This is a used-phone checkout — the unlocked Pixel, the carrier-clean iPhone, the IMEI that actually passes — not a vinyl crate, not a sports locker, not a consignment bag. Swappa’s public Fair Fees page and seller FAQ print a flat 3% seller fee on the Ask Price. Listing the handset is always free. The buyer pays a separate 3% that is added to the Ask when Swappa sets the Listing Price. Then PayPal (the default processor on that HTML) takes 3.49% + $0.49 of the total order amount — the listing, not the Ask alone. You type both rates. Keep = sale − Swappa commission you type − payment you type. That split is not eBay’s category final-value + per-order fee on a different marketplace (not a vs-clone).
Official payout sentence (Partner Fee FAQ): Ask − Swappa seller fee (3%) − PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 of the total order amount. On this card that is keep = sale − Swappa commission you type − payment you type, where sale is the Ask (not the $103 listing on a $100 Ask). Payment, on the official default, is charged on the listing / order total (Ask + buyer 3%). Uncheck that if your receipt used a different base. Default is the official FAQ $100 Ask, seller 3%, PayPal 3.49% + $0.49. Change any field. Empty percents and flats = $0.
Sale for the 3% = the Ask you typed. Buyer 3% is not subtracted from keep as a second Swappa line — it only fattens the PayPal base when the checkbox is on. Fair Fees does not print a 50-state tax table or an IMEI-check dollar.
Keep $92.92 from a $100.00 phone Ask
3% × $100.00 = $3.00. Payment 3.49% of $103.00 + $0.49 = $4.08. Planning only — not a dashboard screenshot.
Each party (seller and buyer) pays a flat 3% Swappa sale fee.
Sellers pay 3% of the Ask Price. So if you list an item with a $100 ask price, you pay $3 to Swappa and receive a payment of $97 (minus PayPal payment processing fees).
Buyers pay 3%, which is added to the seller's Ask Price when setting the Listing Price. In other words, a listing with a $100 Ask Price will have a $103 listing price.
— How do fees work on Swappa?, Swappa FAQ, fetched 28 Aug 2026, HTTP 200 (no last-updated stamp in the HTML)
That paragraph is the whole Swappa selling machine for the commission line. There is no insertion fee. There is no category ladder (iPhone vs Pixel vs Galaxy pays the same 3%). There is no tenure drop after five sales. The trap is a vocabulary trap: Ask vs Listing. A $100 Ask is a $103 listing. You still owe $3, not $6.06. The buyer’s 3% is theirs. Do not paste a “platform takes 6%” rule onto this phone sale.
Fair Fees says the same split in two cards: “3% Seller Fee — listing is always free, but seller pays 3% of the sold price” and “3% Buyer Fee — the buyer pays a 3% fee added to the listing price.” Posting is free. The 3% is a sold-Ask tax, not a shop rent.
That is a different marketplace than eBay’s category final-value percent plus a per-order fee. Consumer electronics on eBay is not this 3%/3% split. This page will not mill a vs-clone of them.
Phone order: $100 Ask (the official FAQ example). Official seller 3% of the Ask. Official PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 of the listing / order total ($103). Buyer 3% is not a second seller line.
FAQ publishes the $3 and the “$97 minus PayPal” sentence. Fair Fees publishes PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 on the payment total. Partner Fee FAQ says the PayPal cut is of the total order amount. The $4.08 / $92.92 subtraction is ours from those printed rates — not a payout screenshot. Source: How do fees work on Swappa?, Fair Fees, What is a PayPal Partner Fee?.
Fair Fees prints a worked iPhone: “iPhone purchased for $515.” Buyer fee $15.00, seller fee $15.00, PayPal $18.46, seller payout $466.54. That $515 is the listing (Ask $500 + 3% buyer $15). Check: 3% × $500 = $15. 3.49% × $515 + $0.49 = $18.46. $500 − $15 − $18.46 = $466.54. Same formula as the $100 card, different sticker. We did not invent that payout — Swappa printed it. Same Galaxy row on that page: listing $309, seller $9.00, PayPal $11.27, payout $279.73 (Ask $300).
| Phone Ask | Listing (Ask + 3%) | Swappa 3% | PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 of listing | Keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100 (FAQ default) | $103.00 | $3.00 | $4.08 | $92.92 |
| $300 (Galaxy row) | $309.00 | $9.00 | $11.27 | $279.73 |
| $500 (iPhone row) | $515.00 | $15.00 | $18.46 | $466.54 |
There is no published min or max on the 3% in the HTML we fetched. A $20 unlocked feature phone and a $900 MacBook Ask pay the same percent. We will not invent a $1.99 floor or a $100 cap and paste it onto this phone sale.
PayPal fees: 3.49% + $0.49. Stripe fees: 2.9% + $0.30. Direct Payments from Buyer to Seller.
