Same $40 listing. Here’s who keeps more.

One closet SKU. Two very different checkouts. Depop is an in-app sale that still pays 3.3% + $0.45 even when Help prints 0% selling fee for US sellers (Depop fees explained). Facebook Marketplace local is a meetup: the buyer messages you, cash or a person-to-person app changes hands, and Meta never runs a payout. That is processing vs cash on the same $40 — not a clone of Depop vs Mercari (processing vs 10%) and not Depop vs Poshmark ($2.95 / 20%). $0 shipping is the honest unit because local Marketplace has no postage in the sale.

Same $40 card (organic Depop vs Marketplace local)

The unique unit: in-app processing vs cash meetup

A “Depop 0% / Marketplace free” headline is the wrong unit. Depop Help still prints no selling fee for US sellers. What actually hits the US payout is Stripe processing at 3.3% + $0.45, and Help’s own cell puts shipping and tax inside that base even when those dollars are not keep. Facebook Marketplace local is not a competing percent. It is a sale that never enters Meta checkout, so there is no payout line for Meta to deduct a selling fee from. Same $40 sticker. Two checkout designs. The keep gap is $1.77 of Depop processing, not a slogan fight between 0% and 10%.

Depop: Seller fees and charges (updated 21 Jul 2026, fetched 28 Aug 2026), Boosted Listings, Marketplace fee. Meta: Local vs checkout on Marketplace, When you’ll get paid for selling with shipping (10% or $0.80 min on item + shipping + taxes), Marketplace Seller Protection Policy / selling fees (10% for Individual Sellers on onsite checkout). Line-by-line Depop stack: Depop seller fees explained. Closet compares that are not this page: Depop vs Mercari, Depop vs Poshmark.

1. Depop’s $40 still pays processing. “0% selling fee” is not $0 cost.

Depop Help, “Seller fees and charges,” updated 21 Jul 2026, opened 28 Aug 2026:

“No Depop Selling fees will be charged to sellers based in the UK, US, or AUS.”

The same table’s US processing row is 3.3% + $0.45 via Depop Payments (Stripe), “charged on the item sale price plus shipping costs and any applicable taxes.” A printed 0% selling fee is still not a $0 cost. On the same $40 sticker, both shipping and tax fields empty:

• 3.3% × $40 = $1.32, plus $0.45 → $1.77 out.
• Organic keep $38.23 (~4.4% of $40 — not 0%).
• That $1.77 is the whole comparable against local Marketplace cash, before Boost.

On a $12 empty-ship organic sale, the $0.45 flat already shows: 3.3% × $12 = $0.40 + $0.45 = $0.85 (~7.1% of $12), keep $11.15. Local cash on the same sticker is still $12 if no off-platform app took a cut. At $12 the story is the flat against cash, not “about 3.3% versus free.”

2. Marketplace local: Meta documents checkout 10%. Local $0 is modeled, not printed as a cell.

Meta Help, “The difference between buying something with checkout and a local transaction on Facebook Marketplace,” opened 28 Aug 2026, describes two products:

Local transactions: Buyers can message the seller to arrange a transaction by meeting in a public location, dropping off items at the buyer’s door, or picking up items from the seller’s door. … Local transactions aren't covered by Purchase Protection.

The selling-fee paragraph lives on a different article — “When you’ll get paid for selling with shipping on Facebook Marketplace”:

A selling fee of 10% (or $0.80 minimum per order) is deducted from your payout. The selling fee is calculated on the total transaction value, which includes the item sale price, shipping fees, and applicable taxes.

The same 10% (minimum $0.80), on item + shipping + applicable taxes, is restated in Meta’s Marketplace Seller Protection Policy for Individual Sellers using onsite checkout. Gap: those pages do not print “local pickup selling fee = 0%” as a table cell the way Depop prints “No Depop Selling fees.” This card still models $0 Meta take on local because there is no checkout payout for Meta to deduct from. That is an inference from product design, labeled as a gap — not a milled official percent. We will not invent 2.9%, 5%, or any other unofficial local Marketplace seller rate.

If the buyer pays you in cash, keep is the sticker. If they pay Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, or PayPal person-to-person, those companies may charge the sender or the recipient. This page will not invent those percents. Paste the dollar you actually lost, or leave the field empty ($0).

Shipped Marketplace checkout is a different product, not this card’s default. On the same $40 / $0 ship sticker, official 10% = $4.00, keep $36.00 (above the $0.80 floor). Organic Depop then keeps $2.23 more than shipped Marketplace — that is processing vs 10%, which is the Mercari-style unit, not the local unit this page is for. Use the shipped preset only when the listing actually used Buy now / shipping.

3. Boost 12% is a separate keep line. It does not flip local cash.

Boosted Listings (US/UK row) and the seller-fees table (footnoted “new listings from 23 March 2026”) both print 12% for US sellers:

You’ll only pay a boosting fee if a buyer interacts with your boosted listing (views, clicks, or likes it) and then purchases the item within 28 days.

