We have reviewed almost every mainstream selling site in a brutally honest fashion (you may be surprised at how many we rated 1-or-2 stars!)  But if you're new to the game, which is the best for starting out?  Let me answer this!

If you are brand-spanking-new to online selling you should start with eBay because it's the easiest to learn on, the restrictions are very marginal and overall, it's a fantastic site to gain experience on. Ebay let's you sell pretty much anything you want, so there's no "approval" process to be allowed to list a Calvin Klein sweatshirt or a Victoria's secret body was. Easy peasy. On the other hand, there's Amazon, which really isn't for beginners at all. If you want to list actual name brands on amazon you have to go through a quite lengthy process to be approved for only this one brand. So if you purchased a mixed-brand lot you can expect months of painful "ungating"... BUT if you are a brand new seller, it is impossible to be ungated on Amazon because one of the many requirements is to have high "metrics", which means you have successfully sold on amazon for a while and have proven yourself to be worthy of being allowed to sell an Estee Lauder lipstick. Meaning; even if you feel up for the Amazon Challenge, you cant participate unless you already have a solid selling account on Amazon. Which puts us back at eBay.

The 3rd largest platform for online sellers is Walmart.com. I would still strongly suggest learning on eBay before you go to Walmart.com because Walmart is a more "professional style" site that has image requirements.

A couple often overlooked sites that you should consider in addition to Ebay are:

• Poshmark
• Mercari
• Bonanza

Poshmark is a favorite of new sellers because it is so simple to use and merchandise really does sell. While poshmark doesnt have the traffic levels of Ebay, they do have a super strong presence as a website for clothing, so if you specialize (or plan to specialize) in clothing, poshmark already has a massive database of qualified buyers, which is a huge deal.

Mercari is basically like poshmark.

Bonanza especially can be very good for designer apparel and accessories as well as other items. Bonanza doesn't have the funding that poshmark or Ebay do, but they have been in the game for quite a while and the buyers on this site tend to be really nice, deal shoppers. Also on Bonanza you don't have to deal with the amount of competition from China as you now have on eBay....But, less competition also means less sellers which ultimately means less buyers.

Most Bonanza sellers we have chatted with report selling under 20 items a month on the site. Many report selling under 10 and some report selling as little as 1 item a month. 

Craigslist: yeah, it's free (in most areas if you list items as an Private Seller instead of as a Business) BUT the scammers have taken over this site.

As soon as you list ANYTHING you are bombarded by messages from super excited "buyers" who say they need you to ship the item. Then they tell you they will mail you a check (Nigerian check cashing scam!). You will spend endless hours being ran around by these fake buyers who want nothing more than to rip you off. Not to mention, all of these scammers will sign your email, address and phone number up for thousands of telemarketing lists, so your phone will blow up 24/7, for the next 3 years. We had to list some business supplies on Craigslist about 1 year ago. It was a total disaster. We posted the listings at 3pm. When I woke up at 6am I had 4,000 unread emails and over 3,000 text messages. We ended up deleting our listings after only 16 hours because we couldn't deal with the thousands of scammers harassing us around the clock. To this day I get no less than 40 spam calls and texts per day. I will never again use craigslist. Yeah, I guess a "100% no-fees listing site" really is too good to be true. Damn shame.

IN CLOSING....

I will absolutely suggest starting out on eBay.  Give it a whirl and see what happens.  If you totally despise eBay, selling probably insn't the right fit for you.  However, if you are completely against trying eBay, you can aim for Poshmark or Mercari.  Just know that no matter what site you pick you will have to give 5-star service, which IS indeed time-consuming and tedious, yet VERY rewarding if you're the type of person who gets "high on" a 5-star!  So grab yourself a comfy pc chair, buy a new artificial desk plant, scoop up a nice (cheap!) notepad and colored fine-tip Sharpies for note-taking and get ready to focus while you do big things in 2020!