item - even if it's an honest mistake, if you falsely describe the item in your listing, the buyer would be entitled to ask for a full refund. If in any doubt, just stick to information you can be completely sure of, and explain any gaps in your knowledge in your listing.

NB: Remember, when selling music gear, a large portion of your potential customer base will know a lot about your item, possibly even more than you - if you accidentally make what might seem to them like an obviously false statement about what you're selling, they might mistake your ignorance for dishonesty.

3. Know your price
I've already touched upon this, but there are two figures you need to know when selling. The first is how much you're likely to get for your item, and the second is the lowest figure you'd agree to sell it for. If the latter is a higher number than the former, the answer is simple: DON'T SELL. If the item is worth considerably more to you than its current market value, it would probably be a mistake for you to sell it. If you'd like just a bit more than it's currently going for, maybe wait a few months for the market to pick up a little.

To find out how much your item will go for, the easiest method is to look for the same or very similar items on eBay, and watch how much they sell for. You may notice that some people put higher than average starting prices on their items, which don't sell; you may also notice that the same items will sell for quite different amounts. I will explain this in detail in my next article about buying on eBay.

There are several techniques to get your desired price, but I'll just explain the one I tend to use, because I have found that it solicits the most interest and therefore the most bids: Whatever the value of your item, start it off at £0.99 with no reserve. This has the advantage of saving you the eBay listing fee, and crucially it can make you more money. Experience (not just my own) has shown that an item that did not sell at all when listed with a starting price of e.g. £400, might make as much as £500 when started at £0.99.

When starting at £0.99 without a reserve price, you need to know that you will be able to check back on your item when it ends, in case it doesn't make your minimum acceptable price. If people haven't bid as much as you were hoping within five minutes of the auction end, just end the auction and relist it later.

NB: If the item is only a little short of your minimum acceptable price just before the end of the auction, it might be advisable to let the auction end - some buyers use applications called auction snipers, which electronically swoop in with their maximum bid in the last few seconds of the auction, and this can from experience add tens or even hundreds to the final price - if you have lots of watchers on your item, there is a good chance there will be several "sniper" bids in the last moments.

NB2: I'm not sure to what extent having a reserve price influences the final value of the bids, however what I do know is that having a reserve costs significantly more than keeping an eye on the auction until it ends.

4. Offer postage
I'm frequently surprised by the reluctance of some sellers to ship their items. Common sense would tell anyone that offering shipping is a crucial way to generate the maximum amount of bids - and ultimately, the number one goal for an eBay seller is to get as many bids as possible. Some claim that the cost is prohibitive, but that doesn't make sense because the buyer pays the postage. Some claim that the item is "too heavy" to post, which might be understandable when talking about a grand piano, but slightly ridiculous when describing a small guitar combo. Some claim that they don't want the item to get damaged in transit, which suggests that they weren't planning on packing it carefully. I fear that in most cases, sellers are just being lazy and would like to be able to sell their items without leaving the house. This is a stupid move, as it essentially limits potential bidders to those within short driving distance of the seller's house - a good way to decimate your customer base.

If you want to make the best price on your item, it's essential to offer it to as many bidders as possible. It's also a good idea to know how much postage on an item will cost (you can find this out by checking Royal Mail's site, or the sites of other popular couriers). If you underprice your postage, you'll be spending some of your profit on it, which you don't want. If you overprice it, people will think that you're trying to rip them off (just two days ago a seller told me it would cost £70 to post a guitar to me - the Royal Mail pricing guide said around £17.50).

NB: It's also a good idea if possible to offer local pick-up and cash exchange, both of which can save you money, time and hassle if the buyer lives near you.

5. Be a good salesman
I'm not suggesting you put on a suit and start lying though your teeth. I'm talking about your reputation as a seller. Try to be as available as possible. Try to answer all questions from buyers as soon as you can. People will ask you stupid questions, or ones you've already answered in your listing. Answer those as you would a relevant question. People will occasionally ask you to end the auction and let them buy your item outright for insultingly small amounts of money. Resist the urge to tell them where to stick it, and just politely decline. Although it's unlikely that you'll build up a word-of-mouth reputation as a good eBay seller (very few people do), you will at least be ensuring that you don't lose any potential customers.

NB: I don't advise trading with people who offer you immediate payment to bypass the auction. My stock response to those people is that if they want to buy the item they should bid on it. Even if it doesn't pose an immediate security threat, it can lead to significant inconvenience. I have in the past (only once) pulled an auction that had £500 of bids on it because someone offered me £600 in cash. That person then pulled out, and I had to relist the item, which ended up selling for £460. If you're thinking about accepting this kind of offer, tell the person you'll end the auction after they've paid in full. More often than not they will pull out - That tells you all you need to know.

6. Be on time
This is a simple one. Once a customer has paid you for the item, ship it as soon as you can. If it'll take you more than three days, say so in your listing. Most people like to have their purchase within a week of payment. Maybe five days is an acceptable limit, but beyond that you're asking for negative feedback. How soon the item reaches the customer is perhaps the second most important consideration in awarding feedback, after whether or not the item was as described. It's a simple fact that having less than 100% feedback on eBay will cost you customers.

Also, packing is important. Especially with guitars, but also with amps and other equipment, there is always a risk of damage in transit. When shipping a guitar, beyond using lots of bubble wrap and a sturdy box, you should also downtune the strings to relieve the pressure on the neck. Some people even take off the neck entirely, which is not a bad idea if the buyer is happy with reassembling it on arrival. When shipping a valve amp, it's a good idea to individually wrap the valves to protect them from breakage (new valves aren't cheap). Every extra bit of care you take to ensure that the item arrives swiftly and safely is an extra guarantee that the buyer will happily deal with you in future.


I hope that this has been helpful to some of you. If you think I've missed anything or made a mistake, please don't heistate to make a comment or drop me a message. My next article will deal with how to get the best out of buying gear on eBay.

Max