So Manny I have several drum sets to sell, what social media is working best for selling drums? And I suppose you rely only on PayPal for payment? I'm going to start out trying to sell locally without the hassle of shipping but that's a fairly small Market where I live so I will probably need to bite the bullet and do some shipping.

Jeff,

A lot has been on facebook but I have also used the forums and instagram. In my case I am ok with shipping and using paypal. I would always of course prefer to deal local but often the right buyer is not found locally. I have been buying, selling, and shipping for quite a while. In all that time I have had one kit sent back, one hoop damaged in shipping, and one drum had an issue I did not even know about. So in general 99.99% of my dealings have been great. I could of course take things further but like you I have other "real" businesses and not sure how much time I want to take away from my other interests. I will say it has taken years and a lot of experimenting to get the mix right for how to sell, when to sell, what sells best, and so on. I tend to stick to what is right for my model.

Hope this helps!

Manny

I have to agree with airbourne. I have been in the shipping game for many years and had a few disasters. My advice is to always take insurance for the value of what the customer pays. I had a claim on a hayman bass drum which had one of the turret lugs caved in. The guy got $200 plus he had it repaired professionally in the states. Majority as above 95% of sales shipping all over the world have gone like clock work. Plus be absolute honest in description so if you have a small crack in wrap tell customer. The hayman kit was wrapped and boxed top class but unfortunately accidents do happen. One last point if you send a drum of whatever size always square box it dont use round packaging as the couriers roll them all over the place that was the lesson i learnt. Go to outlets for all your bubble wrap cardboard and polystyrene as they are glad to give it to you. Even use old drum cases to send them but square box final shipment. Ive been on ebay selling for the past 12 yrs and yes there are fees but the audience is vast. Id love to sell to my next town in the UK id even drop drums off myself but that attracts a very small amount of customers. FB is a good tool but ebay is IMO the best platform. My best customers from the UK are USA Canada Germany Australia. Ive sold premier kits arbiter autotune kits ludwig kit hayman john grey etc etc. All arrived in A1 condition apart from one kit which was sorted on insurance.