If you have an old Nintendo Switch lying around, and you rarely ever use it anymore, it might make sense to sell it. After all, who couldn’t use some extra cash?
But what are the best online outlets for selling used electronics like gaming equipment and consoles? Where can you get the top dollar for your Nintendo Switch? In this article, we’ll break down the best places to sell your Nintendo Switch and help you develop a smart selling strategy for maximum profit. Let’s take a look at five of the best places to sell your Nintendo Switch online.
The Facebook Marketplace has emerged as one of the best online marketplaces for selling both new and used items. Facebook first launched a Marketplace in 2007, although it didn’t gain traction and was eventually shut down in 2014. Then, the growing prominence of local “buy and sell” or “sell and swap” groups prompted Facebook to launch a new Facebook Marketplace in 2016, and this time it took off.
Initially, the Facebook Marketplace catered mostly to consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions between people living in the same communities (taking the role of those local “buy and sell” groups), but has since expanded to include an extensive range of listings that sellers will ship anywhere in the world. It has also become a popular online marketplace for business-to-consumer (B2C) sellers as well.
The Facebook Marketplace is used by more than one billion people each month, and it can be accessed from more than 200 locations around the world. A single Facebook Marketplace advertisement can reach 562 million people.
One thing to consider when listing your Nintendo Switch on the Facebook Marketplace is that there are no listing fees if you’re selling locally. That could mean lower selling costs and more profit, but you’ll have to deal with local meetups and potential no-shows. Sometimes, it’s worth the cost of shipping an item and making slightly less profit because you’ll avoid the wasted time and frustration of having a local buyer who doesn’t show up.
eBay was the original online marketplace for selling new and used goods, and it remains one of the best places to sell electronics and gaming consoles like the Nintendo Switch. eBay has a massive audience, with 134 million active buyers spanning 190 markets around the world. The eBay app receives 3.67 million visitors from the United States each month.
One thing to keep in mind when selling on eBay is that the platform has an estimated 1.7 billion live listings. That means you’ll need to stand out from the crowd, which can be challenging if you’re not an experienced eBay seller.
Another consideration is that when selling on eBay, your buyer probably won’t be from your local area (although they could be). That means you’ll want to account for packaging and shipping costs in addition to eBay’s listing fees, which include an initial fee for listing your Switch (although you get 250 free listings each month), a percentage of the final sale value (including handling charges, the shipping service selected by your buyer, and sales tax), and $0.30 per order.
That percentage of the final sale value varies depending on the category. For most categories, eBay takes 13.25%. And if your buyer pays via PayPal, you’ll have to account for PayPal fees as well.
One final word of caution: the video game consoles and accessories categories are prone to scammers, so you’ll want to be careful when interacting with potential buyers.
The OfferUp app has been downloaded at least 90 million times and, as of 2020, has 56 million yearly buyers and sellers. The average OfferUp user uses the app 19 times per month. According to Statista, the state with the most OfferUp users is California, which had 633,000 users in 2022. Florida and Texas round out the top three, with Florida topping 535,000 users and Texas having just over 507,000 users. After the top three, the number of OfferUp users drops substantially to approximately 170,00 users or less per state.
On OfferUp, you can sell your Nintendo Switch locally, but your potential buyer pool may be limited depending on the number of OfferUp users (who are in the market for a Nintendo Switch) in your area. However, you can also sell and ship items to non-local buyers. Overall, OfferUp boasts 20 million active monthly users, so offering your Switch up for sale to non-local users might be your best bet.
There are no fees on OfferUp when you sell locally. If you sell a shipped item, you’ll pay a service fee of 12.9% of your Switch’s final selling price with a minimum fee of $1.99. (Unlike on eBay, the service fee excludes the cost of shipping.)
OfferUp’s fees are transparent. When you list your Nintendo Switch, you’ll see the estimated rate, and the final fee is clear when you accept an offer. Your Nintendo Switch must be properly labeled with OfferUp’s provided shipping label. Otherwise, you won’t get paid because OfferUp won’t be able to track the delivery.
Craigslist, which launched in 1995, was the first online classified ads platform. Today, it serves more than 700 cities in 70 countries around the world. It gets about 250 million visitors per month and more than 80 million classified ads are posted on Craigslist each month.
Craigslist originally catered to local sales, but today, many users post items that they’ll ship anywhere in the U.S., or even around the world (provided, in most cases, that the buyer is willing to pay the shipping costs). There are no listing fees or selling fees for items like a Nintendo Switch console, video games, or accessories.
Craigslist has a reputation for being a playground for scammers, though, so you’ll want to use caution when interacting with potential buyers. You’re likely to receive lots of scam emails in response to your ad, and sorting through them to find legitimate buyers can be time-consuming.
Founded in 2013, Mercari is a C2C marketplace for selling a variety of items, including gaming consoles like the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch games, and Nintendo Switch accessories. Mercari is growing: it had more than 20 million monthly active users in 2022, an increase from just 8.5 million monthly active users in 2017. The Mercari mobile app has been downloaded more than 100 million times, and the platform processes more than $100,000,000 in transactions each month.
It’s free to list your Nintendo Switch and other items on Mercari, but there is a 10% fee for every item sold. One perk is that Mercari provides a prepaid shipping label with insurance up to $200, which might be enough to cover your Nintendo Switch during shipping. However, if you’re planning to sell your Nintendo Switch for more than $200, keep in mind that it won’t be fully insured for its value.
After receiving an item, buyers have three days to evaluate the item and review the seller or decide to return it. Unfortunately, some buyers have abused the return policy, and fraudulent return claims are one potential downside of selling your Nintendo Switch on Mercari.
Mercari automatically completes transactions three days after the item is shown as delivered, which is a big perk that protects sellers from buyers who are slow to hold up their end of the bargain. Likewise, sellers are responsible for shipping items within three days of the sale.
Finding the best place to sell your Nintendo Switch can be overwhelming. These leading online marketplaces are a great place to start, but there are many things to watch out for, such as selling fees, a limited pool of potential buyers, possible scammers, and special requirements for shipping your Nintendo Switch.
You can skip the overwhelm and the time commitment involved in selling your Nintendo Switch by partnering with Sella. Our experienced resellers guide you every step of the way and list your Nintendo Switch (or any item you’re selling) on multiple marketplaces — like the ones discussed above — to help you get top dollar.
Our team of experts takes care of all the time-consuming details, like enhancing photos, writing compelling listings to help your Nintendo Switch stand out from the crowd, managing multiple site listings, negotiating with potential buyers, and even arranging meet-ups or handling shipping. Learn more about how selling with Sella works or get started selling your Nintendo Switch today.
