"Just put it on eBay" is the advice everyone gives, and it's wrong about as often as it's right. Where you list something changes what you net by a surprising amount, because each marketplace has its own crowd, its own fees, and its own tolerance for shipping a couch. Put the right item in the right place and you keep more of the sale. Put it in the wrong one and you either eat fees or wait forever.
Here's how I decide, marketplace by marketplace.
eBay — small, shippable, brand-name
eBay is where you get the most money for anything that fits in a box and has a national audience. Tools, electronics, collectibles, parts. The whole country is bidding, not just your town, so scarce stuff finds its buyer. The tradeoff is fees around 13 percent plus shipping, and you have to actually pack and mail it. For a $200 pair of headphones that's fine. For a $25 lamp the fees and hassle eat you alive.
Facebook Marketplace — big, local, cash
My default for anything heavy or bulky. Furniture, appliances, patio sets, exercise equipment. No shipping, no platform fees, the buyer drives to you with cash. The downside is Facebook is Facebook: flaky buyers, "is this still available" from people who then vanish, and the occasional lowball novel. But for local pickup it's the biggest pool of buyers by a mile.
OfferUp — local, casual, fast
Similar lane to Facebook local, sometimes a faster crowd for everyday stuff. Furniture, tools, kids' gear, household items. I'll cross-post here alongside Facebook and let whichever buyer's serious first win. Costs nothing to list locally.
Mercari — small stuff, easy shipping
Good for smaller shippable items when you don't want eBay's bidding-and-haggle energy. Clothes, gadgets, home goods. The shipping is streamlined and the buyers tend to just pay the price. Fees are in the same ballpark as eBay, so same rule: worth it for a $60 item, not for an $8 one.
Poshmark — actual clothing brands
If it's real apparel — Lululemon, Patagonia, Nike, designer anything — Poshmark is where those buyers live and they pay accordingly. It is not where a bag of no-name clothes turns into money. The fee is a flat cut and it's higher than you'd like, but the audience is specifically there to buy clothes, which the general marketplaces aren't.
My rough rule of thumb
- Small, shippable, brand-name or scarce? eBay or Mercari.
- Big, heavy, or awkward? Facebook and OfferUp, local pickup.
- Real clothing label? Poshmark.
- Not sure? Cross-post it to two and let the buyers decide.
And whatever you list on, price it off what the thing actually sold for, not what everyone's asking. That's a whole topic on its own — here's how to price used items to resell.
Where the profit really gets decided
Truth is, most of your profit is set on the buy, not the sell. Pick the wrong marketplace and you lose a little to fees. Buy at the wrong price and there's no marketplace that saves you. Worth Radar works the front of that equation: it scans your local marketplaces, checks each listing against real sold comps, and tells you the most you should pay and the profit-per-hour, so by the time you're deciding where to relist, the money's already been made.