One of the best ways to make extra money from home is to sell items online. You could sell items you already have around the house that you’d like to declutter or you could go out and buy items for resale. Either way you need to figure out the best places to list those items online for sale. And wouldn’t it be great if you could find websites to sell online for free?

Can you really sell items online for free?

There is a bit a of a catch though. I’m sure you know that running a website (or app) isn’t free so most aren’t 100% fee free to sell online, but I’ll go over the best options for you below.

I researched over 50 different websites an apps to sell online and when it comes to the places you can sell with no upfront fees there seem to be two categories so I’ll split them up that way:

• Websites you can list items for free, but a commission fee will come out at the end of the transaction (100% online sales, but no upfront fees)
• Website you can list and sell items for free, but are local so you have to meet in person (totally free, but not 100% online)

Either way, below are several options where you can sell online without having to pay any fees upfront! That means if you already have stuff to sell you can start listing them without any money out of your pocket.

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Websites to Sell Items Online for Free (No upfront fees)

First I want to show you where you can sell online with no upfront fees. Unfortunately, only one of these has zero fees for sellers (they charge the buyer instead). The rest are free to list, but do take a commission once an item is sold. So they are still great for starting for free without having to pay for listing fees or any upfront fees. If your item doesn’t sell, you’re not out any money!

Vinted

Best for: Clothing & other fashion items. Women’s, mens and children.

Vinted is a fashion platform and meets the criteria of selling online for free more than the rest. It is a website and an app and sellers pay ZERO fees. That’s right. No listing fee. No commission fee. You get what you sell the item for. The way Vinted works is they actually charge the buyer $.70 + 5% of the sale. So you get all your money, it’s the buyer who pays the fee. 

As a fashion platform you can sell clothing, shoes and accessories for men, women and children. 

If you’d like to try out selling on Vinted you can sign up here.

Poshmark

Best for: Clothing & other fashion items. On trend and designer items do especially well on Poshmark.

Poshmark is my favorite fashion platform. It’s one of the places I cross post many of my items to from ebay because as they have a great customer base there and many items sell for a little bit more than on ebay. Poshmark does have fees, but the fees are taken once the item is sold an then the balance after fees is put into your balance for withdrawal. The fees for poshmark are 20% (or $2.95 for items that sell for less than $15) and they take sales tax out for you if applicable.

I know what you’re thinking, 20% is a lot right? I honestly think it’s worth it! Poshmark is a pretty low hassle platform if you want something easy. The buyer pays for shipping (as long as it’s under 5lbs no weighing involved!), Poshmark takes care of the sales tax for you (trust me, this is amazing because it’s a pain to do on your own!) and once an item is sold you simply package it up and attach the shipping label Poshmark provides you with. Plus if there is an issue with an item or someone requests a return, Poshmark intervenes.

If you have on trend or designer items you’ll likely do great on Poshmark.

If you’d like to try it out you can sign up here and use the code AILEENBARKER to get a $5 credit off your first purchase.

Mercari

Best for: Almost anything! Home goods, electronics, toys, fashion, etc.

My other favorite on this list after Poshmark is Mercari! They don’t charge any upfront fees and you can list almost anything. Unlike the two fashion platforms above, you can also sell home goods, toys, electronics, beauty items, etc. While they do charge a 10% fee, there are no upfront fees to list and the fee will be taken out once an item is sold.

Sign up for Mercari and get $10 off your first purchase using this link.

Swappa

Best for: Electronics

If you have electronics you want to sell then you can try Swappa. I haven’t personally used Swappa to sell anything, but there is no fee to list and the fees are built into the price. Their fee structure varies from $0 on items that sell for $50 or less to $250 on items that sell for $6000+. You can check out their exact fees here.

Offer Up

Best for: Almost anything! 

If you’ve ever used Offer Up before you probably know it as a local sales app and that’s how it started out. But recently they’ve transitioned to letting people ship items as well. There is no fee to list on Offer up, however if you do choose to list an item as something you’re willing to ship there is a 9.9% fee. 

