Have you heard of Poshmark? It’s an iPhone app you can use to sell your new and gently used clothing. I first read about it on a fashion blog and decided to give it a try. (Psst: You can read my Poshmark buying review here.)
When I read Unclutter Your Life in One Week, I worked on figuring out the reasons why I keep clothing and accessories I no longer wear. One of the major reasons was cost. If something was expensive when I bought it, I had trouble giving it away, even if it was something I no longer wore.
I overcame this hangup by selling items. I didn’t plan to get the same amount that I paid for them, but it was easier for me to let go of expensive items if I felt like I was getting a little in return. I started with eBay, then branched out to Poshmark.
Poshmark Selling PROS
1. Chance to let things go
If you’re like me and have trouble donating items that were expensive, Poshmark is perfect for you. I will offer you this piece of advice: Price to sell. Don’t expect to get what you paid for the item, even if it’s new with tags.
For example, in 2011, I purchased a Kate Spade bag from their sale for about $100. I used it regularly for a year or so, then only used it every now and then. I knew it was an item that needed to go, but even after owning it for 3 years, I still felt guilty about its price.
Enter Poshmark. I listed it for $25. It was still in great shape, and I knew if someone offered me a little less, I’d probably take it.
It wasn’t about making $25; it was about being able to let go of an item I didn’t use without the weird what–I–paid hangup.
2. Easy & user-friendly
This is such an easy app to use. You can list items in a matter of minutes. It does use a ton of your battery, so you have to be careful about not leaving it open when you aren’t using it, but that’s the only downside to the app itself.
3. Community
People are really wonderful about sharing items in your closet with their followers. And it’s easy to share an item you like but maybe isn’t your size or not what you’re looking for at the moment. It’s just nice, you know?
Poshmark Selling CONS
1. Only making 80%
This is one of those cost–of–doing–business deals. For items under $15, Poshmark keeps $2.95. For items over $15, Poshmark keeps 20%. You only make 80% of what the buyer pays, so it’s something to take into consideration.
Let’s use that Kate Spade bag example again. If I sell it for $25, I’m only making $20. If I’m serious about making $25, I’ve got to list it for $31.25. When you add Poshmark’s shipping fees, that means a buyer is paying $36.25.
This is tough because I thought $25 was a fair price for the bag, but in order for me to make that, the buyer is paying over $10 more than I thought was fair. See what I mean?
2. Shipping
Poshmark is great at telling you how their standard $4.99 shipping is such a deal. Here’s the truth: It’s not.
They make it sound like calculating shipping for different items is really difficult. They also insist on using Priority Mail 2 Day Shipping through the US Post Office. I can see how that might entice buyers—thinking they’ll get their item in 2 days—but if the seller doesn’t ship immediately, the buyer isn’t receiving the item in 2 days anyway.
I’m not sure why Poshmark does their shipping this way, but my guess is that it’s easier on them. It’s certainly easy on the seller to receive the prepaid label via email, so I can’t complain about that.
Even so, I didn’t realize how overpriced their shipping was until a postwoman pointed it out to me. I was dropping off a package at the post office. I handed it to the postwoman and said, “This is already paid for and ready to go. I’m just dropping it off.”
She placed it on the scale—I guess out of habit—and looked at the prepaid label. “Five pounds?!? Why in the world did you pay to ship five pounds? This doesn’t weigh nearly that.”
I was surprised because I was shipping a bundle (pants + dress + scarf), and I had no idea how much it weighed. I told her it was a prepaid label, but I asked how much the shipping should have been. Her answer? $2.64.
Yikes, right?
Most of my sales were for one item only, so I’m assuming they would have been even less to ship.
3. The waiting game
Remember that Kate Spade bag I listed for $25? It sat on Poshmark for months. It got tons of likes and shares, and I listed it in every Posh party it matched, but it didn’t sell. I had several people ask about it in the comments, and they all said they were interested in buying, but no game.
