Reselling Websites in 2026: Fees, Buyers, Honest Math

You have a spare room filling up with things worth money: a bin of brand-name clothes, two old phones, a boxed drone nobody used. You search for reselling websites and get the same seven platforms in a slightly different order on every list. Few of them show what each site takes from a sale, who buys there, or what happens once the closet is empty. This guide does, with each platform's seller fees checked on its own pages in September 2026.

The honest math:

• Seller fees on the big reselling websites run from no selling fee at all (Depop, plus payment processing) to 20% of the sale (Poshmark, on items of $15 or more).
• On a $40 sale, the gap between the cheapest and the dearest platform in our example is $4.00. How fast the item sells usually matters more than that.
• Clearing out your own things pays once. A steady income needs a supply of products, and that is where a marketplace with search traffic and the right software matter.

We make Ecomli, a browser extension for eBay sellers who source products from Amazon and AliExpress, so eBay gets a longer section below. The fee figures for every platform come from that platform's own pages.

Where reselling websites actually differ

Most roundups sort platforms by category: fashion here, electronics there. Three other things decide how a platform works for you.

Who the buyers are. Poshmark and Depop buyers browse a feed, much as they browse social media, and respond to styling, brands and active sellers. eBay buyers mostly search for a specific thing, often by model number, and compare prices. A boxed graphics card gets lost in a fashion feed. A vintage denim jacket competes badly against eBay's price-comparison shoppers.

What the platform charges. Some sites charge the seller a percentage, some charge the buyer a protection fee, and most add payment processing somewhere. On thin-margin items, that difference can be the whole profit.

How much work each sale takes. Photographing, describing, pricing, answering questions, packing and shipping one item takes real time, and no platform publishes that cost. A lower fee helps less than a platform where your items sell with fewer messages and relists.

Reselling website fees compared

These are the standard seller-side charges each platform publishes, checked in September 2026. Fees change, so confirm the current terms before you price anything.

Two details catch people out. eBay, Facebook and Etsy's processing fee count shipping and tax in the amount they charge on, so a buyer-paid shipping charge raises your fee. Whatnot charges its commission on the item price only and its processing fee on the full order. Two of these platforms are weighed against eBay more than any others, and we compare them in detail in Depop vs eBay and Whatnot vs eBay. For a wider list, see our reselling apps compared.

What the fees do to a $40 sale

Percentages feel abstract until you run one item through them. Take a jacket listed at $40, with no sales tax in the example and shipping handled separately. This is what each platform keeps from the $40 item price:

Depop is missing from the table because its sell page doesn't give its processing fee. Take off the $12 you paid for the jacket and whatever shipping you cover, and the gap between the best and worst result here is $4.00. That matters, but it is smaller than the gap between an item that sells in a week and one that sits for months. That is why experienced resellers check sell-through rate before they check fees. Who pays for the shipping label also differs by platform, and it can move the result more than the fee does. Our breakdown of realistic profit margins covers returns and the other costs that eat into a sale.

Which reselling website has the lowest fees?

On seller fees alone, Depop charges no selling fee, though payment processing and boosting fees still apply. Among the platforms that publish a full seller rate, Mercari and Facebook Marketplace (on shipped orders) both take 10%, and Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee is the lowest headline percentage, before its listing and processing fees. Poshmark's 20% is the highest on items of $15 or more.

The lowest fee only wins if buyers for your category shop there. A 20% fee on a site where your item sells in days can earn more per month than a lower fee on a site where it never sells.

Inventory runs out before fees matter

Say you pick the right platform. You list forty items, they sell, and you clear a few hundred dollars. Then the closet is empty and the income stops. From there, sellers usually take one of three routes:

• Keep sourcing by hand. Thrift stores, estate sales, clearance aisles and auction lots. It works, but it turns your weekends into a job with variable pay. Our guide to flipping items for profit covers sourcing and pricing.
• Sell things you make. Margins can be higher, but your income is capped by your own hours.
• List products from a supplier. You list a supplier's product and the supplier ships it when it sells, so there is no stock to store or pack.

The third route is the one that behaves most like a business, and it is also the one that fails fastest without software. You are now selling at prices tied to supplier costs and stock levels you don't control. Miss a supplier price rise and you sell at a loss. Miss a stockout and you sell something you can't ship.

Why eBay suits a supplier-sourced catalog

For a catalog of supplier products rather than a closet clear-out, eBay is usually the base. Its fees aren't the lowest in the table. The reason is how buyers arrive.

eBay traffic is mostly search traffic. Someone types what they want, often a model number, and buys from a seller with a fair price and clear listing details. That scales with catalog size in a way feed-based platforms don't: each well-titled eBay listing can be found by its own searchers, while a feed listing depends on you sharing it. eBay also publishes its selling fees in detail, so you can plan margins before you list, and our guide to how much eBay takes on a sale works through them.

If you are new to eBay itself, our guide on how to sell on eBay covers the first listing through to repeat sales, and what reselling on eBay really costs adds the numbers.