— Fair Fees, fetched 28 Aug 2026, HTTP 200
Your payout will be your Ask Price minus Swappa’s seller fee (3%) and PayPal’s transaction fee (3.49% + $0.49 of the total order amount).
— What is a PayPal Partner Fee?, fetched 28 Aug 2026, HTTP 200
“Total order amount” is why this card’s PayPal line runs on $103, not $100. On the official iPhone row it runs on $515, not $500 — and Swappa’s own $18.46 PayPal cell only matches 3.49% × $515 + $0.49. If we had charged PayPal on the Ask, that cell would be $17.94, and it is not.
Stripe is printed as 2.9% + $0.30 for select sellers. The sale-fee FAQ still says sellers are required to have a PayPal account. This card defaults to PayPal. Type 2.9 and 0.30 if that is what settled. We will not average 3.49 and 2.9 into a fake blend, and we will not pretend Stripe is on every IMEI.
International PayPal is a named gap, not a number: buyers with international PayPal accounts are expected to cover any additional costs over the domestic 3.49% + $0.49, and sellers should explain that adjustment on the private sale page. The HTML does not print the extra percent. Type it. Empty extra = $0.
The “partner fee” you see on the PayPal transaction is a combination of the Swappa seller fee, buyer fee, and sales tax (if applicable). Seller fee: 3% of the seller's Ask Price. The seller fee is paid by the seller. Buyer fee: 3% of the seller's Ask Price. The buyer fee is paid by the buyer. Sales tax: … paid by the buyer and remitted to the appropriate state by Swappa.
— What is a PayPal Partner Fee?
Direct PayPal-for-Marketplaces is why the screenshot looks like you paid the buyer’s 3% and the tax. You did not. Those dollars were added to what the buyer sent, then routed to Swappa. Your keep is still Ask − 3% − PayPal. Do not subtract the Partner Fee lump a second time on this card.
Calculated at checkout, Swappa is required by law to collect state taxes on most sales.
— Fair Fees
Marketplace-facilitator copy on that page: collected by Swappa at purchase, included in the PayPal Partner Fee, required by most state laws. The buyer pays it. It is not a line we subtract from Ask. Fair Fees does not give you Illinois vs California, VAT, or a facilitator table of rates. Empty tax is not modeled. If a receipt keep is smaller because tax-on-fee or a label hit, paste that dollar into COGS. Do not ask this page for a 50-state matrix. It will not grow one.
Fair Fees HTML we fetched does not print a “buyer pays shipping / postage is out of the 3%” sentence. The published seller fee is 3% of the Ask Price. If you baked a prepaid label into a fatter Ask, that postage is in the 3%. If the buyer paid a label some other way, we will not invent a drop-postage switch — type the Ask that actually sold. Swappa markets “Free Shipping” as a site badge; that is not a numbered label grid. A label you paid is COGS on this card, empty by default. We will not invent $12.40 for a padded iPhone box.
Swappa is a used-phone / used-electronics Ask with a split 3%/3% and PayPal on the listing. That is not:
Same used iPhone on eBay is a different fee machine. This page stays on the Swappa Ask.
Gaps we will not paper over: last-updated stamp (none in the HTML); international PayPal extra percent; Stripe eligibility beyond “select sellers”; restocking-fee percent (“reasonable,” if advertised); shipping-out-of-the-3% rule (not printed); 50-state sales tax; IMEI-check or listing-review dollar; in-app cells that are not on Fair Fees / those FAQs.
Free to list. Sellers pay 3% of the Ask. Buyers pay a separate 3% added to the listing. PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 of the order total; Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 for select sellers. Last checked 28 Aug 2026 from Fair Fees and the sale-fee / partner-fee FAQs. No last-updated stamp in that HTML.
No. Official copy: it is added to the Ask when Swappa sets the listing. A $100 Ask lists at $103. You still owe $3 of the Ask. The buyer 3% does enlarge the PayPal base, because PayPal is of the order total.
Fair Fees: PayPal 3.49% + $0.49; Stripe 2.9% + $0.30. Partner Fee FAQ: PayPal is of the total order amount. You type it. Empty = $0 here. International extra over domestic 3.49% + $0.49 is named, not numbered.
Planning, official 3% + PayPal 3.49% + $0.49 of the $103 listing: $100 − $3.00 − $4.08 = $92.92. Not a payout screenshot. Official iPhone row on Fair Fees: $500 Ask / $515 listing → keep $466.54.
No. Official copy: it is the seller 3% + buyer 3% + tax shown as one PayPal-for-Marketplaces lump. You paid the seller 3%. The buyer paid the rest. Do not subtract that lump again.
No. Fair Fees says Swappa collects tax at checkout. The buyer pays it. It does not publish state rates. Empty tax is not modeled.
Open the profit calculator Seller-fee hub eBay fees explained
Consumer electronics on a different marketplace (category FVF + per-order, not a 3% Ask split): eBay seller fees explained.