Your seller balance reflects everything that's happened on your sales — payments received, fees, refunds, and shipping costs. If your balance looks lower than expected, or has gone negative, here's how it works and why.
How your balance is calculated
When you sell an item, your final earnings aren't just the sale price. A few things may be deducted along the way:
- Seller fees — SidelineSwap's commission on the sale
- Payment processing fees — 2.9% + $0.30 of the sale price
- Bump fees — a 3% fee is charged on items that sell within a week of being manually bumped (auto-bumps with Sideline Pro are exempt)
- Shipping costs — if you used a SidelineSwap-provided label, the cost of that label is deducted from your earnings
- Shipping discounts — promotional shipping discounts can lower the label cost and increase your earnings
- Shipping insurance — if added to the swap, the cost of insurance is deducted from your earnings
- Refunds issued to the buyer — if a buyer is refunded for any reason, that amount comes out of your balance
- Return shipping — if a return is accepted, the cost of the return label is deducted from your earnings
This is why the amount you see in your balance after a sale often won't match the listed sale price — fees, shipping discounts, and refunds get immediately factored into your earnings.
Why your balance might be negative
A negative balance almost always comes from one of two situations:
- A return shipping deduction on a completed sale. If a buyer returned an item and the return label cost was deducted after you'd already cashed out your earnings, your balance can go negative by the amount of the return label.
- A refund issued after the swap was completed and cashed out. If you cashed out the proceeds of a sale and the buyer was later refunded — for example, because of an item issue or dispute — that refunded amount is owed back. Since the money was already paid out to you, your balance shows the negative.
In other words, a negative balance means money was paid out to you that, after the fact, didn't belong to you because the buyer was refunded.
What to do if your balance is negative
You don't need to take any action. Future sales will be applied to your balance and bring it back to zero before any new earnings become available to cash out.
If you'd rather not wait — for example, if you don't plan to keep selling — please contact SidelineSwap support and we'll help you sort it out.
Still have questions?
If your balance still doesn't match what you expected after reviewing the deductions above, please contact SidelineSwap support and include:
- Your username
- The swap ID(s) you have questions about
- A description of the discrepancy — what you expected vs. what you're seeing
We'll review your account and follow up.