Poshmark Is My Favorite Way to Buy and Sell Just About Anything

What can you sell on Poshmark?

A year or two ago, I had this idea that I should only focus my attention on selling my higher-end goods on Poshmark to maximize my profits. This was foolish. It was misguided, even. You might think that if you're going to download an app, take a bunch of photos of your stuff, and spend time filling out listing forms, you should only expend that energy for big-ticket things. The truth is that there is a buyer for anything and everything—the only limitation is what you're willing to spend the time to make a listing for.

Yes, my nicer items tend to bring in more money in one shot, obviously, but somewhere out there, someone wants even the strangest, smallest, or cheapest thing you have to sell. Today, I need to get to the post office to send out a travel-sized facial microcurrent device (basically a little electric zapper you apply to your face to address fine lines and sagging). Yesterday, I bid farewell to a denim dress that I sold for $5, netting myself a profit just above $2. That's worth it to me because, presumably, I'll get a five-star rating from the buyer for giving them such a good deal and that rating will pad out my overall rating, meaning any future three- or four-star reviews won't hurt me as much. (I've only gotten three ratings below five stars before, but each of them hurt and enraged me.) I've sold a Yankees bobblehead I got for free when I went to see my beloved Twins play in the Bronx, a comforter, the cases my sunglasses have come in, and all manner of random things ever since I ditched my strategy of only listing big-ticket items. Candles, ribbon, shoelaces, art prints—anything (and, eventually, everything) goes.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

How do you sell on Poshmark?

Selling on Poshmark is very easy, especially compared to some other similar platforms (in my experience). Of course, you need to take nice pictures of your stuff, but everything is super relaxed. I have seen (and purchased) items that were photographed terribly. Unlike other platforms, there are no rules about how your pictures have to look. You aren't required to upload pictures of tags or take multiple shots from different angles. If you want to put a shirt on a hanger and just snap a single pic, that's fine. It can be as casual as you want it to be, although I do recommend at least trying to have bright lighting and getting shot from a a few angles. You'll run into accounts that are clearly associated with professional sellers, people who put their clothes on dress forms and take professional-grade images. You'll also run into accounts managed by random women who are in a constant state of closet clean-out and you'll be lucky if they give you more than one photo of the shirt haphazardly laid out across their bed.

Just tap "sell" from the bottom menu on the app and you'll be prompted to upload your picture(s). The app gives you a few tools, so you can rotate and resize photos or even add a filter. From there, you go into a listing form and AI automatically generates a title and description, plus fills out the category, brand, and color of the item. I don't love the AI feature and usually fill the fields manually. I am five feet tall and wear a size 5.5 shoe. The AI almost always misidentifies and categorizes my stuff as children's goods, so I have to spend about 30 seconds fixing all that. It also doesn't always recognize brands, which are important to highlight. A listing titled "Skims tank top" is going to get more attention than "White tank top," but most of the time, the AI will just generate the latter.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

You can enter a category, like Women > Accessories > Sunglasses, add a size, fill in the brand, designate the primary color of the goods, and indicate whether it's new with tags (NWT). Once you do that, you enter in the original price, Poshmark calculates what a reasonable resale price for an item of that brand and cost should be, and you mark down what you want to sell for. The app tells you upfront what your earnings will be if the item sells at that price. (If you sell anything under $15, Poshmark gets $2.95; if you sell anything over $15, it gets 20%.) Then, just hit the button to list it and you're done.

Sending out offers and hosting auctions

OK, I lied. You're not really done after you list the goods. I mean, you can be, but there's plenty more you can do to make that item sell. When you're coming up with a price, you should make it a little higher than you're actually willing to accept for the item. This is because people can put in offers and you can send out offers, too. If someone "likes" your listing, you can send them an offer. So, if you list a bag for $50 and someone likes it, you have the option to send all the likers a discount. They'll be notified that the bag they liked can be bought for, say, 5% off for the next 24 hours. Every day, I spend some time sending out offers on all my listings. Poshmark tells you upfront how much you'll earn before you set the offer price.

You can also "share" your items. Sharing to followers just puts them on the home page of the people who follow you. They'll also appear higher up in searches for anyone searching for items and sorting by "recently shared." Poshmark regularly hosts what it calls "parties," which are landing pages where items of a certain type appear. If you have sandals for sale and Poshmark is hosting a "summer shoes party," for instance, you can share your listing to that landing page. Finally, any seller can host a live show, which is sort of like a QVC-style auction. You can share your listings to a queue where any current hosts can select them, then show your pictures to anyone watching their stream. The viewers can bid on and buy your stuff that way.

Typically, I share my listings to my followers, applicable parties, and live show hosts three times per day. You certainly don't have to maintain a pace like that, but it's what works for me.

