EVERYONE IS DRINKING THE REVERB KOOLAID

Reverb's support folks aren't the knowledgeable musicians they had b4 Etsy bought Reverb but they're still helpful if you push back when they give a dumb non-musician answer like "a new guitar that needs to be refinished is a preference based return and not a 'Not as Described' return" as I got. Reverb tried telling me wanting a new guitar that didn't need refinishing was my 'preference'!

I had a Reverb dispute b4 Etsy and back then the Reverb rep was a guitar player who, upon seeing pics, was disgusted by seller's misrepresentations and comments in their messages and that rep was quick to act. It's a shame they no longer have musicians who understand 'used' doesn't mean 'trashed'.

Stay calm but be assertive and document everything through Reverb's messages and you'll likely prevail in a dispute with an unscrupulous seller.
 
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xxxadixxx said:
I have actually had pretty good luck "moving" off reverb. My last 2 PRS purchase (with number 3 arriving today!) starting on Reverb and ending elsewhere. I am transparent with the Sellers, telling them the total price (including fees, taxes, etc.) I am wiling to pay and outlining the methods by which I am willing to complete the transaction. They can then compare the various fee structures to see what works best for them. When dealing with brick and mortar stores selling on Reverb, it is a very easy decision to simply follow-up with the store directly.
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This is it absolutely. I typically meet in person for guitars and some gear. I'll gladly make a day trip for a guitar I'm seriously interested in. I've even gone as far as an overnight trip. I typically try to mix in some sort of ultra mini vacation or sight seeing for these trips, even if it's local music stores.

Bottom line is I have a price I'm willing to pay and will run it through however the seller wants. Typically they are listed cross platform. I do my due diligence on CL, FB, TGP, and wherever before contacting them, anyhow. I look at more guitar ads than I should, and often I see them on other platforms before reverb. At the end of the day I don't feel what a seller chooses to do to pay a platform is my responsibility, especially if cross platform. I've met sellers that want to go through reverb, even if meeting face to face. I'll gladly go through reverb, but my offer is typically the same, regardless of payment method.

As others have said, Reverb absolutely monitors and accesses your messages. I've heard more than once of people getting busted for off reverb talk and even deactivating an account.
 
LSchefman said:
I like, and use, Reverb to sell gear. I'm happy to pay the freight. If there's a tax I'll gladly pay it.

Reverb is a good company that says what they're going to do, and does it. No problems at all, though I haven't sold guitar gear, just studio gear.
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This has been my experience too, so far at least (four years and counting).
 
Lewguitar said:
So if I sold a $2000 guitar on Reverb, would I have to pay income tax on that entire amount? What if I originally paid $2500 for it? Could I deduct $500 as a loss and pay nothing? How does that work?
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If you have a receipt that shows what you paid for it and you sold it for less you won't pay tax on it. You can even subtract the fees you incurred in selling it.
 
At least they delayed reporting taxes for a year. Looks like the threshold for taxes will be $20k sales
 
veinbuster said:
Not if you keep receipts for what you buy.
Total money into your pocket when you sell minus what you paid is taxable if it is greater than zero.
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I don't think you need receipts unless you get audited. It isn't like you provide the receipts with your taxes, but even so I would think that tracking purchases in a contemporaneous log would be sufficient even in an audit. (obligatory warning about taking tax advice from some random dude on a guitar forum).

That said, I think the IRS is going to be really messing with people here. It is unclear to me how you would offset an arbitrary 1099 from, say, Venmo, for a sale of a guitar. Hypothetically: I buy a guitar for $1,000 and sell it for $2,000, then receive 1099 for $2,000. To account for the $1,000, don't I basically have to write-off the purchase of the guitar? Maybe that works for the professional musicians, but I don't know how that works for everyone else. Maybe this is some kind of itemized deduction for this purpose . . . but that only works for people who cross a threshold for itemizations anyway.
 