That can be a bit frustrating, especially if you negotiate with someone in the comments, lower the price on the listing after negotiating, and then the person never buys. You can change the price back, of course, but other interested buyers need only to read the comments to see how low you’ll go.
You have to be willing to wait for an item to sell. For me, this was difficult. I’ve mentioned the lack of storage in my apartment here, so it should come as no surprise that I have nowhere to store what I’m trying to sell.
This is one of the reasons I prefer listing certain items on eBay. I list everything on a Sunday afternoon so the auction ends the following Sunday afternoon. I’ve heard that’s the best timing of items based on eBay high traffic times, and it’s been the case for me so far.
True, you have no guarantee the item will sell on eBay, but so far everything I’ve listed has sold. I ended up taking the Kate Spade bag off of Poshmark and listing it on eBay, setting the reserve at $25. Sure enough, it ended up selling for a little more than that, and it only took a week.
Because of situations like this, I use a combination of eBay and Poshmark. I list something on eBay, figuring if it doesn’t sell in the week–long auction, I’ll list it on Poshmark. But I’ve started setting my own time limit on Poshmark items, too. If something doesn’t sell in, say, 6 weeks, it gets donated. I simply don’t have the storage space to keep it around.
Well, there you have it. My take on selling on Poshmark. I plan to write another post about my experiences buying on Poshmark,* and I hope you’ll share your experiences in the comments.
*Update: Read my Poshmark buying review here.
Great article! I’ve been selling items on Poshmark, but I may try selling on eBay after reading this!
Thanks! Let me know how it goes!
i, too, am frustrated with items that I have listed on Poshmark not selling. Will definitely try EBay again. Thanks for the info.
Robin
I understand your frustration! Some things sell so quickly, and others take what feels like FOREVER. I hope eBay works out for you, Robin! : )
Thanks for your post; have been on ebay for almost 2 yrs (clothes and other nice (really!) odds&ends), and looking for another site as the economy has affected my sales from the 1st yr to the 2nd- ok to virtually none-we’re just victims of the economy, I’m afraid! Just wanted to comment on your experience w/postage – have experience w/mailing & postage, so the comments of the P.O. person was a surprise…by your description, your items should have cost more than $3 to mail, probably being at least 2 lbs w/ the box, the box itself at least 6 oz. So I think the prepaid label was a good/great deal. Good luck!
Thanks so much for the info! I do hope your eBay sales improve. I recently heard about another site called Tophatter, which sounds similar to both Poshmark and eBay, but I haven’t tried it out yet. Maybe it’s something you could look into for your sales.
Thanks again! And good luck!
Depending on the items that you like that get lowered or discounted or whatever deals Poshmark does you can get .99 shipping or lower shipping.
Good to know! Thanks!
Poshmark is constantly having incentives, like right now just by downloading the app and signing up with code JQAQA you immediately get 10 dollars credit. They’re also constantly having deals on shipping, and you are exposed to a wide variety and large amount of people and products!
I’ve used eBay and considering Poshmark. Have you listed items on both sites at the same time as cross-listed? Wondering if it’s okay or you’ll get negative feedback?
I’ve never listed on both sites at the same time for fear of an item selling on both sites, then being stuck. Because you can set the number of days in an eBay auction, I have tried listing an item on eBay, giving it a certain amount of time to sell, then not relisting it and moving it over to Poshmark. Yes, I’d fear the negative feedback if you did end up selling the same item twice and then having to turn someone down, and I worry about violating terms of service and having my account deactivated by the site.
Let me know if you try it and how it goes!
Thanks for your post! You’ve definitely captured the pros and cons. I’m just curious if you have you ever had a buyer put your item under review? I just started selling on Poshmark a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve had pretty good success (at least in my eyes) with just one sweep of the closet. However, I just had my first item go under review — a brand new item with tags still attached, and I can’t possibly understand what could be wrong with it. I’m actually pretty upset because I have been working hard to follow the Posh rules and be honest about my item. What could possibly be wrong? Need advice from experienced posters. Thanks.