You can sign up on their website or download their App.

ThredUp

Best for: Clothing & fashion.

If you want to ship your stuff out and forget about it then ThredUp might be for you. This is a great way to get rid of items quickly, with minimal effort and with no upfront cost.

Fair warning: you may not get very much for your items. ThredUp is like an online thrift store and their commission fees depend on how much the item sells for. Many more basic items will earn you less than $1 (unless you have really nice stuff).

ThredUp has a Payout Estimator so you can get an idea of how much you might earn for your items.

Keep in mind they won’t take everything you send in. It’s best to send current or upcoming season items that are in great condition and on trend or less than 5 years old if you want to ensure they’ll accept more of your items. 

Want to request a clean out label? Click here. You simply attach it to the box or bag you’re shipping and send it out. Easy!

If you want to shop ThredUp you can sign up here for a $10 credit on your first purchase.

Websites to list online and sell locally for FREE (100% free!)

Now it’s time to cover the websites and apps where you can list items completely free with no fees at all, but these are all for local sales. So if you don’t mind meeting up with people in person then these might be great for you to sell items for free. There are honestly probably hundreds of similar apps, but I’m going over my favorites and/or the apps and websites I’ve found are most popular. You want to list where people are shopping. 

Offer Up

Feeling some Dejavu? I did list Offer Up above as a way to sell online with no upfront fees, but if you decide to list an item in the app for local pick up Offer up is completely free! It’s really easy to list the item and this is one of the more popular apps (in my area at least) so I usually get a lot of interest on items pretty quickly. 

One thing that I love about this app vs Facebook Marketplace (which I’ll go over below) is that you can look at responses based on items and it keeps the messages in order of who messaged you first rather than who messaged you most recently. That way if you want to be fair and go by who was first in line it’s easy to keep track.

Another bonus is that in your messaging with your potential buyer you can select a safe place to meet and it’ll give you a map in the messages so you’re both clear on where to meet up. Offer Up is my favorite app for local sales. 

Facebook Marketplace

Most of us are already on Facebook so listing and selling items on Facebook marketplace is kind of a given. There are so many people on there anyway so if they wander into the Marketplace it’s a great way to get a lot of eyes on your item. This is the number one reason I like Facebook Marketplace for selling items for free: popularity. Everyone is on there. And yes, it’s free to sell on there. No fees at all and people can even pay you via Facebook messenger if you like. 

Related post: How to Make Extra Money Selling Your Stuff on Facebook

Craigslist

If you’re younger you might not be as familiar with Craigslist, but if you’re over say 30 years old this was originally the place everyone did local sales before all the other websites and apps popped up. It’s still going pretty strong and I love to list higher priced items on here. As with the others it’s free. You simply find the category you want to list in and post it on there. 

A couple of other more popular local sales apps that you can try out:

• LetGo
• 5 Miles
• VarageSale

You might also like: 6 Ways I Make Money as a Stay At Home Mom

More ways to sell items without any fees

Have a yard sale

I love a good yard sale! I shop at them almost weekly during good weather and I really love having them too. In fact we recently had a yard sale and made over $1000 in 6 hours. Plus we cleared out a ton of stuff and donated the rest to a good cause. It’s a great way to make money and get stuff out fast if you have a large amount of stuff to sell. 

Contact a consignment store

If you have consignment stores in your area try contacting them. Most common are consignment stores for clothing, furniture or antiques. They will take a percentage, but often you can drop the stuff off and forget about it. No upfront fees for you, just a check or cash for your commission when your items sell. 

As you can see there are plenty of options and hundreds more I haven’t listed. But here’s the important thing to remember: It doesn’t matter if you’re able to list the items for free if no one is on that platform buying. A little known website with no fees isn’t going to make you any money because the customer base isn’t there. So try one out, try a few out and figure out where your stuff is selling.

Did I miss any that you think should be added to the list? Let me know in the comments below.