Tommy Spencer
Reselling used toys before the holidays is a straightforward way to turn closet clutter into cash while making room for whatever your kids ask for next. With tariff driven price increases pushing more shoppers toward secondhand goods this year, timing and platform choice matter more than ever for anyone trying to maximize what they clear.
Why Resale Demand Looks Different This Year
Retail prices on toys have been climbing as import tariffs work their way through supply chains, and that has made secondhand markets more attractive to budget conscious parents. When new toys cost more at big box retailers, a gently used version on Facebook Marketplace or Mercari becomes a rational substitute rather than a compromise. That dynamic gives sellers a bit more pricing power than in a typical year, though it is not a guarantee that every item will move quickly or at a premium.
The practical starting point is inventory. Spend a day or two going through closets, garages and storage bins for bicycles, ride on toys, dolls, building sets and anything else your kids have aged out of. Clean and disinfect items before listing them; buyers on peer to peer platforms tend to abandon listings that look neglected, and a wiped down toy photographs better anyway. Once you have a pile worth selling, you have several channels to choose from, each with a different fee structure and audience.
Comparing the Platforms and What They Actually Cost You
Every resale platform takes a cut, and the size of that cut varies enough to change which venue makes sense for a given item. High value collectibles might justify eBay's auction reach despite its fee schedule, while a stack of low priced items might do better on Facebook Marketplace, which charges no seller fee for local listings. Poshmark and Mercari sit in between, with fee structures that punish very small sales more than mid sized ones.
| Platform | Seller fees |
|---|---|
| eBay | 13.6% of the total sale up to $7,500 per item, plus 2.35% on any portion above $7,500, plus a final value fee of $0.30 for sales of $10 or less and $0.40 for sales above $10 |
| Poshmark | Flat $2.95 per order on sales under $15; 20% of the sale amount on orders $15 and above |
| Mercari | 10% of the item price plus buyer paid shipping |
Facebook Marketplace, GoodBuy Gear, and local consignment shops or thrift stores are not in that table because their fee models differ: Facebook charges nothing for standard local peer to peer listings, while consignment shops typically split proceeds with the seller at a negotiated percentage rather than a fixed schedule. That makes direct comparison difficult, but it also means it is worth asking a shop's consignment terms before dropping off a bin of toys, since splits can range widely by location and item category.
The math matters more than it might seem. On a $20 toy sold through Poshmark, a seller nets roughly $16 after the 20% fee, versus keeping the full $20 (minus any shipping costs) on Facebook Marketplace. On a $150 vintage collectible sold through eBay, the final value fee alone runs over $20 before shipping and packaging are factored in. Sellers chasing volume on cheap items should weigh whether a platform's larger buyer pool justifies its cut, or whether a free local listing gets the job done faster.
Reading Buyer Trends Before You Price Anything
Pricing a toy for resale without checking current demand is a good way to leave money on the table or, worse, list something nobody wants at that price. Tracking hashtags on Instagram and TikTok, watching Google search trends, and simply asking other parents what is on this year's wish lists can reveal which items are commanding premiums. For the 2025 season, Labubu dolls have emerged as a toy with outsized resale value, the kind of collectible that can fetch well above its original retail price when demand outstrips supply.
Vintage items from the 1990s and 2000s are having a moment too. Trading cards, fast food promotional toys and Furbies all show up on want lists among both kids and adult collectors, and condition drives price more than nostalgia does. A well preserved Furby, for instance, can resell for up to $200, a figure that underscores how much the collector market, not just the toy market, now shapes resale value. Before listing anything vintage, it is worth checking whether the item is age appropriate for children or whether it is more likely to sell to an adult collector, since that changes both the pricing and the marketing angle.
Fees Are Only Part of the Ledger: Taxes and Safety
Sellers sometimes treat the sale price as the number that matters, but tax exposure and personal safety belong in the calculation too. The IRS treats proceeds from resale, whether the transaction happens online or in person, as taxable income under existing rules governing what counts as taxable and nontaxable income. Anyone earning more than $400 in a year from gig activity of any kind, reselling toys included, alongside other side income, is required to report and file on that total. That threshold applies cumulatively across gig work, not per platform or per item, so a seller running several small side hustles at once should track earnings across all of them rather than assuming each stays under the line individually.
Safety is a more mundane but equally important consideration. Guard personal information during any online transaction, and insist on meeting in public for local, in person exchanges. Some municipalities have set up designated exchange zones, often at city hall or a public library, precisely for this kind of transaction, and using one removes a fair amount of risk compared to arranging a meetup at a private address.
Weighing Donation Against a Straight Sale
Selling is not the only outlet for toys a household no longer needs. Donating to a vetted charitable organization skips the fee schedules and tax reporting questions entirely, and it can still produce a financial benefit indirectly: charitable donations may be deductible when filing annual taxes, effectively converting the value of the toys into a tax benefit rather than cash in hand. Anyone considering this route should vet the organization first, using resources such as Charity Watch, Charity Navigator, or the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, since not every group soliciting donations puts them to the use it claims.
The choice between selling and donating often comes down to how much a seller's time is worth against a modest one time payout. A $10 or $15 toy sold on a fee heavy platform might net less after fees and shipping than the tax benefit from a donation, particularly for someone who itemizes deductions. Higher value or trending items, on the other hand, clearly make more sense to sell given the premiums current buyer demand can support.
What Determines Whether a Toy Is Worth Reselling at All
Not every item pulled from a closet is worth the listing effort. Condition, current demand and platform fees all interact to determine whether a $10 or $15 toy is worth the time to photograph, list and ship, or whether it is better bundled into a donation drop off. Items tied to a specific trend cycle, like this year's Labubu demand, are worth prioritizing for sale while interest is high, since collectible crazes can cool quickly once the next trending item takes over. Vintage pieces with durable collector appeal, by contrast, tend to hold value over a longer horizon and are less urgent to offload immediately.
Louis Fleming