Too much useless late-night scrolling? In this post, I’ll cover the best apps for selling stuff online to ward off impulse purchases and make money instead.
Have you ever done a little late-night shopping in your favorite clearance section online, only to realize when you finally receive the item that it is the ugliest thing you’ve ever bought?
The color is bright neon chartreuse, the fit is three sizes too small, or there is absolutely no use for it whatsoever in your house.
Yeah, I’ve done that too.
And so have most of my friends and the people in my extended family.
So much so that my mom and I said that we should have a family party where we have to wear all of our horrible clearance sale purchases or actually use the useless items.
Instead of being forced to keep these items, why not make some money from them instead?
Maybe… instead of random late-night buying, I could do random late-night selling…to make money.
Novel concept.
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Easiest Way to Sell Stuff Online
To make this “new” idea of mine something I would actually do, I needed to make sure it was easy.
As easy as shopping on my phone.
That’s where apps come into play.
Now, some of us in midlife might recoil a little with the thought of making money from an app.
It’s not legit. It is too millennial. It won’t work. I won’t know what I’m doing. These apps are not for people like me.
Actually, there are a lot of great apps for selling stuff online that are so stupid simple that any of us can master.
These app companies want you to sell stuff on their apps. They want it to be easy and they want you to make money.
Because, when you sell something on their app, they usually get a cut as well. And, you might buy something as well. Or, tell your friends about something on the app that they should buy.
And the cycle continues.
Little do they know that you are there just to make money. (Repeat this 10 times.)
So, now that you are all in, let’s go down a short list of the best apps for selling stuff, in my opinion.
What Are the Best Apps for Selling Stuff Online?
My criteria for selling apps is that they had to be easy to use, have some longevity, and make people real money.
Once you sell all of the things you already have, you can start to do a little retail arbitrage and sell even more things for more money.
Some people even turn this online side hustle into a legitimate business. Imagine that.
(Check out my post Get off the 9 to 5 Hamster Wheel: Passive Online Side Hustles from Home for more ideas on side hustles that can make you full-time money.)
I digress…
Ebay App for Selling Anything Online
Ebay is the O.G. selling platform. It is one of the best apps for selling stuff online.
They have been around for over a couple of decades and their app was one of the first out there. They pretty much have this down to a science.
Ebay does make it incredibly easy to sell on their app.
Simply go to the app store on your phone and download the app. Create a username and password, or account, and then hit the sell button.
The app will then walk you through the process of getting a listing set up.
Ebay started as an auction only type selling platform, and they still have that format, but you can also just do a “buy it now” option if you don’t want to get into that.
Be mindful of the fact (as of this writing) that Ebay will charge you an insertion fee, a PayPal transaction fee and a commission off of the final sales price. These prices fluctuate, so read the rules before you start so you know what you’re getting into.
Don’t be scared off by that though. There is lots of money to be made on Ebay, right from your phone.
One of the best things about Ebay is that they have a huge audience, and you can sell just about anything on the platform, so there will usually be a buyer out there for what you are selling.
The downside to that is that you will have to figure out a way to ship the item you’re selling.
A shirt, no big deal. A dresser, much bigger deal.
I’ve personally sold a lot through Ebay over the years and have always made a profit. I have not scaled this up to business level at this point, but it is something I am considering.
Sell Your Clothes on the Poshmark App
Poshmark might sound swanky, but it definitely is not.
Poshmark is one of the top apps for selling stuff from your clothes closet. Women’s clothes are by far the biggest sellers. There are also categories for accessories, shoes, men’s clothes and even kid’s clothes.
Used or new, there is room for all your clothing items on Poshmark.
The process to take pictures, write a short description and hit sell is very straightforward.
Shipping is also very easy. You can use the standard box from the Post Office and print off the shipping label that they provide. Drop the item in the mail or schedule a pick-up and you are set to go.
Poshmark also has a standard fee per sale that they charge so there is no guesswork about how much you will make. There is no listing fee either.
I have personally sold a lot on Poshmark and been happy with it.
I’m sure you’ve seen the news stories about women scouring Goodwill for clothing treasures and making six figures on sites like Poshmark. So, the opportunity definitely exists to make decent money here if you are diligent.
thredUP App for Older Clothes
If you are familiar at all with Poshmark, then you have probably also heard of thredUP.
ThredUP is one of the best apps for selling stuff online if you are lazy, like me.
The nice thing about thredUP is that you don’t have to do any of the selling. They sell everything for you.
You get a kit in the mail that you fill up with all of the old clothing and accessories items you have. You then send this in, shipping is included, and they will go through your items and decide what they can sell.
