A used guitar is listed at $800. A $720 offer is in the inbox. You paid $450 for the guitar and $10 to set it up. Shipping is $75 charged / $65 you pay. Reverb marketplace is entered at 5% of the item, payment at 3.19% + $0.49. Bump fee on the listing is $0, so the table uses a $3 illustration — a typical Reverb bump, not a live price. Overwrite it on the calculator.
A bump is a fixed cash out of this sale. It never pays on the same price. Paying $3 and still taking $720 always leaves $3 less. It only pays if it gets you from that offer to list — or to an offer high enough to cover the bump after marketplace and payment take their cut.
| Path | Sale price | Fees | Net cash | vs offer, no bump |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take the offer, no bump | $720.00 | $61.85 | $208.15 | +$0.00 |
| Take the offer, pay the bump | $720.00 | $64.85 | $205.15 | −$3.00 |
| Sell at list, no bump | $800.00 | $68.40 | $281.60 | +$73.45 |
| Sell at list, pay the bump | $800.00 | $71.40 | $278.60 | +$70.45 |
On this example, a $3.00 bump still pays if it gets you from the $720 offer to the $800 list — you keep $70.45 more than taking the offer with no bump. To keep no-bump offer cash after paying the bump, you need $723.27 ($3.27 more after percentage fees).
Waiting for list with no bump still leaves the most cash. None of those sentences is advice to buy a bump or refuse an offer — they are the arithmetic on the inputs above.
Type your own bump fee on the calculator and the four paths update. Your numbers stay in the browser. Offer versus list is a different question — walk that on should I take this Reverb offer. Shipping included versus buyer-pays is on should I include shipping on Reverb. Comparing this guitar to eBay, Etsy, Amazon, or your own store? The where-to-sell calculator ranks Reverb against them with this item's price, shipping, and cost already filled in.
On the worked example — $800 list, $720 offer, $450 gear cost, 5% marketplace, 3.19%+$0.49 payment — taking the offer with no bump leaves $208.15. Paying a $3 bump and still taking $720 leaves $205.15. Selling at list with no bump leaves $281.60. Selling at list after the $3 bump leaves $278.60, which is $70.45 more than taking the offer. The bump only pays if it changes the price you take.
Marketplace, payment, and Reverb Gives still take a cut of any higher offer. On the worked example a $3 bump needs $3.27 more item price, so $723.27 keeps the same cash as the $720 offer with no bump. Type your own bump on the calculator; this page does not claim Reverb's live bump prices.
No. A bump is a fixed cash out of this sale. Paying one and still taking the same offer always leaves less by exactly the bump. It only pays if it gets you to list or to a higher offer that covers the bump after percentage fees.