Sweetwater has introduced Gear Exchange, a new marketplace for musicians to buy and sell used gear.
Gear Exchange offers an alternative to options like Ebay & Reverb. Through Gear Exchange, there are currently zero seller fees incurred when the seller chooses a Sweetwater gift card as the form of payment.
Gear Exchange sellers have the opportunity to create their own customized storefront, including setting a store address, outlining policies for returns, and adding a bio to let people learn more about them. Sellers can create listings that include photos of the instruments and gear they no longer need or want.
To maintain safety, Gear Exchange has implemented fraud prevention measures, including requiring photos of the exact item listed. There will be badges available on the storefront pages showcasing how long Gear Exchange sellers have been verified Sweetwater customers.
Sweetwater also says that there will be “a full team of administrators” monitoring the marketplace for any potential security risks. Shipping labels for sellers can be purchased directly through The Gear Exchange, at Sweetwater’s volume rates. The cost of the labels can be subtracted from the payout, so sellers don’t have to pay shipping bills until they get paid.
If you’ve used Gear Exchange, share your thoughts on it in the comments!
Given that I purchase about 95% of my new gear from Sweetwater, a Sweetwater Gift Card would be fine with me for not having to pay the ridiculous fees charged by eBay or Reverb. The immediate effect of this selling option is going to be a lower price for people to purchase used equipment because the seller won’t have to figure in the marketplace’s cut when setting a price. Also, since Sweetwater’s goal is NOT to make their profit by providing a marketplace, but by selling music-related equipment, there is probably less possibility of marketplace shenanigans using them. Also, as a loyal Sweetwater customer for over 30 years, I’m happy to trust them honestly marketing my used stuff. Looking back at my selling fees over the past year, this would have saved me well over $1000 in fees to Reverb. I’m really looking forward to this.
I buy and sell a lot of gear on Reverb so this is definitely interesitng. Also a loyal sweetwater customer for a few years now (Havent purchased in a while and Ian doesnt call anymore, Ian where you at!) But the biggest copy on the page says “ZERO FEES…..now through Oct 31st”, so now I want to know what those fees are, hopefully competative. Reverb is a lot better than Ebay but that cut still hurts but im not totally naive to think it should be free but it should be less. So we shall see how this one plays out.
I wonder HOW international it’s going to become.
Just checked, Sweetwaters seller and processing fees are the same as Reverb. 2.5% processing, 5% on the sale.
Didn’t look for the fine print in the ad. Thanks for catching that. Still, Oct 31 is a long way off and I have a few things on Reverb, including a Kurzweil PC3K8 (that I am almost giving away), that I will definitely be pulling from there and sell at Sweetwater.
You know, since the increase on Reverb to 7.7% I’ve done alot direct transactions via Paypal (as bothseller and buyer) after getting in contact with the other party. Depending on how much trust there is, this means 0% or 4.2% fees. That’s what Reverb gets for those hikes.
Haven’t bought anything from sw for years, since i bought a 421, then got harassed by their “sales engineers” for months on end. Yes, cold calling me is harassment.
just ask them not to call… easy.
I got one call, picked up the phone, had a nice conversation. Then I said, “You know what, sales-rep’s-name? I really prefer email. Could you make a note to use email to reach out?” Which he/she did from that moment on, and then when my next salesperson took over for that person who left, they looked at the notes and did the same. Easy.
You probably didn’t answer you phone, so they called a few times, and you felt harassed. I get it. As Mr. Meoff said, sometimes you just have to ask.
Can you explain the selling fee if one does not opt for gift card. I find myself at the age to need downsizing. I do no want to add or replace equipment.
I wonder if the gear exchange has a similar maximum selling fee to reverbs 500.00