Selling on Poshmark vs Ebay vs Mercari – Which is better?
If you’re looking to make extra money online you may be wondering if you should be selling on Poshmark vs Ebay vs Mercari. In my experience, these seem to be the three most popular and I want to help you figure out which platform you should be selling on.
I’m going to do my best to evaluate Poshmark vs Ebay vs Mercari across 9 different categories based on my experience and give a winner at the end. But do keep in mind that which platform will work for you as a reseller depends on your situation.
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>> Want to start cross posting on Ebay, Poshmark AND Mercari to increase your sales? I HIGHLY recommend Vendoo. It has literally saved me hours in cross-posting my items and has helped me make more money because I had my items listed on several platforms. Use this link to get 25% off your first month.
#1 Selling Fees
How much does it cost to sell? Poshmark definitely has higher fees, but you can see below to compare Ebay vs Mercari which are more similar.
eBay: 50 free listings then up to .35 per listing and around 12.55% final value fee once sells (this varies greatly based on category, if you have a store that you pay a fee for, etc.) Click here for a complete explanation of eBay fees.
Poshmark: Free to list. 20% or $2.95 for items $15 and under once item sells.
Mercari: Free to list. 10% mercari fee + 2.9% + .30 processing fee
Winner: Mercari. The fee are the lowest and easiest to predict. The fee for selling an item is similar to ebay, but there is no fee for listing.
>> Want to get started on Mercari? Check out my complete guide to Selling on Mercari
#2 Potential Buyers
eBay: 180+ million users
Poshmark: 40+ million users
Mercari: Can’t find how many users. 100+ million downloads worldwide.
Customer Base Winner: eBay.
#3 Listing
eBay: Listing on eBay can be pretty tedious and time consuming. The best way to list is on a computer, not on your phone, because the app tends to be glitchy.
Poshmark: Easy! There are a lot of fields to fill out, but it’s really self explanatory
Mercari: Easiest of them all. You can list on Mercari very quickly as there aren’t as many fields to fill out.
Winner: Mercari. Poshmark close second.
#4 Shipping
eBay: The one thing eBay has going for it as far as shipping is you can set calculated shipping and for lightweight items your buyer will like the cheaper shipping costs. Other than that it can be very confusing to figure out at first. Weighing, selecting different classes and carriers, etc. You can offer free shipping where you cover it yourself.
Poshmark: Easiest. It’s a flat $7.11 for your buyer and you can ship up to 5lbs this way. If you need more than 5lbs you simply go into the transaction and buy a label for a heavier item. One new feature is that you can offer free shipping or discounted shipping on your items.
Mercari: Pretty easy. Lots of options including if you want to do free shipping (you pay) or buyer paid shipping. You can choose a simple weight based mercari label or choose to figure out shipping yourself. Here’s a post all about shipping on Mercari.
Winner: Poshmark because it’s easiest to figure out shipping for the buyer and the seller.
#5 Seller Experience & Policies
eBay: There are a lot of rules and if you ship late, cancel an order, etc. it can negatively affect your account via “defects”. For more info on the seller performance standards click here.
Poshmark: Great. Poshmark generally doesn’t accept returns, although it sometimes happens. Poshmark is pretty good about taking care of their buyers and sellers.
Mercari: I’ve heard that Mercari can be hard to deal with when you need help with a customer. There is no phone number to call and a transaction can be in limbo for a long time.
Winner: Poshmark! Ebay is a little nitpicky and Mercari’s customer service is a bit lacking.
#6 Overall Effort
eBay: There is quite a bit of effort involved between listing, shipping, running sales, etc.
Poshmark: Listing and shipping are pretty easy, but you do need to share your items to get sales.
Mercari: Listing and shipping are easy and there’s really not much to do after that other than promote your items via the “promote” button or resist if you want to bump your item that way.
Winner: Mercari. But this one was a bit hard to rate because it all depends on how much you want to sell or if you want a true set it and forget it situation (which will result in slower sales).
#7 Access to funds
eBay: While eBay still lets buyers pay via PayPal so you have your money pretty much immediately, they are moving into a payments system which will work differently. Once the funds are in PayPal you can either do an instant deposit (1% fee) onto a card or do a regular withdrawal to your bank account which usually takes 1-2 days in my experience. If you have a paypal debit card you can use it immediately.
Poshmark: Once the item has been delivered and accepted by the buyer the funds get released into your poshmark balance. If they don’t accept within 3 days your funds automatically get released. Once you have a balance available you can redeem via direct deposit to your bank (2-3 days) or via check (this can take a week or more).
