Reselling for Dummies by BudMila's Closet: Ever Wondered How to Get Started?

Everyone posts the sale price. Nobody posts the fees. Here is the math nobody shows you — and how we make it work at BudMila's Closet.

You sold a jacket for $50. Congrats. Now — how much of that $50 is actually yours?

Depends entirely on where you sold it. Same jacket, same $50, five platforms, five different paychecks:

• Vinted: $50.00
• Depop: $47.90
• Facebook Marketplace (shipped): $47.50
• eBay: $43.37
• Poshmark: $40.00

That's a $10 swing on a fifty-dollar sale. Move 50 items a month and the platform you pick is worth $500. Over a year? Six grand. That's not a rounding error — that's rent money.

So let's break down what each marketplace really costs, because 'free to list' and 'free to sell' are two very different things.

eBay: the heavyweight with the fine print

eBay is where the buyers are — 130+ million of them. It's also where the fee structure needs a spreadsheet.

Listing (insertion fees): You get 250 free listings a month. After that, it's $0.35 per listing, per month, whether it sells or not. Run Good 'Til Cancelled listings and every 30-day renewal eats another free slot (or another $0.35). Store subscriptions raise your free allotment — Starter is 250, Basic is 1,000 — and knock the overage rate down. Translation: dead inventory sitting on eBay is literally costing you money every month it doesn't sell.

When it sells: Final value fee of 13.25% on the total (item price + shipping) for most categories, plus a $0.30-$0.40 per-order fee. Basic store subscribers and up pay 12.35% instead. Hit Top Rated status and you shave another 10% off the fee. All in, eBay takes roughly 14-16% of every domestic sale.

Shipping: eBay's shipping labels come with solid carrier discounts (USPS/UPS through their platform beats walking into the post office). One-day handling + 30-day returns gets you the Top Rated badge and the fee discount.

The catch: insertion fees punish stale inventory. A listing with 90 days and zero views isn't 'waiting for the right buyer' — it's a subscription you didn't mean to buy.

Poshmark: free to list, brutal at checkout

Listing: Unlimited free listings. List 5,000 things, pay nothing. This is Poshmark's superpower.

When it sells: 20% on anything $15 and up. Under $15, it's a flat $2.95. That's the highest commission in mainstream resale, full stop. Payment processing is included, so at least there's no second fee hiding behind the first.

Shipping: Buyers pay a flat $7.97. You never touch shipping costs — but you can't compete on shipping either.

The catch: that 20% is savage on mid-range items. A $50 sale nets you $40. Poshmark makes sense for volume and for items that move fast socially (shares, offers, bundles) — not for maximizing margin per piece.

Depop: the quiet deal

Listing: Free. Unlimited.

When it sells: US sellers currently pay no marketplace fee — just payment processing of 3.3% + $0.45 per transaction. That $50 jacket? You keep $47.90. That's the second-best take-home in the game.

Shipping: Flexible — buyer pays, or you build it into the price. Depop's audience skews young and trend-driven: vintage, Y2K, streetwear, sneakers with personality.

The catch: Depop pushes 'Boosted Listings' (12% fee when a boost leads to a sale). The fee advantage evaporates fast if you start paying for visibility. Organic reach + good photos is the play.

Vinted: the zero-fee unicorn

Listing: Free. Selling fee: $0. The buyer pays Vinted's protection fee, not you. Sell for $30, keep $30.

Shipping: You pick the carrier and the buyer pays. Simple.

The catch: smaller US buyer pool than the big three, and buyers there expect deals — it's a bargain-hunter's marketplace. But on margin percentage, nothing touches it. A $30 Vinted sale beats a $35 eBay sale in your pocket.

Facebook Marketplace: free local, 5% shipped

Local pickup: $0 in fees. Nothing. Meet up, get cash, done.

Shipped orders: 5% selling fee ($0.40 minimum). On $50, that's $2.50 — third-best take-home.

The catch: no seller protections worth mentioning on local deals, flaky buyers, and 'is this still available?' messages from people who will never read your reply. But for moving inventory with zero fees, it's unmatched.

Your own website (Shopify): the long game

Monthly plan + ~2.9% + $0.30 payment processing per order. On $50, you keep roughly $48 — but you're paying the monthly plan whether you sell or not, and YOU have to bring the traffic. No algorithm hands you buyers. That's the tradeoff: best economics, hardest distribution.

The side-by-side

How we make it work at BudMila's Closet

Knowing the fees is step one. Here's the actual playbook:

1. Everything new starts on eBay. New listings get an algorithm boost on eBay — it's the only platform that actively rewards fresh inventory with visibility. That's free marketing; we'd be stupid not to take it. Facebook Marketplace goes up day one too, because local is free.
2. Buyers pay shipping. Always. Flat $9.99, $14.99 for heavy stuff. Free shipping is just a fee you volunteered for — the buyer's still paying it, it's just hidden in your margin now. We'd rather be upfront.
3. Price at the top of real comps, with Best Offer on. Not category averages — exact model, exact size, exact condition, recently sold. Price where the market says the item lives, then let buyers negotiate down to where they're comfortable. You capture the top; they feel like they won.
4. Zero paid visibility. Ever. No promoted listings on eBay. No boosts on Depop. No Poshmark promoted closet. If an item needs paid ads to sell, the price is wrong or the venue is wrong. Fix the actual problem.
5. Cross-list free, everywhere. Poshmark, Depop, Vinted, and our own site cost nothing to list on. Every item lives in as many places as makes sense, because more eyeballs = more sales and the listing itself is free.
6. The 60-day rule. If it's sat on eBay for 60 days with no views, it's done there — and every month it sits is another $0.35 donation to eBay. It comes off eBay and lives on the free platforms until it moves. eBay slots are real estate; dead inventory doesn't get to squat.
7. Duplicates die on sight. Same item on two platforms after it sells somewhere? That's how you get cancellations and angry buyers. When it sells, it comes down everywhere the same day.
8. The math before the listing. Every buy has to double clean — net proceeds after fees at least 2x what we paid. Shoes need $10 minimum profit because they take labor to clean. If the comps minus the fees don't clear that bar, we don't buy it. Ever.

The marketplaces aren't your partners — they're your landlords. Each one charges different rent. The resellers who win aren't the ones with the best inventory. They're the ones who know exactly what every sale costs before they list, and put each item where the math works.

Price it right. Ship it fast. Know your fees. That's the whole game.

BudMila's Closet — fresh drops daily at budmilacloset.com