Comparison

Ebay vs Etsy

Ebay and Etsy both land on Depends.

Ebay

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy it as an individual selling used, rare, or collectible goods . reach is unmatched and startup cost is zero.

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Great for shoppers hunting handmade, vintage, or unique gifts from a massive seller pool.

Ebay versus Etsy
Compare	Ebay	Etsy
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Casual sellers of used goods	Handmade and craft sellers
Who it's not for	Low-margin, high-volume new-goods sellers	Brands needing full storefront control . use Shopify
Privacy	Mature platform with real breach history: 145M users notified in 2014; recent CVEs mostly hit third-party integrations.^⁹	Caution: a third-party leak exposed 1.6M Etsy customer emails; users report account takeovers; no direct platform CVEs found.
Support quality	Users hunt for real human support	No phone support; complaint threads abound
Public sentiment	Sellers complain about stacking fees and buyer-favoring disputes, while buyers praise reach and bargains but find support hard to reach.^¹	Sentiment is polarized: shoppers keep buying, but Reddit seller threads openly debate leaving over fees, trust, and support.¹³
Biggest gotcha	Per-sale final value fees stack; cheap items can lose margin after fees and shipping^⁶	Fees stack: listing, transaction, payment processing, plus ad fees . calculate real profit before pricing