Shipping things out

My favorite thing about Poshmark is how easy it is to ship the stuff once it sells. As soon as something is purchased by a buyer, the app generates a QR code for you to show the people at the post office. Buyers get priority shipping, so all you have to do is find a priority bag or box at the post office, put the thing inside it, and show the clerk the QR code. You don't have to buy a box, print a label, or tape anything on. I've tried selling on other platforms and, because I don't have a printer and don't really love having to buy a box, been really frustrated by the actual shipping process. Poshmark makes it so much easier. (That said, you actually can print a label and send a box out yourself, so if you have a printer, a bunch of tape, and a mail person with whom you can schedule a package pickup, go for it.)

You wait a few days, the buyer gets the item, they give you a rating, and then the money appears in your account. Rarely, a buyer may open a dispute, claiming the item was not as described on your listing. The few times this has happened to me, I have vehemently disagreed that the product was not listed accurately, but I haven't really fought it. The thing gets shipped back to you and the money exits your balance. You'll have to relist it if you want to try to sell it again, as its original listing will stay marked as "sold."

Use common sense and keep an eye out for scams

On the App Store, Poshmark has a five-star rating. On Trustpilot, it only has 1.2 stars. I glanced through the negative reviews to see if there was something I missed, but I feel confident saying they're a little off. A common theme in the negative reviews revolves around potential scams. To be clear, like anything else, there are certainly people on Poshmark who want to scam you. It's always good practice to read each listing very carefully, especially if you feel like the price is too good to be true.

For example, is this seller offering the designer bag in the photo or the charm attached to the bag? Many times, that will be mentioned offhandedly within the post and, if it is, you won't be able to file a complaint when you receive nothing more than a bag charm in the mail because it was stated, however quietly. Yes, this is shady behavior, but that's why it's important to read critically. If the post itself stated incorrect information or misrepresented the item being sold, you can easily open a case and apply for a return. I suggest taking screenshots of listings you purchase from, just to have a record of what they said, but I've never had to provide receipts in the event of a problem.

Earlier, I mentioned that I had received star ratings from people who bought from me, but there's no way for a potential buyer to see those reviews. The star-based rating system is an internal metric so you and the company knows how you’re doing. Publicly, shoppers can only see “love notes,” which are little reviews buyers can leave for you. Always check someone’s profile to see their love notes if you want to verify a seller's legitimacy.

Another way to avoid being misled is to reach out to sellers and ask for photos of certain things or ask them questions. As a general rule, if someone is not willing to respond and give you more information, you might just want to avoid buying from them altogether. Though it may seem obvious, it's also worth mentioning that if anyone comments on a listing asking you to text them personally or to send or receive money off-app, that's a scam. Report them and move on.

I also saw some complaints about shoddy customer service, but that hasn't been my experience. In my interactions with customer service, they tend to side with the buyer, whether it's me buying from someone else or someone buying from me. They are pretty responsive, too. One time, the system's AI flagged one of my bags as possibly being fake and delisted it, but it was not fake, thank you very much. I appealed and the listing was back up in under an hour. The one issue a lot of people have with customer service is that Poshmark does not see an item not fitting as a reason to facilitate a return. Damaged goods, misleading listings, and fake products can be returned, yes, but if something doesn't fit, you're stuck with it. Again, reach out to sellers, ask for measurements and additional photos, and use common sense, the same way you would when buying from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or any other person-to-person platform.

I'm just one person, of course, but I don't think that 1.2 rating on Trustpilot accurately represents the typical Poshmark experience.

Other things I love about Poshmark

I really don't have any complaints about this app. I like the structure of how Poshmark takes its cut, for instance. Its straightforward rules about the amount of money that gets taken out is easy to understand and budget around. By contrast, something like a consignment app may take your item, list it themselves, potentially discount it a few times, and ultimately give you back a pittance.

That transparency applies to the shipping, too. If you offer discounted shipping, the price will be pulled from your take, as well, but the app offers a flat rate of $8.27. So, if you offer a dollar off shipping, the buyer will only pay about $7, but you'll pay that dollar on their behalf. The good news here is that buyers are incentivized to bundle purchases from your closet. Anyone can make a bundle of items from a particular seller. The seller can then offer a discounted price on the whole bundle. The shipping remains $8.27.

The money you earn can be transferred to your bank account, of course, or it can stay in the app and function as the balance with which you pay for the things you buy. I opt for the second option and consider my Poshmark earnings the budget I have to buy more Poshmark stuff. That incentivizes me to list and sell more, plus it keeps my online spending in check, since I don't ever spend more than what I have available in my balance. Crucially, Poshmark allows you to "reposh" things you buy, so you can actually relist something with almost no effort. It puts the photos from the listing you bought the thing off of onto your page, identifies the listing as a reposh, and allows you to create an infinite money loop of sorts. Buy something, use it, reposh it, and use that money for something else. A lot of people enjoy this setup because it's sustainable in a time when fast fashion is wrecking havoc on the planet, but I enjoy it because in addition to that, it's just nice and cheap.

So, is Poshmark legit?