Is Mercari Legit? Here Are The Red Flags

If you're shopping online and looking for a specific item that might be hard to track down at this point, Mercari could be a name that's popped up on your radar. A lot of people haven't seen that name before, but that doesn't mean it's anything to worry about. Mercari works a lot like an online thrift store, very similar to eBay in that sense. Despite having been around for over a decade now, it's not quite a household name the same way eBay or even Facebook Marketplace are. However, it's a legit website you can shop on. Keep in mind that just because something is legit, it doesn't mean there aren't red flags to be aware of.

With Mercari being a storefront that just about anybody can sell things on, you have to be careful about who you're buying from — the same applies to Facebook Marketplace and eBay. A good rule of thumb is to buy from sellers who have verified sales and positive reviews. That won't guarantee you won't run into issues, but it'll certainly be a lot more reliable than rolling the dice on buying something from somebody who just created their account.

Red flags aren't always apparent to online shoppers, especially when it's your first time on a website. When it comes to Mercari, if something seems too good to be true on a price, you'll want to do some digging. Clicking on an item will give you a bit of information about the seller, and there are a couple of things you'll want to look for.

The two big ones are sales and reviews, and if you notice there's a low amount of both, it could mean you're at a higher risk of running into a problem. It's a lot safer to purchase from somebody with many verified sales and positive reviews. Sellers with badges like "Fast Responder" and "Quick Shipper" are generally good to see since it ensures they have a positive track record.

If you do run into any problems with your purchase, Mercari has a series of safeguards in place for you to get a refund. If the item you get is incorrect, damaged, or not shipped, you'll be eligible for a full refund. You're also warned against making a sale with somebody offline. If the seller wants to go through an app like Zelle instead of Mercari's service, the chances of being scammed are much higher, especially since Zelle doesn't offer purchase protection. Also, read the listings very carefully to make sure you don't end up paying a fortune for something like a PS5 box.

People buy and sell on Mercari every day, and a lot of people do it with no problem. Despite that, Mercari's score on the Better Business Bureau website is an abysmal 1.07/5 based on over 1,200 reviews. Common user complaints include receiving the wrong item, being scammed, and poor customer service — all real issues you'll have to be on the lookout for. Similarly, the score on Trustpilot is 1.9/5 based on over 18,000 reviews. The complaints are largely the same as they are on the BBB website, so it's clear there are real issues. Omitting customer reviews, however, shows Mercari has an official "A" rating from the BBB.

In a vacuum, the user scores are quite bad. Nevertheless, a similar story is told when you look at eBay, a common alternative to using Mercari. The Trustpilot score for eBay is 1.2/5, and the BBB score is 1.08/5. The rating given by the BBB is an "A," the same score as Mercari. At the end of the day, people are going to have bad and good experiences on Mercari.

The only thing you can do is take as much caution as you can, and if you have a problem with the item you receive, contact customer service as soon as possible to initiate the refund process. (That might be easier said than done, with many Trustpilot reviews complaining of poor customer service.) But if you do your research on a seller before making a purchase, you should have a good experience.