Sideline Swap

Sideline Swap Review:

If you’re a serious athlete and have old equipment filling every closet and corner of your garage, you may want to consider selling on Sideline Swap. The site is specifically geared to peddling everything from skis and boots to rollerblades and lacrosse helmets to other sports enthusiasts. That may help you sell your premium equipment for the premium price that it deserves.

This, of course, does not mean you’ll get anything close to what you paid when the equipment was new. But, you may get more than what the same equipment would sell for on Craigs List.

Free to list

It’s free to list your items for sale. However, when an item is sold, the site will take a 12% – 15% commission, depending on the item’s price. And, a portion of this fee goes to the site’s payment processor. The site also limits maximum fees to $100 (plus the 3% that goes to the payment processing company). Minimum fee is $2.

This compares extremely favorably to Sideline Swap’s direct competitor, GearTrade, which charges up to 85% of the sales price in commissions.

You do the work

That said, GearTrade takes possession of your items for sale, photographs them, prices them, and handles shipping them to the buyer.

Sideline Swap has you take photos, load them onto the site, set your own price and ship the item to whomever buys it. All Sideline Swap does is market through their site and through advertisements on a variety of social media sites, and collect payment on your behalf.

The buyer pays for shipping, so if you list an item for sale at $100, you can expect to net $88.

Recommendations

We like this site and think it’s a good place to sell sporting goods, if you don’t have a receptive local market. However, if you’re in a sports-oriented town, you may be able to sell for free on CraigsList to a local buyer, who can pick up your goods. Facebook Marketplace is another good option for selling in person.

What their sellers say (from TrustPilot):

Love SidelineSwap. Never had any easier platform to deal with when it comes to selling sports equipment. It’s extremely convenient for myself to sell hockey equipment to those when I live outside of a traditional hockey market.

It’s an effective site to get your stuff to a wider audience. Wish it would automatically convert USD to CAD.

Sideline swap is the best invention for sports equipment since Play It Again Sports. They make it easy to market, ship, and purchase equipment online. I check on that site before I shop anywhere else.

Easy to list

It was easy to list an item. The listing process made it easy to accurately list the item for a competitive price. The selling experience was easy to communicate and negotiate with the buyer. Finally the email, text and push notifications keep me engaged on my listed items helping me be a good seller.

Oliver Stout, a 23-year-old former college athlete, says he spent a fortune on La Crosse equipment over the years. Now he’s clearing out his parent’s garage by selling his old sticks and gear to help finance his last semester at school. “I think I’ve sold $5,500 worth of stuff over the last three years. That helps.” He says he particularly likes the site because it caters to other sports enthusiasts, like himself, who are aware of the value of his gear.

“Brilliant idea. Easy to buy. A cinch to sell. Great interface with sorting capabilities geared to what an athlete wants. Perfect for sports families with fast-growing kids. I’m hooked.”