We all have stuff we don’t need anymore but don’t quite want to just throw away. You know what I am talking about. Those games, books, clothes, collectables, records and such that are just kind of taking up space in your home.
Trying to make some money from these things using the internet is a common way people part ways with these kind of things.
I myself have tried many ways to sell my valuable unwanted stuff. I have even tried to sell my own creations online. Most of the time this was a lot of work for a pretty lame result.
I feel like others have tried to make some money online using platforms like Ebay or Esty and may have had some trouble.
I have found a platform that is much easier to use and it is free!
What is Mercari?
Mercari is a free to use online marketplace. It can be used by downloading their free app or using their website.
I highly recommend using their mobile phone application.
It can be found in most mobile app stores by simply searching for Mercari.
You can also sign up using my referral link, which will give you a $10 coupon off your first purchase. (I will receive a $10 credit, THANK YOU!)
HERE IS MY LINK – https://merc.li/G6bzJWb
This link works best on your phone so if you are on your computer switch to your phone real quick to make sure you get your $10 coupon.
How do you sell on Mercari?
After signing up, selling on Mercari only takes a few steps.
I use my phone to post my listings. Open the app on your phone and tap the sell orange button at the bottom of the page. This will open your camera so you can take pictures of what you would like to sell.
When taking pictures of your stuff good lighting, background and cleanliness go a long way. I use a photo box for small to medium sized objects much like this one.
Now that you have the thing you are trying to sell clean, well lit and in a nice background start taking pictures. I have found the the more pictures you have in your listing the more likely it is to sell.
After taking your first picture and like how it looks, tap the orange sell button. You can add up 12 photos to each listing.
Once you finish up with the photos start filling out the listing information. Add a title and description. Try to include Key Words people would use to find this thing. For example when I list some Magic The Gathering cards I add a bunch of related terms in the description.
The more people you can get to look at your listing, the more likely it is to sell. Mercari has a like feature. If you can get a few likes on your listing you will get more people to look at it. Taking advantage of the title and description to draw people in will help you sell more stuff.
Next add 3 tags, pretty much hashtags, to your listing. You will then pick a category and brand. After that select what condition your object is in and the color it is. This will help buyers find your listing using Mercari’s search tools.
The next set is shipping. You can choose to offer free shipping, which means you will pay for the shipping or you can have the buyer pay for it. I usually start out having the buyer pay for shipping and if the listing does not sell for a month or so I will change it to free shipping.
Mercari says that offering free shipping increases the likelihood of your making a sale, the chose is yours.
Finally just add your price. Mercari takes a 10% sales fee from your price, so you should take that into consideration. If you have competed all of these steps and are ready to post you listing, tap the orange list button.
It is just that easy to post a listing using the Mercari app.
Buying on Mercari
Not only is Mercari a great place to sell stuff, you can also buy some pretty cool stuff too. If you really work at it you can find things that are listed way below market value, buy them up, and resell them on Mercari for a profit. I have done this with cameras.
If you find something you would like to buy but thing the price is too high you can make and offer to the seller. If the sell agrees you buy the listing for your offered price.
You can also message the seller to discuss the price, shipping, condition of the listing and more. I often talk with sellers before making a purchase.
Payments can be make using a credit card or PayPal account.
I find shopping on Mercari to be a lot of fun. You never know what you will find.
Mercari’s referral program
Earlier in this blog post I talked a little about my referral link. I have been using Mercari since it was in Beta. Their first referral program offered a $10 coupon to the person who signed up using it and a $2 credit to the referrer.
At the time, I thought this was a pretty good deal for both people and I shared my referral link everywhere! I shared it so much I hit their limit for referrals, can you believe that? At the time the limit was 100 people, so I had earned a total of $200 in Mercari credit.
I used this, like I said earlier, to buy under priced cameras and resell them on mercari. I ended up making a total of $350 from those cameras and I used that to buy myself a PS4. Pretty good deal.
However, after hitting the limit I stopped sharing my referral link and kind of stopped using Mercari.
A year and a half later I had some stuff to get rid of around the house so I got on Mercari. They had changed a few things. The thing that shocked me the most what that they had changed to referral program.
The current referral program offers a $10 coupon to the person who signs up to use it and a $10 credit to the person who referred them. A $10 credit! That is 5 times as much and there is no limit on referrals!
So I have to say I am a big fan of this referral program and recommend you take advantage of it.