Mercari
- Best for: Casual sellers of clothes, electronics, toys, and everyday collectibles small enough to mail
- What Sets It Apart: Automatic price changes that stop at a floor you set, and your pick of USPS, UPS, or FedEx labels, paid by you or the buyer
- Payouts: Free direct deposit to a checking account, once a day; $3 Instant Pay to a debit card, up to $600 a month; money released after you and the buyer rate the sale
- Features: Offers and counteroffers; price drops that alert shoppers who liked the item; up to $200 in shipping protection on prepaid labels; QR-code drop-off for eligible labels
- Platform Fees: 10% of the item price plus buyer-paid shipping; free to list
- Cost: Seller-paid labels, $7.99 for a small 1-pound USPS package; extra postage on overweight packages; 5% cancellation fee, up to $25, for frequent cancellations; $5 Authenticate fee on eligible designer items
- Pros: Free listings; protection on lost or damaged packages; returns required only for items damaged, fake, or far from their description; automatic five stars for unrated sales
- Cons: Fee also applies to buyer-paid shipping; $2,000 cap on most items; no nationwide shipping for furniture or major appliances; Instant Pay costs $3
List clothes, electronics, toys, and other small items on Mercari when you’d rather ship them than arrange a local pickup. You pay 10% of the price plus any shipping the buyer covers, ship on a prepaid label Mercari emails you, and must accept a return only for an item that arrives damaged, fake, or far from its description.
Say you sell a $30 item in a small 1-pound package and pick Mercari’s cheapest label for it, a $7.99 USPS one. By our math, you keep $26.20 when the buyer pays the $7.99, since the 10% fee applies to it too, or $19.01 when you offer free shipping and pay for the label.
Key Features
- A 10% fee on the sale price and any shipping the buyer pays, with no listing or payment processing fee
- Prepaid USPS, UPS, and FedEx labels with tracking, priced by weight and package size
- Free direct deposit to a checking account, typically within five business days, or $3 Instant Pay to a debit card
- Offers, counteroffers, and Smart Pricing, which adjusts your price with demand but never below a floor you set
Pros
- Free listings, so an item that doesn’t sell costs you nothing in fees
- Lost or damaged packages covered up to $200 on Mercari’s labels, when the carrier scans them within three days of the sale
- QR-code drop-off for eligible USPS and UPS labels, so you don’t need a printer
- Returns required only for items that arrive damaged, fake, or far from their description
- An unrated sale gets an automatic five-star rating three days after delivery
Cons
- The 10% fee also comes out of the shipping a buyer pays
- A $2,000 price cap on most items
- No nationwide shipping for furniture, bicycles, motorized items, or major appliances
- Instant Pay costs $3 a transfer and tops out at $600 a month
- Overweight packages cost you the extra postage, taken from your sales
Mercari works best for casual sellers of clothes, electronics, toys, and everyday collectibles who’d rather ship than meet a buyer. Find local buyers for furniture and appliances instead, and put rare collectibles up for auction on eBay, where bidders compete on price.
Learn more about Mercari or see how it compares to the best places to sell your stuff.
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