Etsy vs The RealReal: stack vs consignment bands

At a glance: itemized stack vs one banded commission

Etsy's bill arrives as separate, countable lines. The RealReal's cost never arrives as a bill at all — it's the distance between what your item sold for and what lands in your account. The table below is built around that split, with rows keyed to how consignment actually works rather than forced one-to-one fee matches.

One column itemizes what you pay to sell; the other quotes what you're paid once someone else has sold. Reading the two as a discount ladder gets the comparison backwards — the variable that actually decides your economics is whose labor each number is buying.

Two models, not two price tags

"Which platform has lower fees" is a question the inventory usually answers before the math does. Etsy never takes a commission on your profit and The RealReal never sends you an invoice. Etsy rents you the stall: a small fixed charge to shelve goods, then per-order fees when they move, with pricing, photography, packing, and shipping all on your clock. The RealReal consigns: its team authenticates, shoots, prices, lists, and fulfills, then hands back a banded share of the proceeds — and keeps the rest as the fee for having done so.

That makes the honest comparison a make-or-buy decision, not a cheap-vs-dear one. If your time costs nothing to you, Etsy's itemized stack is almost always the smaller deduction from a sale. If you'd rather not photograph, price, negotiate, or ship a luxury piece at all, the commission band is the price of a staff. Neither schedule is a markup of the other; they price different jobs, and the rest of this page prices each job honestly.

Etsy fees (US)

Every dollar that leaves a US Etsy shop leaves through one of three standing lines, plus one conditional line that only touches ad-attributed orders. The table runs in the order sellers actually meet them: the two order-time charges first, then the listing fee on its own four-month clock. Longer treatments live in how much Etsy takes and the Etsy listing fee guide.

Offsite Ads: the fourth line, sometimes

Offsite Ads applies only to orders Etsy attributes to its offsite advertising, within a 30-day attribution window. The rate is 15% while a shop's trailing 365-day sales sit under $10,000 — shops below that threshold are allowed to opt out. At $10,000 or more in any trailing 365-day window the rate becomes 12% and participation is required. No single attributed order is charged more than $100. Etsy does not publish what share of orders earn attribution, and no estimate of that share appears on this page. The full rulebook is in the Etsy Offsite Ads fee guide; the dollar swing is priced after the worked math below.

The RealReal seller commission bands

The RealReal's arithmetic runs in a single step: Net Selling Price multiplied by the commission rate for your category and price band. What's left is the seller share paid to you. The seven bands below are the Trendsetter Clothing & More table from the Earnings Guide as Feebrief recorded it; other categories — handbags, watches, jewelry — run their own schedules, which this page does not show and will not guess at. How the Net Selling Price is precisely defined sits in consignor terms that were not retrievable at check time; the worked example below assumes the sold price is the NSP and flags where that assumption could bend.

Two rules of thumb fall out of the table. First, the band is set by the price the item fetches, not the price you hope for — a piece that undershoots a band edge can pay a meaningfully lower share. Second, the schedule climbs fast at the bottom and flattens at the top: the jump from 20% to 45% happens within the first $200 of sold price.

Rewards tiers, and why they don't move this table

The RealReal's Rewards program can lift the seller share on items that sell at $200 or more: +1% at Influencer, +2% at Tastemaker, and +5% at VIP, set by trailing Net Sales tier. Trendsetter members are not eligible, so none of the bands above shift for the example worked below. What Feebrief could establish about how quickly consignors are paid after a sale is collected in The RealReal payout time.

Worked: a $55 Etsy order and a $250 consignment

These two receipts don't race each other — the baskets are different on purpose, because the models are. Each is shown step by step with the real rates above, so you can substitute your own prices and repeat it.

Etsy receipt: a $50 item with $5 shipping, no tax, no ad fee

1. Transaction fee: 6.5% × ($50 item + $5 shipping) = 6.5% × $55 = $3.575, so ≈ $3.58.
2. Processing fee: 3% × $55 = $1.65, plus the $0.25 fixed piece = $1.90.
3. Order-side total: $3.58 + $1.90 ≈ $5.48.
4. Listing fee: $0.20, already paid at publish — counted here for honesty, since it rode on this sale.
5. All-in: ≈ $5.68 against a $55 order, roughly 10.3% of order value.

Sales tax is held at $0 to keep the base visible; when tax applies, the processing line (3% + $0.25) is assessed on the gross order including it, while the 6.5% transaction line is not.

The RealReal receipt: a $250 garment, Trendsetter Clothing & More

1. Band lookup: $250 falls in the $200 – $299 band, where the seller share is 55%.
2. Payout: $250 × 0.55 = $137.50 to the consignor.
3. The RealReal retains $112.50 — that retention is the fee, covering authentication, photography, pricing, listing, and fulfillment.
4. No listing, processing, or shipping charge is itemized, and no Rewards uplift applies — Trendsetter members aren't eligible.

One hedge matters here: the math assumes $250 is the Net Selling Price. If the NSP nets out below the sticker figure under terms Feebrief couldn't retrieve, both the band and the payout could land lower. The assumption is stated, not hidden.

Set side by side, the receipts price the jobs, not the platforms: ≈ $5.68 buys the machinery of a shop you control end to end; $112.50 buys a staff that does everything but hand you the check.

