Gumtree or Preloved?

fandango

What are your experiences of Gumtree and Preloved in selling/buying guitars and guitar-related items? Is Preloved worth bothering with? Is this VHS v Betamax of the online classifieds world? And what's with Gumtree's "Bump" fee of £3.95? One used to be able to edit and it would go straight to the top. Not anymore.

So bring it on. The good and the bad of the UK's two online classifieds....

BigLicks67

I've used preloved successfully quite a few times, you just need to be patient when selling stuff. 

merlin

I'm not very experienced with Preloved. Gumtree has proved quite successful although watch out for the scams. Don't respond to ANY text messages that claim to be from Gumtree and be careful that a LOT of people want to negotiate on selling price. Otherwise good. 

hotpot

I've used gumtree with success quite a few times  but the amount of time wasters is ridiculous i.e. arrange a time for them to come & collect/pay & they 'no show' Grr,  as biglicks said patience is needed.

Vaiai

Don't rule out Reverb - I sold my Axis on there with no issues and cheaper fees than ebay. Plus it's just for musicians and ppl tend to know what they are talking about - less timewasters too. Gumtree is all about chancers and lowballers! Although with higher ticket items it's not so bad.

goldtop

Yes, patience needed with Gumtree if you don't keep bumping. And it's slowly starting to cost (owned by Ebay, so no surprise there). Biggest annoyance is the low-ball offers.

Chalky

Gumtree is ok if you are very patient about how long it will take and don't get worked up by idiots who message you.

stimpsonslostson

Another vote for Gumtree being OK... Apart from scammers, time wasters and low ball offers- but as I've said before, you're exposing your sale to probably the biggest free marketplace in the UK. If idiots make up 2% of any browsing population then Gumtree will necessarily have a MUCH larger total number than the membership of thefretboard, just learn to ignore them. 

I've sucessfully sold on Gumtree with far greater regularity than Facebook or here- again I put this down to bigger audience.

Top tip, you can't "bump" your ad... you CAN copy the text, delete and repost very quickly using the app. I do this daily to keep my listings at the top. This approach vastly reduces the "I see your ad is 13 days old- it's never going to sell so I'll take it for a 75% discount" emails.

Bygone_Tones

fandango said:

Is Preloved worth bothering with?

No. Very little traffic.

Use gumtree, forum classifieds, facebook, or other social media. The 'shpock' app seems to be taking off too, worth having a look at that.

If you get no joy from the free ads then next step is reverb.com, then the last resort if you are really desperate to sell is ebay.

I do not believe certain websites attract a certain type of person. That is absolute nonsense in my opinion. People are people. It's what you are selling, and how much you are selling it for that dictates what type of buyer (or tyre kicker) you will attract.

UnclePsychosis

Gumtree is great, so long as you are 

1. Realistic with your pricing
2. Patient 
3. Not easily wound up by tyre kickers and time wasters 

Personally I also still use ebay a lot. With well over 300 transactions I've never encountered a scam yet. If you want a guaranteed sale in a hurry then ebay is absolutely the way forward. 

fandango

I have read more stories about Ebaze bias against the seller, rather than positive stories, despite comments from UnclePsychosis. However, I deliberately did NOT want this to be hijacked by Eeebai. Fleebay get's enough publicity on this Forum as it is, hence the typo spelling.

Back to Gumtree and Preloved .... and what's with the apathy over Preloved?