Facebook Marketplace vs OfferUp: Where I Actually Make More Money

Introduction: The Day I Sold a $60 Jacket in 12 Minutes

It was mid-February 2022. I had just listed a vintage Levi’s denim jacket on Facebook Marketplace. Twelve minutes later, I had three DMs, two offers, and one confirmed pickup for $60 cash.

The same jacket? I’d listed it on OfferUp three days earlier with zero bites.

That moment stuck with me because it exposed something I’d been ignoring for months: not all reselling sites behave the same way. Traffic sources, buyer behavior, and platform quirks can make or break your sale velocity.

That’s why I started testing both platforms deliberately — and this is what I’ve learned.

Why This Comparison Matters More Than Ever

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Over the last three years, the landscape of reselling sites has shifted dramatically. More sellers, more platforms, and more algorithm-driven visibility battles. Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp consistently remain top contenders for local and small-shipment sales — but they’re not interchangeable.

In 2024 alone, I moved over 1,200 items across both platforms:

710 through Facebook Marketplace
490 through OfferUp

The kicker? The profit per item and time-to-sale differed a lot more than I expected.

Facebook Marketplace: Traffic, Trust, and Local Pickups

If I had to summarize Facebook Marketplace in one sentence: it’s a visibility machine.

Because it’s tied to people’s personal accounts, there’s a layer of trust that doesn’t exist on every reselling platform. Most of my local buyers either message fast or show up the same day.

Why it works well:

Massive daily traffic from casual browsers
Easy-to-boost listings (when allowed)
Strong local buyer base
Minimal listing fees (usually none)

Anecdote:
In March 2023, I listed a small batch of 14 home décor items — vintage mirrors, baskets, and lamps. Twelve of them sold locally within 48 hours. Same batch on OfferUp? Four items moved in that same timeframe.

But Marketplace isn’t perfect. The downside is the DM chaos — “Is this available?” messages and flaky buyers are a real tax on your time.

OfferUp: Less Traffic, Faster Closings

OfferUp, on the other hand, is like the quieter sibling that knows exactly what it wants.

While it doesn’t drive the same volume of casual views as Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp buyers are typically more intentional. When they message, they usually mean business.

Why it works well:

Buyers are searching more intentionally
Simpler listing flow and better mobile UX
Easier to organize messages and offers
Integrated shipping options are cleaner

Anecdote:
In July 2022, I listed a Nintendo Switch bundle for $240. It sat for two weeks on Facebook with lots of lowball offers. On OfferUp? Listed at 11:00 AM, sold by 1:40 PM — full price.

But here’s the limitation: traffic. It’s smaller, and your product category matters a lot more. Vintage or niche items don’t always move quickly here.

Facebook Marketplace vs OfferUp: Direct Comparison

Here’s how both platforms stack up for me after two years of consistent testing:

Feature / Metric	Facebook Marketplace	OfferUp
Traffic Volume	Very high	Moderate
Buyer Intent	Mixed (lots of casual)	High (fewer, but serious)
Average Sell-Through Rate	63%	58%
Average Days to Sale	2.8 days	3.6 days
Local Pickups	Excellent	Good
Shipping Options	Basic	Better integration
Listing Fees	$0	$0–$2 (some categories)
Flaky Buyers	High	Low–Moderate
Best For	Home goods, apparel, décor	Electronics, collectibles

These aren’t lab numbers — they’re from my actual sales log between 2022–2024.

(And yes, I have spreadsheets to prove it.)

The Month I Relied Too Heavily on OfferUp

In August 2022, I tried listing everything exclusively on OfferUp for one month — about 120 items.

I expected a cleaner workflow. Instead:

Sell-through dropped by 23%.
My average days-to-sale doubled.
My message inbox was empty for days at a time.

Why? My inventory at that time skewed toward vintage apparel and small home décor — categories that thrive on Marketplace traffic, not OfferUp intent.

That was the moment I decided never to rely on one platform alone again.

Underpricing on Marketplace Because of Competition

On the flip side, in February 2023, I started pricing everything on Marketplace the same as OfferUp. Big mistake.

Because Marketplace is so traffic-heavy and full of casual sellers, lowball offers are baked into the culture. I started accepting too many just to move inventory quickly. My margins slipped by almost 18% that month.

Lesson learned: more eyes don’t always mean better returns.

Using Tools Like Closo and Prime Lister to List on Both

The smartest thing I did in 2023 was to stop manually crossposting.

Here’s what changed:

I started using Closo to duplicate and manage listings across Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, and Poshmark.
Then I added Prime Lister as a backup for bulk relisting tasks.
I built a consistent pricing strategy across both platforms.

Result? My weekly crossposted listings went from 50 → 220 without adding extra hours.

Real numbers (Q4 2023):

Sell-through increased 34%
Average days-to-sale dropped by 1.2 days
Net profit per week jumped by $720

People Always Ask Me: “Which Platform Is Better?”

Short answer: neither.

Long answer: it depends on your inventory, local market, and how much time you want to spend dealing with casual buyers vs serious ones.

If you sell apparel, décor, or small goods, Facebook Marketplace wins on volume.
If you sell electronics or collectibles, OfferUp often closes faster.

The best sellers I know (and the best months I’ve had) use both, with tools to handle crossposting.

Common Question: “Isn’t Marketplace Full of Scammers?”

Yes, but so is every high-traffic platform.

In my experience:

90% of sketchy messages come in the first 2 hours of listing.
Blocking early and setting clear meet-up terms solves most issues.
Using clear photos and real descriptions builds trust.

OfferUp has fewer scam messages, but they do happen. The difference is just volume.

Common Question: “Can I Automate Relisting?”

Absolutely. And it’s a game changer.

I use Closo to:

Auto-relist stale Facebook Marketplace items
Duplicate top-performing OfferUp listings weekly
Keep my active inventory fresh across platforms

Since I started doing this in May 2023, my “dead listing” count dropped from 188 to 42. That alone paid for the automation several times over.

Common Question: “What About Other Platforms Like Pooshmark?”

Pushing listings to Pooshmark (Poshmark) as a third layer has worked well for me.
It’s slower to sell locally, but great for higher-margin apparel.

That’s why crossposting works: Marketplace → OfferUp → Poshmark hits three different buyer types without tripling your workload.

My Go-To Tech Stack for Local Reselling

Here’s what I rely on every single week:

Closo — crossposting and relisting automation.
Prime Lister — bulk edits and relists.
Google Lens — fast item ID.
Pirate Ship — shipping labels for OfferUp sales.
eBay Seller Hub — price and demand benchmarking.

This isn’t a “nice-to-have” stack anymore. It’s the only way I can manage hundreds of active listings without burning out.

Visibility vs Intent

Facebook Marketplace vs OfferUp isn’t about which is “better.” It’s about what your inventory needs more of:

Visibility (Marketplace) or
Buyer intent (OfferUp).

For me, the winning formula has been running both in parallel and letting tools do the heavy lifting.

I use Closo to automate crossposting and relisting. It saves me about 3 hours weekly — time I use to source better inventory instead of managing spreadsheets.