They will give you an estimate about how much you can make on each item.
ThredUp will then photograph, sell and ship the item for you. They will also deal with all the customer service, payments, etc…Very hands off. Nice.
While this service is really nice, you will want to think a little about what you will want to sell since the fees can really eat into your profits.
For items under $20, they can take up to 95% of the sale price (yes, really), but for higher priced items over $200, the fee goes down to 20%.
At this point they only deal in women’s and kid’s clothes as well.
Decluttr App for Electronics
Have a bin of old cell phones or an iPod perhaps?
Sell it on the Decluttr app.
The great thing about the Decluttr app is that you don’t really have to do any selling here. It is more of a buy back set-up.
There are no pictures, buyers you have to appeal to, or wordy descriptions that you need to come up with.
Simply download the app and put in the condition, make and model of your item (or scan the barcode) and Decluttr will give you an offer.
Boom. Money.
Print off the shopping label and once Decluttr gets the item and verifies that it is what you said it was, they will direct deposit money into your PayPal account.
My husband is all over this app.
Swappa App for More Money on Electronics
If you think Decluttr sounds great, but you want to have a little more control over what you earn, then consider Swappa.
Get this, you don’t have to pay a fee when you make a sale. There are no commissions.
What Swappa will do is add a fee to your listing that is paid by the customer. Under $50 no fee, more expensive, the fee goes up.
Swappa is geared towards older technology and electronics, and you will create individual listings like eBay, but you will also get to keep more of your money.
Etsy for Handmade and Vintage Items
Since this article is all about apps for selling stuff online, I had to include Etsy.
Etsy is mainly for things that are handmade by yourself. If you are an artist or are crafty, this is the place for you.
You can also sell vintage items or items that people would use for crafts (beads, etc…).
Etsy is definitely more of a business venture than just a quick sell since you will need to create a storefront to sell your wares, and then individual listings.
Selling from the seller’s app is incredibly easy and it makes you look super professional.
There is a listing fee per item, and they will take a commission on every sale.
The wonderful thing about Etsy is their audience is huge, and people are genuinely enthusiastic about shopping on Etsy.
And of Course, Amazon
This wouldn’t be an apps for selling stuff article if I didn’t mention Amazon.
Amazon sells all the stuff.
There is of course Amazon FBA companies/stores that hold bigger inventories, but that is a very intentional business venture to start. A good one, but not something for just some extra cash.
If you are selling old books, games or some electronics, Amazon can definitely work.
The advantage to Amazon is that everyone knows and shops on Amazon.
The disadvantage is that everyone also tries to sell on Amazon and will undercut your prices.
You can choose between the personal seller’s account, which has a flat $.99 fee, or the professional seller’s account, which has no fee, but is almost $40 per month. Amazon will also take up to 15% of your final sales price as well.
I wouldn’t necessarily say this is for newbies, but I’ve sold old books on Amazon before and have made a few sales. I didn’t have the volume to really make this worthwhile though.
Apps for Selling Stuff Locally
What about selling things locally, you may ask?
If you have large items that you need to sell one-off style, I definitely recommend doing so locally so you don’t get charged huge shipping fees.
Good ones are the Craigslist App and Facebook Marketplace.
But, if you are like me and are looking to make some monthly income off of your stuff, then these are not all that great.
Local apps mean you need to leave your home and actually meet people to sell your item. If you are a woman, this can get a little dicey in the safety factor as well.
To actually make real money from home on a monthly basis on your time schedule, I recommend one of the completely online apps above instead.
Apps for Selling Stuff Online that Make Money
If you are looking to wade into the ever expanding waters of selling things online, consider doing it as effortlessly as possible in your spare time from your phone.
The great thing about any of these apps for selling stuff online is that you can do it at any time, in the amount that you would like, for things that you want to get rid of or that you are interested in selling.
That makes selling fun. Which, makes making money fun.
There are thousands of apps for selling stuff online, but I think the ones above are some of the easier ones to use. They have also been around for long enough that all the bugs are relatively worked out, making it easy to create an extra income stream.
If you enjoy selling a few things, consider turning it into a business.
You can acquire more things though retail arbitrage, discount shopping, thrifting, or Goodwill type stores and then sell them for a profit.
Before you know it, your fun game for extra cash that you do on your phone is letting you quit your 9 to 5, or take a nice trip, or get that much needed home improvement project done.
Yay for the little ol’ app!
(Check out my post Your Wallet Called: It Wants You to Figure Out the Best Things to Sell Online Already and From Ramen to Rich Enough for This Week: How to Make $1,000 in a Week for more info on what to sell and how to make quick cash online.)
