Where to sell first
eBay vs Facebook Marketplace for your first flips
Sell small things that ship cheaply on eBay, and bulky or low-priced things a neighbour can collect on Facebook Marketplace. For anything in between, divide what you keep by the hours the sale took. eBay may also show your shipped listings on Marketplace for you, at no extra cost.
Take two things out of the garage: a camera lens and a dresser. The lens fits in a padded box and a courier can carry it anywhere. The dresser needs a truck, and the courier's quote for it can come close to what it sells for. Same hobby, opposite answers.
Most items are less obvious than those two, which is what the rest of this page is for. Fees and rules change, so it links each site's own page for every rate instead of printing one, and the sums use invented numbers you can swap for yours. It is the item-by-item companion to where to list your first resale items.
Which items should go on eBay and which on Facebook Marketplace?
Small, light items go on eBay, and bulky, heavy or cheap items go on Marketplace pickup. This is a rule of thumb from how shipping and meetups work, not a measured finding. The table covers the two cases in between.
| Item type | What happens at the label counter | What happens at the meetup | Usually tips to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulky and heavy (a dresser, a treadmill) | The quote can be close to, or above, what the item sells for | A buyer with a truck collects it from your porch | Marketplace pickup |
| Small, light and shippable (a camera lens, a jacket, a hardcover) | The label is a small slice of the price | Few people nearby are searching for that exact model | eBay |
| Fragile or high value (glassware, a watch) | Packing takes longer and a break in transit costs you the sale | Cash changes hands with a stranger and no platform behind you | eBay if it packs safely; pickup only when it cannot ship |
| Cheap and common (a paperback, a plain mug) | A flat per-order fee and the postage are a large share of a low price | A neighbour may take several at once | Marketplace, or a bundle on eBay; check sold listings first |
Rule of thumb: if postage plus packing would eat most of the local price, keep the item local.
What does each platform charge?
eBay charges a selling fee that is a percentage by category plus a flat fee per order. Meta charges a selling fee on Marketplace orders that ship. The current rates live on the pages below, so check them before you trust any sum.
- eBay Seller Center, seller fees: the percentage is worked out on the whole sale, including shipping and sales tax. The same page lists your monthly free-listing allowance.
- Meta Help, getting paid when you sell with shipping: covers the selling fee on shipped orders. You also get a set window to ship and mark the order shipped (a prepaid label skips that step), or the order cancels itself. The window is on that page.
- A local cash handover: the Meta pages read for this guide describe no fee for local pickup or cash sales, and they say Meta does not handle taxes for local pickup.
Who protects you if something goes wrong?
On eBay, protection comes with the sale as long as you follow eBay's policies and deliver on your service promise. On a Marketplace order that ships, Meta's Seller Protection Policy applies when you use a prepaid label issued by Meta and sell through its onsite checkout. A cash handover has neither. That last part is an inference from the policy's conditions, not Meta's wording.
| The question | eBay sale | Marketplace order that ships | Marketplace cash handover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where is the sale processed? | Through eBay | Through Marketplace onsite checkout | Between you and the buyer |
| Buyer says it never arrived | eBay says sellers who deliver on their service promise are protected from abusive buying activity and events outside their control, and automatic defect removal corrects your transaction record (seller protections). Whether a given lost parcel qualifies is not spelled out there | Covered when you ship in the window with tracking to the buyer's address | Not covered by a platform; the item left your hands |
| Buyer says it was not as described | Protections against abusive claims for all sellers; extra label credit and return deductions for eligible Top Rated Sellers | Covered when the buyer cannot show the item differs significantly from the listing and you responded to the refund request in time | You and the buyer check the item at the meetup |
| Buyer does not show up | Not applicable; the buyer pays at checkout | Not applicable; the buyer pays at checkout | Your time, and nothing in return |
| What keeps you covered | Following eBay's policies; a sale taken off eBay is not protected | Meta's prepaid label and onsite checkout | Nothing to keep; confirm the money arrived before the item leaves your hands |
Two habits cost nothing at a meetup: pick a public place, and check that the payment has landed before you hand the item over. Every row above has limits on what is covered, where and how much, so read the linked pages before you treat any of it as a promise.
Which one nets more on the same item?
Net means what you keep. On eBay it is the total the buyer pays, minus the fee, the per-order fee, the postage, your packing and what you paid for the item. A local cash sale is the price minus what you paid. Every number below is invented, including the 20% fee and the $0.50 per-order fee. They are not any site's real rates, just figures that divide cleanly.
