As any musician knows, the buying and selling of second hand musical equipment online can be a nightmare, from the pain of trying to calculate postage and exchange rates not to mention commission cuts taken from mediums such as eBay, to the fear of legitimacy from Gumtree, what should be a simple process can be quite the challenge.
One Australian musician, Chris Shaw, a lad you may know from the band House vs. Hurricane or his current outfit, Dream On, Dreamer, has lived through these pains, the difficulty he has experienced the catalyst for his brilliant new creation, Gearflip, an online music gear auction place designed specifically for musicians within Australia, as The Music Network report.
The website is solely tailored to those residing in Australia, not offering a place for international buyers or sellers in attempts to keep the entire process as simple and direct as possible.
Speaking with The Music Network, Shaw explained his brand new creation, “I’ve been buying and selling gear for a while and I found it pretty difficult to find somewhere that had a good community of members to sell to and buy off as well, I have a lot of friends that sell on there and have been scammed, or bought something and the item hasn’t arrived. It’s pretty hard to chase up. I was just sort of brainstorming one day and thought why not try something myself, set up something for everyone else and that’s how the idea started.”
Detailing the Australian only flavour of the site, he continued, “with Gearflip, the good thing is it’s only for Australians so all pricing is in AUD, you’re not going to get your item shipped from HongKong. We don’t allow drop shipping so it’s just people in Australia buying and selling items with other people from Australia.”
With the likes of Facebook groups dominating the current local-tinge on music gear and equipment sales, Shaw believes his website is an attractive option as it is easier, not to mention offers cheaper commission rates, taking only 2.5% compared to eBay’s 10% with the addition of PayPal’s 3%.
Shaw is super excited for Gearflip, and believes it has a bright future for not only musicians, but Aussie retailers, too, “I feel like it’s a really good tool for retailers to use as a second online store. If they don’t have a store already it’s a good store for them and they don’t have to worry about competing with international pricing that changes its dollar tomorrow.”
The auction site has already seen its fair share of buy and sell transactions, with plenty of listings on the website now. If you’re interested in checking it out, simply click here.