After the math: the Offsite Ads line

Had that Etsy order arrived through an Offsite Ads attribution, the arithmetic changes shape. At the 15% rate — applicable while trailing 365-day sales sit under $10,000 and no opt-out was used — the fee is 15% × $55 ≈ $8.25, more than the other three lines combined and far under the $100 cap. At the mandatory 12% rate for shops at $10,000+ in trailing 365-day sales, it's 12% × $55 = $6.60. All-in, the attributed order costs ≈ $13.93 at 15% or ≈ $12.28 at 12% once the $0.20 listing fee is counted — roughly 25.3% or 22.3% of order value, versus ≈ 10.3% with no attribution.

The contingency is the whole story: the same basket, the same day, the same buyer can carry three different Etsy bills depending on ad attribution and the shop's trailing sales. Which share of orders gets attributed is exactly the number Etsy doesn't publish, so this page prices the cases and assumes no frequency. The RealReal side of this comparison has no equivalent contingency in the material recorded.

Which model fits the item

Start with the piece, not the platform. If you made it, it's a craft supply, or it's vintage, Etsy is where the economics apply — you'll price it, photograph it, ship it, and pay the itemized stack for the privilege of keeping roughly 90% of a typical order. If it's an authenticated luxury good from a brand The RealReal accepts, consignment economics apply — you'll give up 30% to 80% of the sale price depending on band and category, and do almost none of the work.

The rare item with a foot in both columns is vintage designer goods, which can qualify as vintage on Etsy and as luxury consignment at The RealReal. There, the deciding question is whether the authentication premium and done-for-you service are worth the spread between Etsy's ≈ 10% stack and a consignment retention that starts at 80% on sub-$100 sales. Related comparisons that may fit better: Etsy vs ThredUp fees when the alternative is a mail-in payout box, Poshmark vs The RealReal fees for a flat-20%-versus-bands read, and the resale marketplace fees hub for the wider field.

What we couldn't pin down

• Net Selling Price definition. The consignor terms that define it precisely weren't retrievable at check time; this page flags the assumption in the worked example rather than inventing a definition.
• Payout cadence. How long passes between a The RealReal sale and cash in hand isn't in the material recorded here; what Feebrief could establish is in The RealReal payout time.
• Category tables beyond Clothing & More. Handbags, watches, and jewelry run their own band schedules. They're not recorded here and not guessed at — no category maximum is claimed.
• Offsite Ads attribution share. Etsy publishes no rate of attribution across orders; every Offsite figure on this page is priced as a case, never as an average.

Straight answers

So which platform costs less?

Whose labor is free decides it. Etsy's stack took ≈ $5.68 of a $55 order — about 10.3% — but the seller did every task. The RealReal retained $112.50 of a $250 sale — 45% — but did the authentication, photography, pricing, and fulfillment. As raw percentages the stack wins; as hourly-wage arithmetic, consignment often does. Neither number is a markup of the other.

Are there upfront or per-order charges on The RealReal's side?

None in the schedule Feebrief recorded. There's no listing charge, no processing line, and no per-order surcharge for Trendsetter Clothing & More — the commission band off the Net Selling Price is the entire take.

What comes out of a $55 Etsy order?

≈ $3.58 in transaction fees, $1.90 in processing, and the $0.20 listing fee already paid at publish — ≈ $5.68 in total, before any Offsite Ads fee. With a 15% attribution on top, the all-in rises to ≈ $13.93.

Would the same piece work on both sites?

Almost never. Etsy lists handmade goods, vintage pieces, and craft supplies; The RealReal consigns authenticated luxury brands from its accepted list. Vintage designer goods are the rare overlap, and even there the fee structures price completely different jobs.

Is the top 70% share the default at The RealReal?

No. In the Trendsetter Clothing & More table, 70% belongs to items selling at $5,000 and above. A $250 garment pays 55%, a $95 one pays 20%, and the Rewards uplift doesn't apply — Trendsetter members aren't eligible.

Where to read next

• Etsy seller fees — the full stack, fee by fee
• The RealReal seller commission — the parent record for the bands above
• Etsy vs ThredUp fees — the stack against a mail-in payout
• Poshmark vs The RealReal fees — a flat 20% against the same bands
• Resale marketplace fees — the category hub

Where the numbers come from

On the Etsy side, the three standing lines and the Offsite Ads rules were read from Etsy's published legal fees page, its Etsy Payments policy, and its Offsite Ads help documentation, and are kept current in Feebrief's Etsy fee record with deep dives in the listing fee and the Offsite Ads fee. On the RealReal side, the seven-band Trendsetter Clothing & More table and the Rewards terms come from The RealReal's Earnings Guide and seller commissions pages as captured in Feebrief's RealReal commission record, checked November 1, 2026. The consignor terms that would define the Net Selling Price and payout timing were not retrievable at check time; wherever that gap touches a number, the text says so instead of estimating around it. How Feebrief dates and re-checks every record is documented in the methodology.

Disclaimer

Feebrief is an independent fee-research publisher with no affiliation to Etsy, Inc. or The RealReal, Inc., and nothing is for sale on this page. The rates, bands, thresholds, and policies above speak as of November 1, 2026 and can change without notice; the platforms' own current fee pages govern every real decision. Derived totals are marked with ≈ and can be re-run by hand from the printed rates. Nothing here is financial, tax, or legal advice. Editorial standards and funding are described in the methodology and disclosure.