Terms of Use Agreement

Last updated 09/02/2025

Section 1. Welcome to Sweetwater's Gear Exchange!

We are glad you have chosen to visit our site. This Gear Exchange Terms of Sale Agreement (“Terms”) is entered into by and between you (acting in your capacity as an employee or other representative of your company or other entity, if applicable) (“you”) and Sweetwater Gear Exchange, LLC (“Gear Exchange”, “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your use of our site at https://www.sweetwater.com/used (the “Site”). " or "Gear Exchange" or "us" or "we" or "our" refers to Sweetwater Sound, LLC., the owner of the website. The term "you" refers to the customer or viewer of our website. The term “GX Staff” refers to employees of Sweetwater Gear Exchange, LLC and/or employees of Sweetwater Sound, LLC.

Section 2. Use of Our Website

By using our Site or by clicking to accept or agree, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms and any and all other user agreements, terms, rules, or policies referenced in these Terms, including:

Sweetwater Terms of Use;
Tax Information; and
All other applicable policies for buyers and sellers at Help Center, (collectively, the “Agreement”).

If you do not want to agree to this Agreement, you must not access or use the Site. You acknowledge that this Agreement contains legally binding terms and conditions that affect your legal rights and remedies.

Section 3. Your Promises to Us

You agree to comply with this Agreement including all policies, applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Violations of this Agreement will be subject to review and may result in a warning or a permanent account ban. You agree not to:

(a) fail to pay for purchased items including items for which your submitted offer has been accepted by a seller, unless the seller has meaningfully changed the item's description after your offer was made, where “meaningfully” is defined to mean a material change that would affect a reasonable User's choice to purchase the item;
(b) use our services to solicit personal information from other Gear Exchange Users;
(c) send an excessive (as defined by GX staff) number of messages to other Gear Exchange users or GX Staff;
(d) fail to deliver items sold by you, unless you provide a reasonable (as defined by GX staff) explanation;
(e) manipulate the price of items or attempt to mislead Gear Exchange buyers or mislead other Gear Exchange Users;
(f) list or publish a Prohibited Item (as defined in the next section);
(g) mislead other Gear Exchange users.

The following violations will result in immediate and permanent account ban: You agree not to:

use our services if you are (1) below 18 years of age, (2) not able to form legally binding contracts, or (3) a person or entity with whom transactions are prohibited under economic trade sanctions;
attempt to or solicit other users to move a sale off-site;
use our services as a “drop shipping” tool, where “drop shipping” is defined as the systematic purchase and shipping of items to buyers other than yourself;
impersonate another person or entity in a deceptive manner;
promote or threaten violence;
make repeated unwanted contact with another user;
engage in harassment or bullying of another user;
use offensive or derogatory terms or slurs that refer to race or ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, or sexual identity.

Section 4. Prohibited and Restricted Items (“Prohibited Items”)

Gear Exchange is an online marketplace for individuals to buy and sell musical instruments and audio gear. To ensure a safe and productive selling environment, we prohibit non-musical and/or performance gear, including but not limited to:

bags; apparel; stickers;
anything illegal, obscene, threatening or defamatory;
illegal copies, copycats or counterfeit items;
software;
general electronics like cell phones, computers, and cameras;
CDs or vinyl;
books;
lessons or services;
marketing or advertisements;
items that display hateful images or symbols;
anything showing nudity or adult content;
alcohol;
tobacco;
drugs;
firearms;
products that contain ivory
any other item that, in the determination of GX Staff, should not be sold on the website, for any reason.

Gear Exchange may remove or modify a listing for any reason. We may remove or modify a post or picture without explanation or notice to the seller or buyer.

Section 5. For Sellers - Card on File

As a seller on Gear Exchange, you agree that Gear Exchange may charge your credit card, or any other method of payment, on file (“Card on File”) for any and all outstanding or delinquent fees or balances and waive any and all claims against Gear Exchange for exercising that right (including, for example, using your contact information to aid in collecting payment).

Before publishing a listing, we require sellers to submit their Card on File. We maintain this information while you use our service. We require all sellers to maintain an active Card on File with sufficient balance to cover buyer returns for your sold items at the point you sell the item until the return period has lapsed as the seller card on file. An active Card on File is also required to collect your payout.

Gear Exchange will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Gear Exchange services. If you no longer want Gear Exchange to use your information, you may close your account. After closing your account, Gear Exchange will retain and use your information only as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Section 6. Fees

Gear Exchange charges sellers for use of our services. All fees are calculated when an item sells and are automatically withheld from a seller's payout. The 5% seller fee will be applied to the final item sale price as well as any shipping charges that a seller charges to the buyer. The 2.5% transaction fee will be applied to the entire order amount, including any sales tax.

Gear Exchange will waive the 5% seller fee and the 2.5% transaction fee for sellers who choose to redeem earnings in the form of a Sweetwater gift card.

Gear Exchange reserves the right to change fees at any time with or without notice, in our sole discretion. The seller will have an opportunity to review the fees before proceeding to ship or arrange for pickup.

Any attempt to avoid fees by moving sales initiated on Gear Exchange off-site is strictly prohibited and may result in account suspension or termination. Sales may not be carried out via private message to avoid seller fees, tax liability or for any other reason. Any sale that begins on Gear Exchange but is completed off-site will not be subject to any of Sweetwater's policies or protections.

Section 7. Seller Information

Gear Exchange protects the identity of its sellers by allowing them to display only the Storefront name the seller chooses, and their physical location by Zip code. Other than the physical address information needed to ship items, sellers are under no obligation to reveal their identity to buyers, and vice versa. Gear Exchange admins can facilitate communication between buyers and sellers in the event of a dispute.