Mercari: Once the item is delivered and the buyer accepts the item the funds are released into your account. If the buyer doesn’t leave a rating within 3 days the funds get automatically released. You can request a direct deposit which usually takes 2-3 days.
Winner: eBay because currently you can access your funds immediately (unless you’re a new seller and sometimes PayPal will hold the funds until the item is successfully delivered)
#8 Extra Features
eBay: You can run sales, send offers to watchers, promote items.
Poshmark: You can offer bundles, bundle discounts and really interact with your customers by sharing items to their closet and sending offers.
Mercari: You can use the promote button to lower prices or send an offer to people who have liked your item
Winner: eBay and Poshmark tie.
#8 Moble App
eBay: There is an ebay app and it works ok, but it doesn’t let you do everything you can do via the computer. It’s also a little more complicated to update and list on the app.
Poshmark: I think the app is used more often than the web based version so it’s pretty easy to use and you can do basically everything via the app. It’s easy to navigate.
Mercari: Like with Poshmark, I think most users are on the app and not on the computers. It’s pretty easy to navigate, although not quite as easy as Poshmark.
Winner: Poshmark
#10 My Personal Experience
eBay: I sell way, way more on eBay than any of the other platforms making it worth the extra effort.
Poshmark: Poshmark is easy to list on, but I don’t love sharing. The sales aren’t as fast as I’d like them to be so I don’t post much here.
Mercari: Easy to list so I do cross post a bit here, but I don’t give it too much attention as most items sell slow unless they’re in high demand.
Winner: eBay. I go where the sales are and for me that’s eBay by a long shot. To be 100% fair, I list way more on eBay. Once I can get everything cross posted to all platforms it’d be interesting to see sales, but I’m still 99% sure eBay would win.
Final Scores
eBay: 3.5
Poshmark: 3.5
Mercari: 3
Final Winner: Poshmark and Ebay Tie!
Keep in mind that this is just looking at the numbers of who won each round. The weight of each category is not equal across the board. It varies by person, business and situation.
Final Thoughts on Poshmark vs Ebay vs Mercari
Personally, I choose eBay. Hands down. Like I said, I have to go where the sales are (see the chart below). But that’s just me.
My honest opinion on eBay vs Poshmark vs Mercari is really that you need to decide for yourself. If you want to be a full time seller or make a significant chunk of money, I highly recommend eBay for that. There are simply more users and it’s easier to sell items quickly.
However, if you have access to higher end, on trend, designer items then you may be able to make Poshmark work full time as well. I don’t know anyone who has made a full time income on Mercari.
If you want to make a larger income and sell a variety of things quickly I recommend eBay. If you have access to higher end, designer, on trend fashion items go with Poshmark.If you prioritize ease of listing and want to sell a large variety of items go with Mercari.
Want to earn more? Cross post your items!
Above all I recommend cross posting! If you’re a totally newbie to reselling maybe start with two platforms and then move to all three if that works for you. Just make sure you keep good track of items that sell and remove them from the other platforms you sell on when they do.
>> Want to start cross posting? I HIGHLY recommend Vendoo. It has literally saved me hours in cross posting my items and has helped me make more money because I had my items listed on several platforms. Use this link to get 25% off your first month.
Cross posting brings in extra income for us. It does take a little extra time, but after my years of selling online I’ve found I’d rather take a little more time listing something worth more money across several platforms than to just stick to one and crank out hundreds of items. It just makes the most sense for me to have less inventory, but better quality inventory, posted to several platforms.
THANK YOU!!!!!! This was the best article ever on where to sell my stuff.
Hi there! Just wanted to say that I appreciate this information above. I am new to reselling items. I found a great deal on Calvin Klein Ombre cropped hoodies at our local Costco and now I am trying to figure out the best place to sell them, lowest seller fees/costs and easiest place to list. My family currently sells on Etsy. I have seen the same shirts listed there, but not a lot selling. I was thinking Poshmark bc it’s for name brand items and Mercari bc it is more fashion based, but my husband also has an ebay store already, so I may just list them there, although, I feel like I should make my own store, so it doesn’t impact his reputation, but with his reputation, I may get more sales, due to his high rating which will have more people trusting they will receive a good product. So, I am kinda torn, but I think, all in all, I may list on Etsy, Ebay, FB Marketplace and our Facebook store…just to see where it will sell & how quickly. I will also be offering personalization on the shirts in vinyl….but now to price them with and without personalization. You gave me a lot of insight on where to sell, thank you so much. Being a homeschooling mom last year and currently, due to COVID, I appreciate being able to read info instead of having to do all that research myself. I have done some research myself already, bc that’s who I am and that is what I do, but it’s good to see it from someone else’s personal experience too. Thank you so much and good luck to you, in your own endeavors.
