Mercari
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Use it if you casually buy or sell secondhand items and accept a flat 10% fee plus imperfect support.
Comparison
Mercari and Ebay both land on Depends.
Use it if you casually buy or sell secondhand items and accept a flat 10% fee plus imperfect support.
Buy it as an individual selling used, rare, or collectible goods . reach is unmatched and startup cost is zero.
| Compare | Mercari | Ebay |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Casual sellers clearing closets | Casual sellers of used goods |
| Who it's not for | High-volume professional resellers | Low-margin, high-volume new-goods sellers |
| Privacy | Legitimate service overall, but two improper-authorization CVEs (CVSS 7.5) and a 2021 Codecov-linked data breach are on record.⁸ | Mature platform with real breach history: 145M users notified in 2014; recent CVEs mostly hit third-party integrations. |
| Support quality | Trustpilot and BBB report unhelpful support | Users hunt for real human support |
| Public sentiment | Users like the app's simplicity and authentication, but many complain about fee changes, support quality, and seller treatment.⁴ | Sellers complain about stacking fees and buyer-favoring disputes, while buyers praise reach and bargains but find support hard to reach.13 |
| Biggest gotcha | New fee structure since January 2025 added buyer fees; some sellers say it's no longer worth cross-posting³ | Per-sale final value fees stack; cheap items can lose margin after fees and shipping |