Consignment vs crosslisting: which should you choose?

Short answer

Consignment trades a share of each sale for not doing the work. Crosslisting keeps the work and the profit with you and adds marketplaces. Choose consignment when your time is the bottleneck, and crosslisting when your margin is.

The shortcut: Crosslisty is a Chrome extension that copies a listing to your other marketplaces, fills each form for you and removes sold items from the rest. Free for 5 fills a day.

Add to Chrome, free

Updated October 2026. Crosslisty is a Chrome extension (it also works in Brave and Edge) that copies a listing to the other marketplaces, fills each form for you, and removes sold items from your other listings.

What each one is

Consignment: a shop or service lists, photographs, stores and ships your items, and keeps a share of each sale.
Crosslisting: you list the same items on several marketplaces yourself, usually with a tool, and keep the sale price minus marketplace fees.

How to compare them

Work out the share consignment keeps, and subtract it from a typical sale.
Work out marketplace fees for the same sale. See the fee comparison.
Add your time: how many minutes per item do you spend photographing, listing and shipping?
Compare what you keep per item and per hour under each option.

When consignment fits

You have a lot of items and little time.
The items are high-value and you want someone to handle authentication and buyers.
You would otherwise leave the items unsold.

When crosslisting fits

You enjoy sourcing and listing, and want the larger share of each sale.
Your items are mid-priced and fees are a smaller cut than a consignment share.
You want control over price, photos and which marketplaces you use.

You can do both

Some sellers consign their best items and crosslist the rest. If you crosslist, check the fees first, and start with two marketplaces.

Questions

Is consignment better than crosslisting?

Neither is better in general. Consignment saves time and costs a share of each sale. Crosslisting keeps more profit and takes more work.

Can I crosslist and consign at the same time?

Yes, as long as the same item is not in both places. Keep track of which items are where.

Which has lower costs?

It depends on the share, the fees and your time. Compare what you keep per item. See marketplace fees.

Crosslisty does these steps for you. Free for 5 fills a day, or $9 a month for unlimited crosslisting. Cancel anytime.