SinSir said:
Agreed. The whole thing is ridiculous. It's worse if you've had the gear for a while.. I don't keep receipts from however many years ago.
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This is the issue I have with it. I was going to clear some gear out last year and most of it are things I have had for well over a decade and the receipts are long gone. I will have zero proof what I paid for the items.
Broseph said:
At least they delayed reporting taxes for a year. Looks like the threshold for taxes will be $20k sales
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I don't trust this. From what I read, they are not eliminating it for 2022. If they don't change the law by the end of this year, you will have to pay the 2022 tax with the 2023 tax if you owe any. I think they tried to buy time to get the law changed because they got a lot of backlash over it. I know that Reverb and eBay both took up petitions and may have even filed law suits over it.
rwandering said:
I don't think you need receipts unless you get audited. It isn't like you provide the receipts with your taxes, but even so I would think that tracking purchases in a contemporaneous log would be sufficient even in an audit. (obligatory warning about taking tax advice from some random dude on a guitar forum).

That said, I think the IRS is going to be really messing with people here. It is unclear to me how you would offset an arbitrary 1099 from, say, Venmo, for a sale of a guitar. Hypothetically: I buy a guitar for $1,000 and sell it for $2,000, then receive 1099 for $2,000. To account for the $1,000, don't I basically have to write-off the purchase of the guitar? Maybe that works for the professional musicians, but I don't know how that works for everyone else. Maybe this is some kind of itemized deduction for this purpose . . . but that only works for people who cross a threshold for itemizations anyway.
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During an audit is not the time to not have the proof. That is when you will end up paying tax on the full amount, even the part you already once paid tax on.

The only way you get to the "write off" zone is if this is your job and you claim the instruments as tools and you do the whole thing as a business. Most of us are nowhere near that. I make money on the side but it is usually all in cash with no tracking. You also can't write off any losses. It is completely a one way situation for the IRS. You pay if you made any money when selling but don't get to write off any losses. It is a capital gains tax with much too low of a threshold.
 
This whole thing is absurd! I don't have high hopes for any federal laws passed in the next two years, but maybe they can correct this one. Because it is all treated as income, this basically discounts the value of any property we want to sell by our own marginal tax rates. At least through the Reverbs or paid through the Venmos. (Of course if you reach the $600 threshold anywhere, but that's just too easy to do).

And those of us in income tax states are likely in a worse position. Granted, states could solve this problem for their taxes, but I find that pretty unlikely as well.

Cash is king?
 
rwandering said:
That said, I think the IRS is going to be really messing with people here. It is unclear to me how you would offset an arbitrary 1099 from, say, Venmo, for a sale of a guitar. Hypothetically: I buy a guitar for $1,000 and sell it for $2,000, then receive 1099 for $2,000. To account for the $1,000, don't I basically have to write-off the purchase of the guitar? Maybe that works for the professional musicians, but I don't know how that works for everyone else. Maybe this is some kind of itemized deduction for this purpose . . . but that only works for people who cross a threshold for itemizations anyway.
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They didn’t hire 87,000 new IRS agents for nothing.
 
rwandering said:
Great sound bite, but a misleading claim. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/irs-87000-new-agents/
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bingo-hans-landa.gif
 
I've always liked Reverb because it's made the process simpler for selling my gear, and outside of a few requests for returns that were cumbersome, I've been able to sell tons of gear without losing too much money from the original purchase price. The new 1099k rules definitely removed a lot of the incentive to sell on platforms like Reverb. That said, selling outside of Reverb was more frustrating prior to when I started selling on Reverb. I've had a few people meet with me in public, try to haggle the price down after seeing the gear (most of the time it wasn't for any particular reason, just people negotiating), and some just walked away from the sale after I took time out of my day/week to meet up with them when I wasn't using Reverb. I don't blame them, but I just haven't had the same issues selling on Reverb, which has kept me on the platform long enough to accept the new tax burden and the fees I've had to pay.
 
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