If you have a pair of shoes to sell, the platform you choose matters — different platforms attract different buyers, charge different fees, and reward different selling styles. I've sold on eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Facebook Marketplace. My honest recommendation for most beginners: start with eBay. It has the largest buyer pool, strong search functionality, and the most straightforward path from listing to sale. But there's more to the picture than that, so here's how each platform actually works in practice.
eBay — the platform to build on first
Fees: ~13.25% of the sale price. If you promote listings, ad fees bring that closer to 15–16%.
eBay works like a search engine for products. A buyer knows what they want — brand, model, size — and they search for it. Your listing either shows up or it doesn't. There's no social component, no following, no feed to work. List it right and wait for the right buyer to find it.
Shipping is your responsibility. You buy the label through eBay — which gives you a significant discount off USPS retail rates — and ship within your handling window. Payment deposits automatically into your connected bank account on a regular schedule.
eBay accepts returns if you opt in, which builds buyer confidence but means you occasionally eat a return. The fee structure is the most competitive of the major platforms, though promoting listings to stay visible is increasingly common and adds to your effective rate.
One thing I wish I had set up earlier: shipping tables and flat-rate shipping tiers. Building those out upfront saves time on every listing and prevents undercharging on heavier pairs. eBay's store subscription also unlocks sales, coupons, and promotional tools worth using once you're listing consistently.
Poshmark — worth adding as your second platform
Fees: 20% flat on every sale. If you offer the buyer a shipping discount, that comes out of your pocket too.
Poshmark is a social selling platform, not a search-driven one. Sellers have closets. Buyers follow closets that match their style and size. Your listings surface in those feeds — but only if you share them regularly. Sharing takes time, or you can automate it with a cross-listing tool like Vendoo or Flyp.
The buyer behavior is different too. Poshmark buyers are conditioned to negotiate — expect offers of 30–40% below your list price. Some buyers will purchase at full price, but it's less common than on eBay. List at the top of your comp range and build in negotiation room.
Shipping works differently: Poshmark provides a prepaid label and the buyer pays the shipping cost (currently a flat rate for packages up to 5 lbs). Above 5 lbs, there's an additional fee. You print the label, pack the shoes, and drop them off — no weight calculation needed on your end.
Your balance stays in your Poshmark account until you transfer it to your bank manually. Poshmark makes it easy to spend your balance on other sellers' items — their preferred outcome. Build the habit of transferring your earnings regularly.
Poshmark performs best for women's shoes, designer styles, and anything with a fashion angle. That said, I cross-list everything to both platforms because the additional time using a cross-listing tool is minimal, and the incremental reach is worth it.
Here's a real Poshmark sale that shows what the platform can do for the right pair:
Real Poshmark sale from inventory records
Vintage Frye Campus Boots — Women's 7.5B, 14" Mid Calf Brown Leather
Source price
$16.27
Platform
Poshmark
Days to sell
2
Net profit
$71.73
Vintage Frye boots sold in 2 days on Poshmark. Women's leather boots with a fashion angle — exactly the category where Poshmark's buyer base is strongest.
Mercari — possible, but requires its own learning curve
Fees: 10% seller fee on the combined item price and shipping. Buyers pay an additional service fee (typically 3–7%) on top of that.
Mercari is a legitimate platform with real buyers, and cross-listing there via Vendoo doesn't take much additional time. My experience: I listed consistently, got a handful of sales, and found that buyers sent very low offers expecting me to accept them. The shipping setup was different enough from eBay that it required its own learning curve.
I already had a strong rhythm with eBay and Poshmark, and adding a third platform added complexity without proportional return. My philosophy is to master one platform before adding the next, then master that one before adding another. Mercari might make sense for you — but only after eBay and Poshmark are running smoothly.
Facebook Marketplace — fast turnover, smaller audience
Fees: No fees for local pickup sales. Shipping sales have a fee.
Facebook Marketplace has a real advantage: no fees on local sales, no shipping to deal with, and a buyer can pick up from your front porch the same day. For turning over shoes quickly with zero platform cost, it's hard to beat.
The trade-off is audience size. You're selling locally, not nationally. That limits who can buy any given pair and slows down sales on specialty sizes or less common brands. You also have to be available to coordinate pickups, answer "is this still available?" messages, and deal with no-shows — all of which takes time that doesn't scale the way a shipping-based platform does.
My free time runs early mornings and evenings, which doesn't line up well with coordinating local transactions. That's why I chose not to make it part of my regular workflow. But if your schedule is more flexible, Facebook Marketplace is a genuinely good option for moving common sizes and brands quickly with no fees.
"Master one platform before you add another. Every new platform is its own learning curve — don't let complexity slow you down before you have momentum."
Quick comparison
| Platform | Fee | Shipping | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBay | ~13.25% | You buy label (discounted) | Sneakers, athletic shoes, all categories |
| Poshmark | 20% | Prepaid label, buyer pays | Women's, designer, fashion styles |
| Mercari | 10% seller fee + buyer service fee (3–7%) | Buyer-paid shipping | General resale, optional third platform |
| Facebook Marketplace | None (local) | Local pickup | Fast local turnover, flexible schedule |
How to list on two platforms without doubling your work
I list everything on eBay first using the sell-similar feature from a sold listing or one of my own previous listings. Then I open Vendoo and import the eBay listing. From there I go into each listing, select the Poshmark tab, verify the title, category, size, and price, and list. You don't have to wait for one listing to finish before starting the next — move on while it processes.
The most important thing cross-listing solves is the delist problem. If you manually list the same pair on eBay and Poshmark yourself, you have to remember to take it down on the other platform the moment it sells — and that's easy to forget, especially when sales come in overnight or while you're at work. Selling the same pair twice is a real problem, and it creates a mess: cancellations, refunds, negative feedback. Vendoo automatically delists a shoe from all other platforms the moment it sells on one. That alone is worth it.
What about other platforms — StockX, GOAT, Depop, live selling?
StockX and GOAT are built for new and hype sneakers — authentication requirements and buyer expectations make them a poor fit for everyday thrift-sourced shoes. If you find yourself in the new or hype sneaker space, they're worth learning.
Depop is one I'd consider. I know resellers who do well there, and it has a growing buyer base with a younger, style-focused audience. It's worth watching.
Live selling — eBay Live, Poshmark Shows, and similar — is a real opportunity for sellers who build an audience. It works best for new shoes or very clean used pairs where you can show condition in real time. The buyer pool in any given stream is smaller than a passive listing, so pricing needs to account for that. Build the audience first, then use live selling to accelerate it.
For most beginners, the answer is simpler than all of that: start on eBay, add Poshmark when you have the rhythm, cross-list with a tool to multiply your reach, and stay focused on the platforms that are already working before you add more.