Reverb & The Guitar Broker Alert!
Bought a $7,200 PRS Private Stock listed as "Excellent." Arrived with a split neck, scratchy pot, too many scratches, dents, digs, and a hostile seller, and an online merchant that ignores their own policies. Buyer beware.
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to put out a massive warning flag for anyone looking at high-end vintage gear online, specifically regarding The Guitar Broker (Craig Brody) out of Fort Lauderdale, FL.
On September 26, I pulled the trigger on a 2006 PRS McCarty Private Stock (Dark Cherry Sunburst by Joe Knaggs) listed for $7,220.75 (+ $250 shipping). The listing explicitly stated the guitar was in "Excellent" condition.
It arrived on September 30, and to say it was misrepresented is an understatement. It failed to meet even basic "Good" condition standards. Here is what I uncovered immediately:
- Structural Neck Damage: Severe fiber splitting running all the way down the back of the neck (likely due to a complete lack of humidity storage).
- Electronics: A severely scratchy, fuzzy tone pot that crackles heavily and fails to hold a clean signal.
- Body/Finish: Over a dozen undisclosed chips, deep scrapes, and blemishes ranging from 1/8" to 1/4".
- Hardware: A cracked bridge pickup frame.
I meticulously photographed everything and messaged the seller the next morning (Oct 1) to initiate a return. His responses have been completely combative, dismissive, and unprofessional. Instead of owning up to a clear misrepresentation of an investment-grade guitar, he chose to mock high-end collectors and tell me the return would be "my loss."
To make matters worse, Reverb Support has been incredibly frustrating to deal with. For the last 5 days, they’ve refused to escalate this to a supervisor and are trying to force me to mail a $7k+ guitar back using a standard, unvalidated return label with capped insurance provided by the hostile seller. They are forcing the buyer to take 100% of the financial risk if it gets damaged or lost in transit.
I’ve spent over $48,500 on guitars through Reverb since late last year, and the fact that "Buyer Protection" vanishes the second a high-value transaction goes sideways is terrifying.
I have already spent hours dealing with this ridiculous Reverb.com and an unscrupulous vendor. It's a same that such a wonderful instrument was abused like that, likely stored without humidity control.
If you are a collector looking at gear from The Guitar Broker, protect your money and go elsewhere. Has anyone else dealt with Reverb refusing to issue fully insured labels for high-end returns? How did you get past their front-line support bottleneck?