Where to Sell Your Used Stuff for the Most Money (eBay vs. Facebook vs. Mercari vs. Poshmark)

There’s a pair of barely-worn Nike running shoes in our closet right now that we paid $130 for and wore twice. They’ve been sitting there for a year because the idea of photographing, listing, and shipping them felt like more trouble than the $45 they’d fetch.

That hesitation is exactly how stuff piles up. The shoes, the old iPad in a drawer, the coffee table you replaced, the stack of hardcovers you’ll never reread. Sell all of it and you’re easily looking at a few hundred dollars, sometimes a few thousand if there’s a phone or a couch in the mix.

The catch is that picking the wrong platform can cut your take by 20% before you’ve even shipped anything. A $100 sale nets you a very different number on Poshmark than it does on Facebook Marketplace. So before you list, it’s worth knowing where each type of item actually does best.

The fee structures, plainly

Every platform’s pitch is “free to list.” That part’s true almost everywhere. The money comes out when something sells, and that’s where they differ a lot.

Here’s what each one takes from a sale, as of mid-2026. Fee structures on these platforms change every year or two, so confirm the current numbers on each platform’s official fee page before you price anything.

A few things jump out. Facebook Marketplace is free if you sell locally and take cash, Venmo, or Zelle in person. Nobody beats free. Poshmark’s 20% is the steepest cut of the bunch, though it’s calculated on the item price only (not shipping or tax) and includes a prepaid label, which softens the blow a little.

And read the fine print on what the percentage applies to. eBay’s roughly 13.6% is charged on the item price plus the shipping you collect plus sales tax, so the real bite is higher than 13.6% of the item alone. Mercari’s 10% covers the item plus buyer-paid shipping. These details are why two “12%” platforms can leave you with noticeably different amounts.

Run the actual numbers before you list

Say you’re selling a jacket for $80. Here’s roughly what lands in your account on each platform, assuming the buyer covers shipping where that’s an option.

That’s a $16 spread on the same jacket. Local pickup wins outright when it’s realistic, which is the whole argument for Facebook on anything bulky or local. The trade-off is reach and effort, and that’s where category matters.

What sells best where

The right platform depends almost entirely on what you’re holding. A designer dress and a used sectional are not the same selling problem.

Electronics: eBay or Swappa

Phones, laptops, tablets, cameras, gaming consoles. These have model numbers, national demand, and prices buyers can look up, so they sell fast where the buyer pool is biggest.

eBay is the default. It has the largest audience of any resale site (north of 130 million buyers as of 2026), and its sold-listings filter lets you see exactly what your specific model went for in the last 90 days. That’s the single most useful pricing tool in resale and it’s free. Search your item, filter to “Sold items,” and price just under the recent average.

For phones and laptops specifically, Swappa is worth a look. It’s electronics-only, charges a flat 3% to the seller (the buyer pays a separate 3%), and it verifies devices to keep scammers and broken phones off the platform. A clean iPhone that nets you maybe $260 on eBay after fees could net closer to $285 on Swappa.

What to watch for: on eBay, electronics are the most fraud-prone category. The classic move is a buyer who receives a working phone, opens an “item not as described” claim, and returns a broken or swapped unit. Photograph the serial number and the device powered on before you ship, every time.

Clothes and shoes: Poshmark or Mercari (or eBay for the good stuff)

Here’s where Poshmark’s 20% starts to make sense despite being the highest fee. The audience is there specifically to buy secondhand fashion, the prepaid label is included, and brands move. Lululemon, Madewell, Free People, and anything designer do genuinely well.

For everyday or mid-range clothing, Mercari’s flat 10% often leaves you with more, and it sells more than just clothes, so you can list a sweater and a blender in the same session.

If you’ve got something genuinely high-end (a real Coach bag, vintage denim, sneakers with resale value), eBay usually pulls the highest final price because the buyer pool is so much larger. Run the same item through eBay’s sold listings to see if the bigger audience beats Poshmark’s fashion-focused one.

What to watch for: Poshmark’s flat shipping (around $7.97, paid by the buyer, for packages up to 5 lbs) is fine for a dress but kills you on anything heavy. A pair of boots in a big box can blow past 5 lbs and force you to eat the upgrade cost. Weigh before you list.

Furniture and bulky items: Facebook Marketplace

Shipping a couch is a non-starter, which is exactly why Facebook Marketplace owns this category. Local pickup, zero fees, cash in hand, and the buyer hauls it away. A dresser, a grill, a treadmill, a dining set, this is the only sane option for any of them.

Craigslist still works for the same purpose and charges nothing, but Facebook’s buyer profiles and ratings give you at least a little signal about who’s showing up at your door.

What to watch for: the meetup scams. Treat any buyer who wants to pay before pickup or “send a courier” as a scammer, full stop. Meet in a public place or your driveway in daylight, take cash or confirm Venmo/Zelle actually landed in your account before the item leaves, and never give out a verification code someone texts you (“just confirming you’re real”) because that’s a hijack-your-account scam, not a buyer.

Books, media, and small odds and ends: Mercari or eBay

Books are low-value and a hassle, so be honest about whether they’re worth the effort. A single paperback nets you a couple of bucks at best. Textbooks, technical manuals, out-of-print titles, and box sets are the exception and can do real money on eBay.

For the random drawer of stuff (cables, small gadgets, kitchen gear, toys), Mercari is the most forgiving. The flat 10% is simple, there’s no category snobbery, and buyers browse it like a yard sale.

What to watch for: shipping eats cheap items alive. Mercari’s standard label runs around $7.99, so if your item sells for $9, you’ve made almost nothing. Bundle small things into one listing, or set the price high enough that the label doesn’t erase your profit.

The quick category-to-platform cheat sheet

A few habits that quietly add up

Photograph everything in good light against a plain background. It’s the single biggest lever on whether something sells and for how much. A clear photo of a $40 item beats a dim one of a $50 item every time.

Price using sold data, not wishful thinking. eBay’s sold-listings filter is the gold standard, but even a quick Mercari or Poshmark search for comparable items tells you what people actually pay versus what optimistic sellers are asking.

Bundle for shipping. Two T-shirts in one box cost the same to ship as one, so a “2 for $25” listing often nets more than two separate $15 listings after you account for the label on each.

And if you’re getting paid out to a card or bank account, that money is just as real as a paycheck. Some folks route resale proceeds straight into a high-yield savings account so it doesn’t evaporate into everyday spending. The best of those accounts were paying somewhere in the 3.5% to 4.5% range as of early 2026, though savings rates move with the Fed, so check the current APY before you park anything. We walk through where those rates sit in our guide on where to keep your savings, and if you’re trying to turn a clean-out into a faster cash cushion, how to save money fast pairs well with this.

The shoes in our closet finally sold, by the way. Listed them on Poshmark on a Sunday night, gone by Tuesday for $52, and after the cut we cleared about $41. That’s not life-changing money. But it beat the zero dollars they were earning sitting in the dark, and the closet’s got a little more room in it now.