Global economic issues aside, my comment on this is about private sales appearing to be stagnant: If I can google whatever you are selling, and find it 15-25% cheaper, you need to lower your price. Sales turnover at small, expensive shops and private listings looks slow - but big retailers are still turning over stuff rapidly, especially to younger people.
Not calling anyone in particular out, not trying to "price shame," but skimming the listings in the classifieds on this very forum is like this, so it's not exclusive to Reverb, Ebay, or Craigslist. Don't get me wrong, I think everything I own is gold too and I want to get an appropriate value for it when I sell it. But I've been hunting for something for a few months and just snagged it this week, and got it for $500+ less than the lowest price I saw here and on TGP during that same time frame - maybe I'm more patient than most though.
My point is just that if I'm going to buy something private party, I need to feel certain it's going to go smoothly because it's riskier than buying from a place like GC or SamAsh. I'm willing to take on more risk if I'm getting a better price, but lately the private party prices have been substantially higher. I guess I get better pictures from private sellers sometimes? But I'll always have these questions: If it's damaged, will you help cover it? If you ship it, will you pay for insurance or just hope it turns out ok? If it does get damaged in shipping and you chose not to get insurance, will you take it back? Are you going to pack it properly yourself, or trust it to the UPS/Fedex store employees? Are you using old pictures or lying (even by omission) about the condition? The more expensive the item, the bigger these worries get as well.
