Buy and Sell Used Musical Instruments Online: Why Reverb.com Is the Top Marketplace
- Grant Maloy Smith
- Jul 6
- 5 min read

Some years ago, I discovered Reverb.com, an e-commerce site dedicated solely to buying and selling music gear, including instruments, accessories, and recording equipment. The site's strength lies in its flexibility, which allows individual users to be both buyers and sellers. I had some guitars I wasn't using anymore, so I decided to try selling them on the site.
Setting Up Your Account
Creating an account was pretty straightforward. I entered my email address and password and made my profile, including an avatar. Once I was able to log in, the top menu bar looked like this:

BUYING AND Selling MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS on Reverb.com
Notice the (Sell your Gear) button at the top of the screen. I clicked it, and the software guided me through entering the name of what I was selling and its characteristics. They have a vast library of instruments and recording gear in their database, so you can start typing and it will find the item. Or you can enter it from scratch if their database doesn't have it.

The system makes it easy to define what you're selling with great precision. Then you can write a description of it and its condition so that buyers know how "used" it is. It's essential to identify any issues with the product and upload new photos that show it from all angles. When you're buying on the site, you'll appreciate the entries that are complete and honest. I know that if a guitar is 50 years old, it's going to have some "love marks" on it - that's completely understandable. However, honesty is always the best policy for both buyers and sellers.

After ensuring that the title is correct, you can upload photos. Even if you're using a computer to do this, Reverb.com knows that your phone is a camera, so they allow you to use your phone to take new pictures and upload them to this new listing in parallel with your computer listing. That's a great feature, and I've used it more than once. Of course, you could always take pictures, upload them to your computer, and then upload them to the website, but the phone method cuts out a few steps. Taking new pictures is essential to ensure that what the buyers see is up to date and accurate.

Next, you describe the product, first choosing a condition from "brand new" to "non-functioning," or something in between. Then you enter a description, including any imperfections.

You can also connect a #YouTube video – either one that you created, or one that you found on the internet that shows the product. I have used both methods. The website has a Search function that helps you find existing videos on YouTube that you can link to.

Next, you choose a price. Reverb.com will make suggestions based on its knowledge of this item's history, but you are free to set any price you want. You can choose to accept or reject "lowball" offers. They also give you the chance to "bump" a listing for a possible quicker sale in exchange for them getting a larger percentage of the sale.
Yes, of course, Reverb.com gets a percentage of the order (typically 3%), but they are transparent about what that is so that you can set your price accordingly. If you're selling something that you don't want to ship, you can set it to "local pickup only." Once I did this when I was selling some cumbersome JBL studio monitors. A buyer drove from nearby Connecticut and picked them up, paying me cash. I was honest and marked the items as sold on Reverb.com and paid them their commission as if the sale had gone through the website. The sale never would have happened without their support, so it was the ethical thing to do. It was a win-win-win for me, the buyer, and Reverb.com.
You may also choose the area that you will ship to, limiting it to your own country or within specific geographies.
Getting Orders
When a buyer accepts your offer and added a form of payment, Reverb.com will notify you that the order can be shipped. I had one case where someone accepted my offer to buy a large keyboard bag, and I was notified. But Reverb.com said not to ship yet because they had not added a form of payment. Ultimately the buyer backed out so I didn't ship it to them. But I have sold a lot of gear over the years on Reverb.com and it's been smooth sailing every other time.
They make the shipping process easy, too, with a built-in engine that scans major services like UPS, USPS, and Fedex for the best rates. They even sell special boxes made to ship guitars and other instruments in, which I have taken advantage of several times. But if you have your own preferred shipping service and account you can use it instead. It's completely up to you.
Over the years I have sold not only instruments but recording gear that I wasn't using any more. There's no sense in letting it sit around getting older and gathering dust when there is someone out there who can use it, and will pay for it. When I upgraded my studio to use SSL controllers for mixing I sold my Faderport16 on Reverb.com in a matter of days, for example.
I was inspired to write this article because just today I sold a steel guitar that I bought some years ago on Reverb.com, but it was time to sell it. I got this email from them when it sold:

Notice that they told me not to ship until the buyer's payment cleared. Less than ONE MINUTE LATER I received a second email with the OK to ship.

That was excellent news. I bought three guitar boxes a year ago and I still had one left. I released the tension on the strings, gave it a polish, wrapped it carefully in bubble wrap, taped up the box, and shipped it to its new owner.
I have had a product returned once because I picked the wrong keyboard model name. That can happen, so it's essential to be as accurate as possible when setting up a product for sale. But Reverb.com is the honest broker, and they make sure that everyone is protected in these transactions. I refunded the buyer's money, relisted the keyboard with the correct model name, and sold it to someone else a few weeks later.
Buying Gear on Reverb.com
I have also purchased several guitars, dobro, pedals, and the aforementioned SSL controllers on Reverb.com. It's a great place to find anything and everything related to music. They have everything from the cheapest to the most expensive that you can imagine, and everything in between, in significant numbers. I can't even imagine how many products are available at any given moment, but it's in the hundreds of thousands. So you don't have to sell your gear there – you can simply be a buyer. Think of this website as the "Amazon" for musicians.

For example, I selected "Dreadnought Acoustic Guitars," and there were over 24,000 available.

And it's not just guitars and keyboards: virtually every kind of instrument is available, as well as every kind of recording and sound reinforcement gear. There is a powerful search function that transcends the popular categories shown above. Just out of curiosity, I typed the Indian flute "bansuri" (one of my favorite instruments in the world) into the search field:

Clicking on "Bansuri Flutes" revealed almost 100 different bansuris available for purchase, across a wide range of prices and conditions.

Conclusion
This is not intended to be an advertisement for Reverb.com, and I haven't received any compensation from them for writing it. Instead, it's one musician to another alerting you to a service that might help you buy or sell instruments, recording, or sound reinforcement gear. I hope this information is helpful to my fellow musicians, recording and live-sound professionals.
Please subscribe to this site to help me continue to create content like this. Better yet, join me on Patreon. Even $5 per month would be a big help. There is strength in numbers!
Grant Maloy Smith
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