Poshmark vs Mercari: 5 Resale Apps Ranked (2026)

Selling your old clothes, sneakers, or furniture from your phone sounds simple: snap a photo, set a price, ship it, get paid. The reselling apps that dominate App Store and Google Play in 2026 promise exactly that, and millions of people use them to clear a closet or run a side hustle. The reality in the 1-star and 2-star reviews is a category where the seller fee quietly grows until it eats your profit, where a buyer can open a "not as described" case and get a refund while keeping the item, where payouts get held for days, and where local-pickup apps fill your inbox with lowballers and scammers. App Store ratings sit between 4.2 and 4.7, but the negative reviews reveal what actually happens when money changes hands.

We pulled the latest 1-star and 2-star reviews on the 5 most-used resale apps in early 2026 to see what selling and buying secondhand through an app really feels like. The complaints cluster around five themes: seller fees and shipping costs that erode margin, buyer-favored disputes and fake-return fraud, payout holds and account freezes, scams and lowball offers, and customer support that is slow or impossible to reach.

Apps Analyzed

• Poshmark: A social-selling marketplace focused on clothing, shoes, and accessories, built around sharing listings and follower-style discovery. Flat fee on low-value sales, percentage fee above that. Targets fashion resellers who enjoy the community side.
• Mercari: A general-goods marketplace where almost anything ships, with a clean app and standardized shipping labels. Percentage selling fee plus payment processing. Targets casual sellers clearing out household items.
• Depop: A fashion-first marketplace skewed young, built around a feed that looks like Instagram, popular for vintage and streetwear. Percentage fee plus payment processing. Targets Gen-Z sellers and thrifters.
• OfferUp: A local-first marketplace built around in-person pickup and nearby listings, with optional shipping. Free local listings, fees on shipped sales and promotions. Targets people selling bulky local items like furniture and electronics.
• eBay: The original online marketplace, covering everything from collectibles to electronics, with auctions and fixed-price listings. Final-value fees plus optional store subscriptions. Targets serious sellers and bargain hunters.

Top Complaints Across All 5 Resale Apps

Five complaints repeat across every major resale app in the 1-3 star review pool.

1. Seller fees and shipping costs eat the profit. Reviews describe a selling fee that grew over time, payment-processing charges stacked on top, and shipping costs that make small sales barely worth it. Sellers describe doing the math after a sale and realizing how little they kept.

2. Buyer-favored disputes and fake returns. Reviews describe buyers opening "item not as described" cases, getting a full refund, and either keeping the item or returning a different, damaged, or empty package. Sellers feel the platform sides with buyers by default.

3. Payout holds and account freezes. Reviews describe funds held for days after a sale, payouts frozen pending verification, and accounts suspended without a clear reason or a human to appeal to.

4. Scams, bots, and lowball offers. Reviews describe scam messages, fake buyers asking to move off-platform, bot-like spam, and a flood of lowball offers far below the asking price.

5. Customer support is slow or unreachable. Reviews describe support that replies with canned messages, no phone line, and disputes that drag on for weeks with no resolution.

Ranked by Complaint Rate (Worst to Least Bad)

1. OfferUp: Scams, Lowballers, No-Show Buyers, Weak Support

OfferUp is the local-pickup leader, and the 1-3 star reviews reflect the messy reality of meeting strangers to sell secondhand goods. The complaints center on scams and time wasted.

Pattern 1: Scam messages and off-platform redirects. Reviews describe a flood of messages asking to text or move to another payment app, fake "shipping protection" scams, and bots replying instantly to new listings.

Pattern 2: Lowball offers and time-wasters. Reviews describe constant offers far below asking, buyers who agree on a price then ghost, and people who arrange a pickup and never show.

Pattern 3: Shipping disputes favor the buyer. Reviews describe buyers receiving an item, claiming a problem, and getting refunded while the seller loses both the item and the fee.

Pattern 4: Account holds and verification loops. Reviews describe accounts flagged or suspended after a few sales, with verification requests that loop and payouts held in the meantime.

Pattern 5: Support is hard to reach. Reviews describe canned replies, no clear path to a human, and disputes that never get resolved.

Star rating reality: iOS ~4.5, Google Play ~4.3. The headline rating reflects easy local browsing. The 1-star pool concentrates on scams, no-shows, and shipping-dispute losses.

2. Mercari: Buyer-Favored Disputes, Payout Holds, Return Fraud

Mercari is the clean, ship-everything marketplace, and the 1-3 star reviews focus heavily on sellers feeling unprotected when a transaction goes wrong.

Pattern 1: Returns and disputes side with the buyer. Reviews describe buyers opening "not as described" cases, returning a different or damaged item, and the platform refunding them anyway.

Pattern 2: Payouts and balances get held. Reviews describe sale proceeds held for days, withdrawals delayed, and balances frozen pending review with little explanation.

Pattern 3: Fees and shipping erode small sales. Reviews describe the selling fee plus processing fee leaving little on low-priced items once shipping is factored in.

Pattern 4: Account suspensions without clear cause. Reviews describe accounts deactivated mid-sale, sometimes with funds still in the balance, and a slow appeal path.

Pattern 5: Buyer-side complaints about non-shipping sellers. Reviews from buyers describe paying and waiting while a seller never ships, with refunds taking longer than expected.

