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INSIDE: If you have been looking for a few legitimate places to sell online, here are some great places to start.
Selling (and buying!) used goods has long been trendy, and it’s only getting trendier. Not only is selling unwanted stuff from around your house a great way to make extra money, but there is also a big movement today to keep stuff, like textiles, out of landfills, which is driving the consumer market.
Check out these places to turn your no-longer-wanted items into extra cash.
1. Facebook Marketplace
There’s a good chance you are already familiar with Facebook Marketplace. Almost every community has a buy, sell, trade or garage sale. You don’t have to stay within your own community anymore, however. You can also offer shipping on your Facebook Marketplace listings.
Pros
- There are almost 2.5 billion monthly Facebook users. That’s a lot of potential eyes on your goods.
- You can sell locally. This can mean fast cash in hand if you are in a pinch.
- There are no fees for selling locally and taking cash. There’s a 5% fee ($.40 minimum) if you use Marketplace checkout.
- Facebook Payments is now available with Marketplace checkout if you want to keep things simple and accept payments through the app.
Cons
- There are always safety concerns about meeting strangers, especially if they are coming to your home. Take precautions.
- There can be a lot of flakes who never show up at your agreed-upon meeting time.
- It’s going to take you a long time to get that money if you use Facebook payments – currently 15-20 days after entering tracking information.
- It can be really difficult to sell some brands and luxury items on Facebook as they tend to remove a lot of listings without any explanation or notice.
2. Poshmark
Poshmark started out focused on clothing, shoes and accessories. You can now also list some home goods – nothing that plugs in. This platform was my first love and where I still do most of my selling today.
Pros
- No need to worry about calculating shipping. As long as your package is under 5 pounds and under the dimensional restrictions – it’s a lot – you can ship with the label Poshmark emails you when you make a sale.
- Poshmark mediates the return process.
- Poshmark doesn’t allow returns for fit. This is an awesome bonus for clothing sellers. We all know how fit can vary from brand to brand. It’s up to the customer to know their size.
- You only pay when you make a sale. No listing fees.
- No PayPal fees. Payment is made to you from Poshmark via direct deposit or check.
Cons
- As of right now, you can only sell clothing, accessories, makeup and home goods on Poshmark. No electronics, toys, books, etc.
- Some sellers think the 20% commission to Poshmark is too high, but with that 20% you are getting return moderation, discounted Priority Rate shipping and more.
- If your package weighs over 5 lbs, you will need to upgrade your shipping label through Poshmark. This additional cost is deducted from your earnings. It is not passed on to the customer. If you have a heavy item, make sure you figure this additional cost into your listing price.
- Poshmark encourages seller activity. The sharing and following can be overwhelming to casual sellers.
3. Mercari
Mercari is becoming known as the new eBay among online resellers.
Pros
- You can sell almost anything on Mercari
- No listing fees. They do deduct 10% of your selling price as their fee.
- You have some control over shipping options though the shipping tends to cost a bit more if you use Mercari labels than other sites. You can ship outside of the system if you want to. Just don’t forget to enter your tracking information. You also don’t have any Mercari shipping protection if you ship outside of the system.
Cons
- Mercari isn’t the most seller-friendly when it comes to returns or problems.
- Mercari encourages you to continually drop your prices. I personally don’t. Most of my sales from full-price purchases or buyers sending me offers. I set it and forget it.
Sign up with this referral link for some sweet store credit.
4. Kidizen
Kidizen has been around for several years, but it’s still a smaller niche selling platform. Their focus is primarily on kids. On the upside, you can sell children’s books and toys here in addition to clothing.
Pros
- Easy listing process.
- Funds are deposited in your account as soon as your item starts tracking.
- Fees are only 12% + $.50 when an item sells. No listing fees.
- Buyers are willing to “pay up” for those kids’ brands with cult followings.
Cons
- Limited categories available – kids’ and women’s items only. There are no home goods or men’s categories at this time.
Use this referral link for some sweet store credit. Use can also use invite code THEWAHWIFE.
5. Etsy
Etsy is a well-known place to sell online, but its focus is pretty narrow – vintage and handmade goods.
Pros
- The buyers here are looking for vintage and handmade items. That’s great if you have those to sell.
Cons
- You can only sell vintage or handmade items.
- Listing fees in addition to a fee upon sale of an item.
6. eBay
eBay has been around for what seems like forever – at least “internet forever.” While it was once the place to sell online, it has been falling out of favor with a lot of sellers recently as they make a lot of changes and the listing process becomes more difficult in comparison to the other sites mentioned in this post. That being said, it still has a booming customer base that can’t be ignored.
Pros
- Launched in 1995, eBay is the most well-known and used online selling site around
- You can sell almost anything over here
- International buyers
- Instant payments to PayPal if you aren’t using Managed Payments
Cons
- You need to calculate shipping correctly when listing to avoid paying out of pocket. This means “dummy packaging” and weighing items as you list so you can enter weight and dimensions. You’ll need a scale. Here is the one I use.
- You’ll be paying PayPal fees in addition to eBay fees.
- You have a limited number of free listings per month. Anything over that number incurs a small listing fee.
- Potential for a lot of returns depending what you are selling. You are responsible for the customer service aspect of returns. You also still have to pay fees to eBay and PayPal, in many cases, even if an item is returned. In some cases, you also have to pay shipping both ways on returns.
- eBay automatically takes their fees out of your PayPal account on a monthly basis. If you tend to run your bank accounts or PayPal low on funds, don’t forget to leave enough money in there for these.
7. Depop
Depop is another platform with a strong focus on vintage and streetwear clothing. The user base seems to be a lot younger here. It also has more of an Instagram vibe. Many sellers are modeling their items.
Pros
- Instant payments to PayPal.
- Low 10% fee upon selling an item.
- Ship on your own or use a Depop label.
Cons
- Narrow market.
- You will be paying PayPal fees in addition to Depop fees.
Other Platforms
There are dozens of other more niche platforms out there. They may be smaller, but maybe their audience is more targeted to what you have for sale. You will find platforms specific to things like vintage & unique (Depop), shoes (Goat), men’s apparel (Grailed), and more.
It never hurts to try out new platforms or to cross-list items on several platforms. But if you are going to do either of these things, make sure you have a good inventory tracking system in place – here is a link to mine. Also, make sure you have fully educated yourself on how the platform works. A few questions you will want to answer:
- What do they charge? (Ex. listing fees, percentage of sales, etc.)
- How are you paid?
- What is the listing process like?
- How easy is it to remove items you no longer want to sell (or have sold on another platform)?
- How many buyers are on the site?
- What’s their policy for returns?
- Who pays for shipping?
- Who generates the shipping label?
- What do the buyer reviews say?
When doing research, there are two sites I like; Reddit and Facebook reseller groups. In those, you will find honest reviews from real sellers – good and bad.
That being said, don’t use reviews as an excuse. There are a lot of people out there who will find fault in everything. There are also two sides to every story. Read the reviews but weigh them accordingly.