What is the best option (is it one of these 3 or something else) for selling art, sculpture and antique furniture? Objects with appraised values ranging from $1,000 up to $50,000?
Hello Aileen,
My wife and I (Anny) are very happy to see how you have been self sufficient at home for 10 years and with 2 kids. We want to learn how to sell and make money from home. We are very much interested in learning how you became so successful and want to learn from your experiences. Thank you so much.
I sold jewelry on ebay for 8 years. I had a store that gave me 500 auction style listing & 1000 fixed price listing .it cost 74.99 a month + final value fee. It worked great for me make 500 – 800 $ + a month. I closed my store jan 1 2021. Due to ebays new mgnt payment system.this is the worst move ebay made . it took me 2 1/2 months to get my 650$ owed. & waiting hours on the phone to talk to anyone. Ebay employee’s that sell say the same about there break up with pay pal. They have agreed with me. I will not sell in ebay untill they move back pay pal .now looking for new platform. Foe now i give ebay a 2 out of 10.so disappointed in ebay
I’ve done both eBay and posh Mark. Don’t like 7 Dollar flat rate on posh because the lighter items can go first class for three or four dollars. Bad for biz. Definitely sold more stuff on eBay but they do make mistakes and banned me unfairly. After I Sold 1500 items in four years on Etsy all it takes is one customer complaint to Ban u unfairly
Check Mercari fees again, they added another fee
Mercari Releases your money immediately upon rating from buyer which is 3 days. Only problem Mercari does charge a $2 transfer fee to reach your bank immediately or waiting several days (the only 2 options available). I do like the fact that both Poshmark & Mercari take out all selling fees upon the sale, while Ebay waits and does it monthly. That way you know what you are playing with.
I sell on all 3 sites.
Awesome review. Thank you so much for your details.
Mercari fees have changed!! They deduct 10% AND 2.9% plus .30c for processing payments! That’s a pretty big jump.
Thank you, this is a great article!
What about taxes? What should a seller expect to pay? Who will provide the 1099 or earnings statement to file federal and state taxes?
Very well done article! Excellent and actionable information! Thank you!
I feel more protected selling on eBay. But my items are selling much faster on Mercari. I think because it is easier for sellers to use funds to buy things.
Agree 100% ebay all the way more revenue higher sales less complaints real collectors try and find rare Beatles or a million other things these don’t stand a shot we have the sellers on eBay 22 years now still going strong making bank. I’ve been trying these others and the sales are not there mercari is strictly a funko pop platform great for buying bad for selling if you want more money for your item. Ebay hands down for many Reasons.
If you use invite code STEVEWAVE on poshmark, you can get up to $30 off of your first purchase. It allows you to bundle, use USPS priority packaging for free and bundle multiple purchases for shipping savings!!!
Yo podría desir que intente vender en mercari y me cancelo mi cuenta por usar la palabra PayPal y eBay por hacer tratos ya que se política te sierra la cuenta y no te deja abrir otra a ese usuario ni con otra información tiene buen servicio para encontrar cuentas pero no para aceptar reclamos
Update regrding Poshmark: They now charge $7.11 standard amt for shipping. Even for something light like a pair of earrings. Sellers can choose to offer discount shipping ($4.99) but the difference between that and regular shipping is borner by Seller.
However, they usually offer Closet Cleanout Fridays where discounted shipping ($4.99) is offered by Seller but Poshmark covers the difference.
Thank you! I’ll go ahead and update that in the post 🙂
Hello,
I have been selling on all 3 platforms for many years. Since ebay has taken away their 30 day and replaced by cancel or sold, my sells has went down big time. People is watching my stuff but it just sets there. I usually do buy it now or best offer but not having luck. Any advice on that situation that I am having? Thanks
Check out the many Ebay Facebook groups. You will get more information than you can imagine, great people to help answer all your ?s
Check completed auctions see how much it sells for normally price it on that when its hot its hot when its not its not gotta find a product in demand or your done collectibles is the way to go and YES CHINA IS RUINING EVERYTHING but the real collectors know what’s up know your game how to spot a fake And all that word your auction titles correctly most important thing
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