Section 8. Tax Information

According to the IRS, online marketplaces (such as Gear Exchange) will be required to file a Form 1099-K on your behalf if gross payments to you for goods sold on Gear Exchange reach the annual earnings threshold. The official IRS threshold for 2024 is $5,000.

This requirement was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (see Sec. 9674). Learn more from the official IRS announcement here: IR-2023-221, Nov. 21, 2023.

In order to process payouts, we may require that sellers complete W-9 taxpayer forms in Hyperwallet's secured Pay Portal. If tax information is not submitted, we may temporarily suspend payouts until the necessary taxpayer information has been received and validated in your Hyperwallet account.

Section 9. Unlawful Activity & Proper Conduct

As a member of a friendly community, you are expected to behave in an honest and lawful manner. We reserve the right to investigate complaints or reported violations of this Agreement and to take any action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to reporting any suspected unlawful activity to law enforcement officials, regulators, or other third parties and disclosing any information necessary or appropriate to such persons or entities relating to your profile, email addresses, usage history, posted materials, IP addresses, and traffic information.

Section 10. Reviews

Feedback from Buyers

After buying an item on Gear Exchange you have the opportunity to leave a review for 60 days following the delivery date of the item. In the review, you may rate the seller with a one to five star rating, with one being the lowest rating (negative experience) and five being the highest rating (positive ). During that 60-day window, you may edit your rating as many times as you would like. Be aware that your review and your profile information may be displayed on the seller's page in both the listing and review sections.

By leaving a review, you agree to:

Follow the Promises to Us in Section 3 of this Terms of Sale;
Not penalize the seller for things outside of their control, like shipping, the functionality of the website itself, or other third-party services;
Not falsely inflate a seller's review score;
Avoid harassment or bullying of any kind;
Maintain the integrity of the review system, and not attempt to undermine it in any way.

Feedback for Sellers

We know your reputation as a seller is important to you. Should you receive an unfavorable review, you can reach out to the buyer or leave a response.

In reaching out to the buyer or in leaving a response, you commit to the Promises to Us in Section 3 of this Terms of Sale, and you agree to maintain a respectful conversation. Failure to do so will constitute a violation of this Agreement.

In your response or review of the buyer, you agree to:

Follow the Promises to Us in Section 3 of this Terms of Sale;
Not falsely inflate a buyer's review score;
Avoid harassment or bullying of any kind;
Maintain the integrity of the review system, and not attempt to undermine it in any way.

We reserve the right to remove reviews that violate our Review Policy or overall Terms of Use.

Problem Reports & Cases

If a buyer has a problem with an order or a dispute they're unable to resolve on their own with a Seller, they will file a Problem Report.

Once a buyer submits a Problem Report, a case is opened. When a case has been opened, you (the Seller) are expected to attempt to resolve the issue in a timely fashion. If needed, Gear Exchange will assist in the resolution of the case between you and the buyer. This may include, but is not limited to:

automatically closing the case and issuing a refund to the buyer (to the original form of payment);
reviewing the case further to help the buyer and seller resolve it as quickly as possible.

Gear Exchange reserves the right to intervene and resolve an issue on your (the Seller's) behalf for circumstances including, but not limited to:

failure to respond timely hours to a buyer's inquiry;
harassment;
refusal of service;
manipulation;
undermining the integrity of the case system.

Buyers may report a problem for items that never arrive, or arrive late, or arrive damaged, or do not match the listing description. Gear Exchange may request your assistance in resolving cases opened against your shop. By using the Gear Exchange case system, you understand that GX may use your personal information for the purpose of resolving disputes with other members. Please review Sweetwater's Privacy Notice for more information.

Section 11. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Use of AI Features - Additional Disclaimers

Certain portions of the Site include artificial intelligence features (“AI Features”) that perform actions or generate content (collectively, “AI Output”), in order to provide additional features for your benefit. For example, certain AI Features may be made available to you on the Site to refine and improve your product listings. Gear Exchange may change, add, or remove specific AI Features, or portions thereof, at any time without any liability to you. Further, you agree and acknowledge that given the current state of technology, AI Features may make mistakes, contain errors, and have other bugs. You are solely responsible for reviewing and double-checking AI Outputs to confirm that such AI Outputs are accurate, lawful and otherwise appropriate before relying on them. You are solely responsible for, and should always verify before posting, any of your listings that are generated or updated using AI Features (including, without limitation, the description and price of items).

Ownership of AI Output

AI Output may not be protectable under copyright, intellectual property, or other laws, even to the extent such output is based on, or a derivative of, input provided by you. You agree and Gear Exchange makes no warranties or representations, express or implied, that AI Output is protectable under any law, is accurate, or is error-free.

Use of Your Input for Training/Optimization

Any information, text, or other materials that you input on the website including for use with any AI Feature, may be used by us to train, optimize, ground or otherwise enhance the AI Features, without any attribution or payment to you.

Section 12. Your Submissions to Us

You grant Gear Exchange a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to use, reproduce, display, and distribute all information and materials you provide in connection with the Site, including remarks, suggestions, ideas, and graphics (collectively, a “Submission”). This includes, without limitation, the right to use your Submission on our social media accounts, in marketing materials, and in other promotional contexts. You represent and warrant that you own or control all necessary rights to your Submission; that your Submission is accurate, appropriate, legal, and original; and that its use by Gear Exchange, our users, or others does not and will not infringe any third-party Intellectual Property Rights. You acknowledge and agree that your Submission will not be treated as confidential, and you are solely responsible for it. By posting your Submission on our Site, it is possible for an outside website or a third party to re-post or index that Submission. To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, you waive your right to enforce your Intellectual Property Rights, including any moral rights, in your Submission against Gear Exchange and its assignees and sublicensees.