Start with the camera lens. You paid $30. eBay buyers would pay $110 plus $9 postage, and a neighbour offers $70.
| Line | eBay | Local cash |
|---|---|---|
| What the buyer pays in all | $119.00 ($110 + $9 postage) | $70.00 |
| Fee at an invented 20% of the total | -$23.80 | $0.00 |
| Invented per-order fee | -$0.50 | $0.00 |
| Postage label | -$9.00 | $0.00 |
| Packing supplies | -$1.00 | $0.00 |
| What you paid | -$30.00 | -$30.00 |
| Net | $54.70 | $40.00 |
Now the dresser. You paid $15 and a neighbour will pay $60 in cash. To match that $60 total on eBay with free shipping, you pay a $45 label out of it.
| Line | eBay | Local cash |
|---|---|---|
| What the buyer pays in all | $60.00 | $60.00 |
| Fee at an invented 20% of the total | -$12.00 | $0.00 |
| Invented per-order fee | -$0.50 | $0.00 |
| Postage label | -$45.00 | $0.00 |
| Packing supplies | -$3.00 | $0.00 |
| What you paid | -$15.00 | -$15.00 |
| Net | -$15.50 | $45.00 |
The dresser loses $15.50 on eBay because postage either comes out of your pocket or pushes the buyer's total above the local price. The lens goes the other way, but only because the invented eBay buyer pays $40 more for the item itself than the neighbour does. A gap that wide is something to confirm in sold listings, not assume. To run both columns for your own item, type your rates and prices into the flip profit calculator.
Which one takes more of your time?
Local selling tends to cost hours in messages and meetups, and eBay tends to cost them in packing and shipping. That is a rule of thumb, and your own times decide it. Time is a cost, so divide each net by the hours it took. These hours are invented, for the lens.
| Task | eBay | Local cash |
|---|---|---|
| Listing | 0.5 h | 0.4 h |
| Messages | 0.1 h | 0.75 h |
| Packing and shipping, or two meetups (one a no-show) | 0.4 h | 1.0 h |
| Total hours | 1.0 h | 2.15 h |
| Net from the table above | $54.70 | $40.00 |
| Net per hour | $54.70 | $18.60 |
For local cash to match eBay here, the whole sale would have to take about 44 minutes or less ($40 divided by $54.70 is 0.73 hours). Two meetups blow through that fast. The no-show deserves its place in the total: it is a trip with nothing to show for it, and the hours are gone either way.
Your hours will differ, so time your next ten sales and write each one down:
| Item | Site | Hours: listing | Hours: messages | Hours: pack or meetup | Net | Net per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Can you list on both eBay and Facebook Marketplace?
You can, but eBay may already be doing it for you. According to eBay's page on Marketplace visibility, eligible listings can appear in the Marketplace feed like this:
- They carry a partnership icon, with the price, details and shipping options you set on eBay.
- Only listings with shipping options show for now, so you do not need to offer local pickup.
- The buyer pays through eBay's checkout, and guest checkout means they do not need an eBay account.
- You manage it like any other eBay sale, with the usual eBay protections, at no additional cost.
- Which listings appear depends on interest, trends and listing quality, and your account must be in good standing. The page links instructions for opting out.
The page is undated and its address says April 2025, so check that it still applies before you count on it.
Listing the same physical item yourself in two places is where trouble starts. If both listings sell, one buyer gets a cancellation, and eBay's seller performance standards count a seller-cancelled order (for example because the item sold to someone else) as a transaction defect, a mark on your seller record. The page on choosing where to list covers it. The habit that prevents it is simple: the moment the item sells anywhere, end the other listing.
How do you decide for your next ten items?
Work through these in order and stop at the first one that settles it.
- Sold listings. Search eBay's sold listings for the exact item. No sales means no price to plan around on either site.
- A real postage quote. Weigh and measure the packed item, get the quote, and apply the rule of thumb above.
- Net per hour. For borderline items, run both columns in the calculator with today's rates from the fee pages, then divide by your own hours.
Today, pick one item from your shelf and do step one. It takes five minutes, and after ten sales your scorecard replaces every invented number on this page. If you are still choosing a first site, finish one platform before opening a second.
eBay vs Facebook Marketplace: common questions
Is it better to sell on eBay or Facebook Marketplace?
How much does eBay take from a $100 sale?
What is the downside of selling on eBay?
Do more people use eBay or Facebook Marketplace?
Can you sell the same item on eBay and Facebook Marketplace?
Disclosure The FlowLister team writes First Thousand Flips. FlowLister is our AI eBay listing tool: from your photos it writes the title, category, item specifics, a price from sold listings and the shipping, and it publishes to eBay through eBay's official Trading API, using eBay's own sign-in. It is AI, so it misses things. We built it, so read this as a disclosure, not a review. Nothing on this site needs it.
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