Thanks, Maddy! Have you heard any details from Poshmark yet? From what I understand, they won’t share many details about why the buyer has asked for a review until they start the review itself (it certainly seems to be toward the benefit of the buyer). I have no idea what your buyer said specifically, of course, but the most common scenarios I’ve heard about new with tag items being under review are that the buyer thinks they’re counterfeit, that they’ve actually been worn with the tags or had the tags reattached, or that the item is damaged. It’s the damaged claim that makes me nervous; it would be so easy for a buyer to damage the item herself upon receiving it and claim it arrived that way, and there’s very little for the seller to do in response. I think that’s where Poshmark really needs to examine its practices–way too much room for abuse. Some other sites have sellers ship their items to a warehouse, then inspect them before allowing sales (and take care of the shipping). I can see how that’s much more involved and requires way more overhead than Poshmark, but it does curb some of the issues Poshmark has.
Best of luck to you! Keep me posted on how it goes.
Thanks for the review. How does Ebay shipping costs compare to Poshmark?
With eBay, you get lots of options as the seller. I usually use flat rate boxes so I don’t have to weigh items to figure out the shipping (I don’t have a postal scale, but I imagine it’s a good investment if you sell a lot on eBay).
Buying a $10 kitchen scale is a great idea. Things under 16oz cost half as much to ship on eBay.
Ahh, great tip! Thank you!
Can you cross list an item in Poshmark and eBay. Then when it sells delete off other site or dies that give you bad ratings. I sell a lot of stuff on eBay but it’s been going slow
You can, technically, but you run the risk of the item selling simultaneously, leaving you unable to follow through on one of the sites. That will get you a bad review or–at worst–potentially have you removed as a seller.
Debating on blacking out return address when shipping on Posh. First sale and was floored to see my address on there. I saw it’s not required from USPS. Thoughts?
I’d do it. You can never be too careful, plus it’s just sort of odd to share that much info with a buyer. I have a PO box I use for eBay sales and used when I was doing Poshmark, but even just having the city on there seemed like too much. Good idea!
This is an amazingly-deep analysis of all of these platforms! If I hadn t already listed all of my items on Poshmark, I might consider buckling down and trying to figure out eBay but I m just too lazy at this point. One thing I will say about Poshmark is that I am impressed by their customer service. I ve received a few items that were less than stellar (stained, broken zippers, even one that reeked of B.O. so bad I had to place it in a bag in a closet we never use), and they ve accommodated returns and refunds on all of them.
Thank you! I’m glad you’ve had such a good experience with Poshmark. I think they’ve worked out some of the issues they had early on and seem to be doing well. If you end up with anything that sits for a while on Poshmark, it might be worth it to try eBay, but I hear you on not wanting to learn a new platform if you like what you’ve got. Happy selling to you!
Great article I’ve read on other forums that there’s a lot of buyer fraud on ebay with little protection for sellers. Have you run into any problems like that? What does ebay do to protect sellers from fraud? Thanks.
Thank you! I’ve heard the same thing about fraud and the lack of seller protection. My only experience with fraud on eBay was a buyer who made me an offer on an item for a little less than the starting auction price. I accepted the offer, only to get a strangely worded message from the buyer telling me an exact date to mail the item. It was fishy from the start, but as we communicated, the buyer asked me to mail the item to a different address from the address listed in his PayPal. Luckily, that made it easy to report the situation as fraud. I was able to cancel and report without any issues. Even so, I saw how easily this could happen. I guess because I’ve never sold anything very valuable on eBay I don’t worry about it much, but I wish they’d put some parameters in place for fairness.
Your article was really helpful because I am trying to figure out which selling platform to use for my items. Also, all the shipping tips were really helpful. Thank you.