How to run an eBay reselling catalog with Ecomli

Ecomli is a non-API browser extension for eBay sellers. It works through the eBay seller account already signed in to your desktop Chrome browser, so there is no API connection to authorize, and eBay is its only selling channel. Here is how it handles the jobs that don't scale by hand:

1. Find products that already sold. Product Hunting researches an eBay seller's sold history or current listings and matches the products to Amazon or AliExpress. You can also search Amazon keywords, Best Sellers or category pages, or paste an AliExpress store link. A match is a lead to check, not proof of profit.
2. Create the listings. Create Listings prices each product with your markup, writes optional AI titles and descriptions from the supplier's facts, and runs Safety Shield and duplicate checks before it fills eBay's listing form, up to 10 listings at once.
3. Keep prices and stock in line. Stock Monitoring checks supplier stock and prices for your Ecomli listings and updates the eBay price and quantity, or ends an out-of-stock item, by your rules.
4. Order from the supplier. On Starter you start Auto Ordering batches in your own browser. On Pro, you click Auto Order and Ecomli places the supplier order in your own browser. On Scale, optional server ordering lets Ecomli place the supplier order from its servers, as long as each order is within your buying limits (maximum purchase price and maximum loss).
5. Check the real numbers. The Overview dashboard shows eBay sales, fees, Promoted Listings costs, refunds, supplier costs and recorded profit by day or period, so a fee or margin change shows up early.

Is the result a store that runs without you? Partly. Listings keep selling while you're away, but orders outside your buying limits, starting Auto Ordering batches on Starter, browser-run tasks and buyer questions all need regular check-ins. Ecomli is billed monthly in USD with a 7-day money-back guarantee on your first payment, and you can compare the Ecomli plans to see which ordering option each one includes.

A realistic first 90 days

There is no set timeline for when a real monthly figure appears. Results vary with category, listing count, pricing discipline and how much of the work is automated, and anyone quoting you a guaranteed number is selling something. A workable sequence:

1. Weeks 1 and 2. Pick one platform: eBay if you want search traffic, Poshmark or Depop if your inventory is fashion. Set up shipping and return policies, and list things you already own to learn the mechanics with little at stake.
2. Weeks 3 and 4. Study what already sells in one narrow category. Note price bands and how quickly items move.
3. Weeks 5 to 8. If you move to supplier products, this is the point where software stops being optional, because manual listing and price checks don't keep up past a few dozen items.
4. Weeks 9 to 12. Grow the catalog, cut the products that get no views, and review your margins on the real orders.

For the full walkthrough, our guide on how to start reselling covers niche choice, sourcing and listing quality. If you're still deciding what to stock, what you can sell to make money works through categories, and selling clothes online goes deeper on apparel.

Reselling websites: frequently asked questions

What selling platform has the lowest fees?

Depop charges no selling fee, though payment processing and boosting fees still apply. Among platforms with a full published seller rate, Mercari and Facebook Marketplace shipped orders take 10%, and Etsy's transaction fee is 6.5% before its $0.20 listing fee and payment processing. Poshmark takes 20% on sales of $15 or more. The cheapest platform only helps if your buyers are there.

What makes a reselling website legitimate?

Look for three things: payment taken through the platform's own checkout, a seller fee schedule you can read before you list, and a documented process for returns and disputes. Treat any buyer or site that asks you to take payment off-platform as a warning sign.

Do I need to sell on more than one reselling website?

Not at the start. Learning one platform's search behavior and buyer expectations properly beats spreading thin across four. Once one channel produces steady sales, a second can protect you from a policy or algorithm change on the first.

How much can you realistically earn on reselling websites?

It varies widely, with no guarantee and no set timeline. Clearing personal items usually pays once. A sourced catalog can build into an ongoing income, but the figure depends on category margins, how many listings are live, your pricing and how much of the work is automated. Treat any promised number with suspicion.

Can you resell online without holding inventory?

The usual way is to list products a supplier ships for you. That model needs software at any scale, because supplier prices and stock change without warning.

What sells well on clothing reselling websites?

Recognizable brands in good condition, listed with the size and measurements visible. On Poshmark and Depop, the brand and the photos carry a listing further than a long description. Unbranded fast fashion is the hardest category to profit from, because the resale price rarely covers postage and time.

Picking your starting point

If your inventory is branded fashion, start on Poshmark or Depop. If it is furniture or anything bulky, start on Facebook Marketplace. If it is searchable, such as electronics, parts, tools or collectibles, or you want something that keeps earning after the closet is empty, start on eBay and plan for software from the beginning.

The platform choice matters. A repeatable supply of products people already buy matters more, along with a store that doesn't depend on your evenings for every price check. Get those two right and the fee percentage becomes one line in your margin.

Sources

• eBay selling fees (eBay Help, checked September 2026)
• Poshmark seller fees (Poshmark blog FAQ)
• Fees on Mercari (Mercari Help Center)
• Sell on Depop (Depop)
• Facebook Marketplace selling fee for shipped orders: Facebook Help Center, "When you'll get paid for selling with shipping" (checked September 2026)
• Etsy fees policy and Etsy Payments policy (Etsy)
• How fees work (Whatnot)

Ready to run this on your own eBay store? Get started with Ecomli → Plans from $29/month · 7-day money-back guarantee on your first payment · cancel any time.