Boost is 12% on the item sale price (excluding taxes) and, if you have not used a Depop Shipping label, the shipping cost. It is in addition to processing. Local Marketplace has no matching published ad percent. Do not invent one and stack it on the $40 cash keep “to make the compare fair.”

Same $40, $0 ship, $0 tax, Boost fires (Depop label, so shipping is out of the 12% anyway):

• Depop: processing $1.77 + Boost 12% × $40 = $4.80 → $6.57 out, keep $33.43.
• Local Marketplace still: keep $40.00 (no Meta checkout cut modeled).
• Delta widens: local +$6.57. Boost changed Depop keep by $4.80. It did not make Depop keep more than cash meetup.

That is the honest Boost story on this pair. On Depop vs Mercari, the same $4.80 can flip a 10% selling-fee race. Facebook local is not a 10% race. Mixing those two compares is how a mill page pretends Boost “beats Marketplace.”

4. Why empty shipping is the honest comparable — and why tax stays optional

Local Marketplace is a meetup. Help’s local article does not put a postage dollar inside the sale. Depop processing still follows shipping if you charge it. Putting a $7-style label on Depop and $0 on local is not the same listing — it is a shipped closet sale versus a driveway sale. Empty shipping ($0 in both bases) is the matching unit for “same $40 listing, local vs in-app.”

If you do paste a Depop shipping dollar, say so: that dollar sits in the 3.3% base. Local keep still has no postage unless you drove it yourself (COGS / mileage, not a Meta fee). This card will not invent unofficial Depop label tiers — How to ship - US printed no public US weight-tier dollar table on 28 Aug 2026.

Do not subtract Depop’s Marketplace fee from seller keep. What is the Marketplace fee? applies to US and UK buyers buying in USD or GBP: up to 5% of the item purchase price plus a fixed amount of up to $1, excluding taxes and shipping. Exact amount is shown at checkout. Help refuses a single published percent — this card will not mint 4.2% or any other unofficial midpoint. A $40 sale is not the seller eating “3.3% + $0.45 + 5% + $1.” Mixing the buyer line into keep is how blogs overstate Depop’s take versus cash.

Depop State Sales Tax in the US says Depop calculates, collects, and remits US sales tax as a marketplace facilitator, and that the tax element is included when calculating the Payment Processing fee. Leave tax empty ($0) unless you are pasting a receipt line. No 50-state matrix lives on this card. Local Marketplace cash usually has no platform tax line either — confirm your own sales-tax obligation; we will not invent one.

Worked: same $40 organic local, then Boost, then the $0.45 bite, then shipped (different product)

When local cash keeps more vs when you are no longer comparing the same listing

No hype — checkout design decides, not the brand of app.

• Organic, empty shipping, $0 tax, local cash: Marketplace models $40 vs Depop $38.23. Honest only when the Facebook sale actually was a meetup / door exchange and Boost did not fire.
• Boost on: Depop keep falls to $33.43 on this $40 sticker. Local cash is still $40. Boost is a Depop keep-changer, not a local-fee matcher.
• Low stickers: the $0.45 on $12 is already ~3.8 points before 3.3% even runs. Local cash does not carry that flat.
• Pasted P2P cut: if PayPal Goods & Services or a similar app actually took dollars from you on the meetup, paste that receipt. Empty means $0. Do not invent 2.9% + $0.30 and call it a Facebook fee.
• Shipped checkout: Meta’s published 10% (min $0.80) is real — and it is a different product. Organic Depop can beat that 10% on $40 empty-ship; Boosted Depop may not. Do not quote 10% as the local number.
• Do not steal bases: subtracting Depop’s buyer Marketplace fee, inventing a local Marketplace percent, treating Boost as 0% “because selling is free,” or pasting postage only onto Depop against a driveway sale, is how this compare becomes a blog fiction.

Drop these two scenarios into the hub calculator

1. Open the seller-fee calculator (hub: /seller-fees/ / realratecalc.com).
2. Depop US organic: referral 0, payment 3.3, flat 0.45. Leave shipping blank so this stays a local comparable. Extra % stays 0 unless Boost actually converted — then 12. Do not type the buyer Marketplace fee into a seller field. Tax only from a receipt.
3. Facebook Marketplace local: referral 0, payment 0, flat 0. There is no published local selling percent to paste. If an off-platform app actually billed you, park that dollar under other costs — do not invent a %.
4. Facebook shipped checkout (only if the listing used it): 10% on item + shipping + tax, floor $0.80. That is not this page’s default unit.
5. True COGS, drive time, and pack belong in cost fields. “Keep” here is platform take-home, not profit after thrift, gas, or no-shows.
6. Match a settled Depop payout, or the cash you actually held after the meetup. Both companies can change this.

Same SKU on Mercari is a 10%-on-item+ship stack: Depop vs Mercari. Same SKU on Poshmark is $2.95 under $15 or 20% of listing: Depop vs Poshmark. Full US Depop stack: Depop fees explained. Hub: seller-fees index. The other local-meetup app that actually prints “no commission on in-person sales,” and that retired nationwide shipping on 23 Sep 2025: OfferUp seller fees explained.

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