Five percent and a payment line
Reverb — the eBay of musical instruments — charges a 5% selling fee plus 3.19% + $0.49 payment processing: about 8.2% + 49¢ all-in, the lowest mainstream commission structure on this site. On the default $450 sale: $22.50 + $14.86 = $37.36, an 8.3% effective load. The same sale on eBay would carry $60.03 (13.25% + $0.40) — a $22.67 difference per unit that compounds fast for anyone flipping gear with any volume. For instruments, pro audio and vinyl-adjacent inventory, Reverb is not just the niche channel; it is arithmetically the right channel, and its buyer audience is exactly the people who search those products by model number.
Why the low fee survives
Reverb’s 5% undercuts its own parent (Etsy, which acquired it) by 1.5 points and every generalist marketplace by half — sustainable because gear buyers are high-intent and search by specification, so the platform spends less to manufacture demand than fashion or commodity marketplaces do. The trade is the same niche-market ceiling Grailed has: outside instruments and audio, the audience vanishes. A vintage synth or a used PA head belongs here at almost any fee; a bundle of miscellaneous accessories does not have enough buyers to clear at any fee. Match inventory to audience first, then run the fee math — in that order.
Reverb Bump: promoted listings done per-item
The optional paid lever is Reverb Bump — per-item promotion you toggle at a chosen percentage (roughly 2-10% of the sale), charged only when the item sells through the boosted placement. It behaves like eBay’s Promoted Listings with better ergonomics: the toggle lives on the listing, the rate is your choice, and the fee is success-contingent. The rational use mirrors every ad product on this site: Bump stale listings (where visibility is the binding constraint) at a rate the margin can carry — on the default sale, a 4% Bump costs $18 and needs to be the difference between selling and a third relist cycle to pay for itself. The calculator models the un-boosted base; add your chosen Bump rate to the fee column when you flip it on.
A worked example: the used guitar flip
Bought a used telecaster privately at $260. Cleaned, set up ($25 of setup supplies), listed at $495, sells at $450 after offers. Fees: $22.50 (5%) + $14.86 (3.19% + 49¢) = $37.36. Net after costs ($285 incl. supplies): $127.64 — a 45% return on cost. Reverse check: to clear exactly $120 you needed to list at ($120 + $0.49 + $285) ÷ (1 − 0.0819) = $441.24 — the actual $450 sale beat target by $7.64. Shipping: the buyer paid a shipped rate via Reverb’s shipping options; had you offered free shipping on a $38 label, enter it as cost and the net lands at $89.64 — still solid, but the label is the second-biggest line after your acquisition cost. Gear is heavy; funded shipping decisions deserve the same rigor as sourcing decisions.
Reverb in the gear-flipper’s stack
For music gear, the 2026 stack is Reverb as the price-discovery marketplace (fee-cheap, buyer-intent, model-number search), eBay as the auction layer for vintage and rare pieces where bidding dynamics can exceed fixed prices, and Facebook Marketplace / Craigslist as the zero-fee local layer where the same PayPal fee calculator from this site governs the shipped deals. Reverb’s 8.2% makes it the keeper of the middle: most used gear sells there at fair market within weeks without auction risk. The calculators on this site let you price the same unit three ways in a minute — and for anyone flipping gear at volume, that minute is the highest-paid minute of the week.
Last verified October 11, 2026. Platform fees change — always confirm against the platform’s official fee page before pricing decisions. Estimates for planning only; every calculation runs in your browser and nothing is stored.