Star rating reality: iOS ~4.7, Google Play ~3.9. The high iOS rating reflects a smooth listing flow. The 1-star tier concentrates on dispute outcomes and payout holds, and the Android rating runs lower.

3. Depop: High Combined Fees, Shipping Friction, Scams

Depop is the fashion-feed marketplace popular with younger sellers, and the 1-3 star reviews focus on the cost of selling and the friction around shipping and scams.

Pattern 1: Combined fees feel high. Reviews describe the selling fee plus payment processing adding up to a noticeable cut, especially on the low-priced vintage and thrift items the app is known for.

Pattern 2: Shipping setup is clunky. Reviews describe confusion over labels, shipping costs eating margin, and items lost or delayed without clear recourse.

Pattern 3: Scam buyers and sellers. Reviews describe fake payment confirmations, buyers claiming non-delivery, and accounts impersonating sellers in comments.

Pattern 4: Listings get little visibility. Reviews describe new listings buried in the feed unless the seller pays to boost, and reach dropping after algorithm changes.

Pattern 5: Account bans and frozen balances. Reviews describe sudden suspensions and held funds, with support slow to explain or restore access.

Star rating reality: iOS ~4.6, Google Play ~4.0. The rating reflects a strong young fashion community. The 1-star pool centers on fees, shipping, and scam exposure.

4. Poshmark: 20 Percent Fee, Lowball Offers, Sharing Grind

Poshmark is the social fashion marketplace, and the 1-3 star reviews are dominated by the size of its seller fee and the effort the platform expects from sellers.

Pattern 1: The seller fee is steep. Reviews describe the percentage fee on higher-value sales as the biggest gripe, with sellers feeling too much of each sale goes to the platform.

Pattern 2: Lowball offers flood listings. Reviews describe a constant stream of offers far under asking, plus pressure to accept to keep listings active.

Pattern 3: The sharing model is a grind. Reviews describe needing to manually share listings repeatedly for visibility, turning casual selling into a daily chore.

Pattern 4: Payouts and disputes frustrate sellers. Reviews describe held funds, cases that favor buyers, and returns approved for reasons sellers dispute.

Pattern 5: Notifications and spam. Reviews describe heavy notification volume and follow-for-follow spam that clutters the experience.

Star rating reality: iOS ~4.7, Google Play ~4.2. The rating reflects a loyal fashion-selling base. The 1-star tier concentrates on the fee and the sharing workload.

5. eBay: Fee Creep and Buyer-Protection Abuse, but Most Reliable

eBay is the original marketplace and remains the most capable for serious selling, and the 1-3 star reviews are real but center on policy rather than basic function.

Pattern 1: Final-value fees and add-ons grew. Reviews describe the total fee, including the cut on shipping, climbing over time and store subscriptions feeling necessary to sell at volume.

Pattern 2: Buyer protection gets abused. Reviews describe buyers exploiting the "item not as described" path to get refunds and keep items, with sellers feeling the policy is one-sided.

Pattern 3: Payout and Managed Payments holds. Reviews describe funds held under the payments system, especially for newer or higher-volume sellers, delaying access to proceeds.

Pattern 4: Account restrictions and selling limits. Reviews describe sudden selling limits, listing removals, and suspensions that are hard to appeal.

Pattern 5: The app feels cluttered. Reviews describe a busy interface, intrusive promoted listings, and a search that surfaces sponsored results over relevant ones.

Star rating reality: iOS ~4.7, Google Play ~4.3. The rating reflects depth and reliability. The 1-star pool centers on fees and buyer-protection disputes, not whether the marketplace works.

How to Decide Between These 5 Resale Apps

Five practical rules to apply before you list your first item.

• Match the app to what you sell. For fashion and a built-in community, Poshmark or Depop. For shipping general household goods cleanly, Mercari. For bulky local items like furniture, OfferUp. For anything, including collectibles and electronics at scale, eBay. Pick the marketplace built for your category.

• Do the fee math before you list. Add the selling fee, payment processing, and shipping, then subtract from your price. On low-value items the combined cut can leave almost nothing, so price accordingly or sell locally.

• Read the dispute and return policy first. The most painful losses come from buyer-favored disputes. Know how each platform handles "not as described" cases and whether the seller is protected before you ship anything valuable.

• Avoid off-platform payment requests. Every scam pattern in these reviews starts with a buyer asking to move to another payment app or text. Keep every transaction inside the marketplace so protection applies.

• Read recent 1-star reviews filtered by date. Fee structures and payout rules change with updates. The most recent negative reviews reveal whether a platform just raised its fee or tightened payout holds before you commit your inventory.

Read the Negative Reviews Before You Start Selling

A marketplace that holds your payout for a week and refunds a scammer is worse than selling locally for cash. The fastest way to figure out whether a specific resale app is worth your time is to read recent 1-star reviews filtered by date. Unstar.app lets you pull the most recent negative reviews for any of these five apps in seconds, with date filtering and sentiment clustering on the fee, dispute, payout, and scam patterns.

Related reading: Ecommerce Shopping App Reviews: What Customers Complain About covers the retail apps where delivery and refund issues dominate. Instacart vs Walmart vs Target: Grocery Apps Ranked covers the grocery apps where substitution and fee complaints repeat. Wayfair vs IKEA vs Overstock: Furniture Apps Ranked covers the furniture apps where delivery damage and return friction cluster.