Poshmark's Prohibited Items List: What You Can't Sell

Poshmark's Prohibited Items List: What You Can't Sell

Poshmark is a fantastic marketplace for building a thriving resale business. But to truly succeed and scale, you need to know the rules of the road. Understanding what you can and can't sell is the first step to protecting your account and building a trustworthy, profitable closet.

Navigating the list of Poshmark prohibited items can seem daunting, but it’s essential for long-term growth. Selling a banned item, even by accident, can lead to deleted listings or even restrictions on your account, halting your business momentum in its tracks.

This guide will break down exactly what can't you sell on Poshmark, from specific product categories to broader community guidelines. We will provide a clear overview of the rules, so you can source inventory with confidence and focus on what matters: growing your sales.

Understanding Poshmark's Core Prohibited Categories

Poshmark's rules are in place to ensure a safe, legal, and consistent shopping experience for everyone. The platform focuses primarily on fashion, accessories, select home goods, and specific electronics. Items that fall outside these core areas or pose health, safety, or legal risks are generally not supported. Let's dive into the specifics.

Health, Wellness, and Certain Beauty Products

This is one of the most common areas of confusion for new sellers. Poshmark has strict rules regarding products that are applied to the body or make health claims.

According to Poshmark's policies, items like nail polish, perfumes, and aerosols are not supported for sale on the platform. These items often contain materials that are difficult or hazardous to ship, which is a primary reason for the restriction.

While these items are generally unsupported, the provided facts state that for items within a "Perfumes & Aerosols" category, they must be new, alcohol-free, and aerosol-free. This indicates that if any exception is ever made, the requirements are extremely strict.

The platform also does not support the sale of health and wellness products. This is a broad category that includes several types of items you might see sold elsewhere but are considered banned items on Poshmark. Specific examples of unsupported health and wellness products include:

• Diet supplements
• Protein powder
• Body wraps
• Used breast pumps

Furthermore, any item that makes a medical claim is not supported. The most prominent example given in the official guidelines is N95 masks. This rule aims to prevent the sale of items that promise medical outcomes, which Poshmark is not equipped to regulate.

Illegal Items, Fakes, and Replicas

This rule is non-negotiable and one of the most serious. Poshmark explicitly prohibits the sale of illegal items. This includes, most notably for fashion resellers, replicas and fakes.

Selling replica designer items, sometimes called "super fakes" or "dupes," is a direct violation of Poshmark’s guidelines and intellectual property laws. It's crucial to authenticate your items, especially high-end designer goods, before listing them.

Beyond fakes, this category also includes any products derived from threatened or extinct species. This aligns with federal and international laws protecting wildlife and prevents the trade of items like ivory or certain animal furs on the platform.

Building a reputable business means building trust. Selling authentic goods is the cornerstone of that trust. While you focus on sourcing authentic inventory, our platform can help you list it faster than ever before. With Reeva, you can turn photos of your authentic finds into complete, detailed listings in an instant, giving you more time to source and sell.

Start your free trial today and see how we help top resellers accelerate their listing process.

Used Undergarments and Bodysuits

For clear hygiene reasons, Poshmark does not support the sale of used undergarments. This is a standard policy across most resale platforms.

The guidelines provide specific examples of unsupported items in this category, which include used underwear and used bodysuits. To avoid any issues, it's best to stick to selling new-with-tags (NWT) items if you deal in this category of clothing and clearly state their condition in your listing.

Electronics, Furniture, and Appliances

Poshmark has a dedicated "Electronics Market" for certain tech items. However, items outside of this curated market are not supported. This rule keeps the platform focused and prevents it from becoming a general classifieds site.

If you're thinking of expanding your inventory, be aware of these specific restrictions. According to the facts, the following items are not supported for sale outside of the official Electronics Market:

• Cell phones
• DVDs
• Furniture
• Appliances

Selling these items can result in your listings being removed. Always ensure the products you sell fit within Poshmark’s approved categories.

Beyond the Item: Poshmark's Community Guidelines and Selling Rules

Knowing what can't you sell on Poshmark is only half the battle. *How* you sell is just as important. Poshmark's Community Guidelines govern how users interact on the platform, and violating them can have serious consequences.

According to the guidelines, violations can result in everything from deleted content and removed listings to permanent restrictions on your account. These rules apply to all forms of communication, including listings, comments, Posh Stories, and Posh Shows.

Keep All Transactions on the Platform

This is a critical rule for seller protection. Poshmark explicitly states that users may not use the platform to conduct transactions offline or off the platform. Any sale that originates on Poshmark must be completed through Poshmark.

This includes all communication about the sale. Any discussion about item details and all price negotiations must happen on the app. The reason is simple: the Posh Protect program does not cover sellers if any part of the transaction is taken off of Poshmark.

The platform prohibits directing transactions elsewhere. You may not post a URL, QR code, or image that invites users to complete a sale off-site. You also cannot request that someone contact you via phone or email to complete a transaction. This ensures that both buyer and seller are protected by Poshmark's systems.

Rules on Automation and Reposting

Poshmark wants user activity to be genuine. The guidelines state that users may not use unauthorized programs or other forms of automation to participate on the platform. This includes actions like automated liking, sharing, following, and unfollowing.

The platform also cautions against excessively reposting the same item for sale. While strategically refreshing a stale listing is a common sales tactic, doing it excessively can be flagged as spammy behavior.

Managing a closet and keeping it active is time-consuming, which is why many sellers seek out tools for help. Our platform is designed to be a business management tool, not a spam bot. We help you work smarter, not harder. For instance, our tools allow you to relist stale products to keep them at the top of search results and automatically share your products to increase visibility, all while you manage your business from a single dashboard.

Other Key Guidelines to Follow

To keep your account in good standing, keep these other rules in mind:

• No Contests or Giveaways: Poshmark is generally not the place for contests, raffles, or sweepstakes. The platform also notes that trades are honor-based agreements that Poshmark cannot guarantee.
• No Soliciting Donations: Users may not ask for or solicit donations of money, goods, or services, either on Poshmark or by advertising a third-party site.
• Respect Intellectual Property: You must be respectful of the intellectual property rights of others. This goes back to the rule against selling fakes and also means you cannot use content or personal data that does not belong to you.

A Quick Reference Guide to Poshmark Prohibited Items

To make things easier, here is a table summarizing the key categories of banned items on Poshmark. Keep this handy when you're out sourcing inventory.

How Reeva Helps You Scale Your Resale Business the Right Way

Staying compliant with Poshmark's rules is step one. Step two is building a process that allows you to grow without burning out. That's where we come in. Our platform is an all-in-one solution designed to help serious resellers simplify selling, automate tedious tasks, and scale their business with ease.

Top resale businesses like Nuzzydeals, Vintage Vault WV, and TUFFNY trust our tools to accelerate their growth. Vintage Vault saw the number of items they sold increase by 372% in just three weeks, while Nuzzydeals experienced a 7x increase in sales.

Sell Smarter and Faster Across Multiple Platforms

One of the biggest bottlenecks for any reseller is listing. We solve that. You can turn photos into complete listings instantly; just upload your photos, and we'll create the titles, descriptions, and prices for you.

But why stop at Poshmark? We empower you to list your items everywhere with one click. Publish your inventory to Poshmark, eBay, Mercari, and Depop without ever switching tabs. Our multi-store support helps you reach more buyers effortlessly and maximize your sales potential.

As FabFam from Washington puts it, "Reeva has cut my listing time by more than half. I can take photos, voice-to-text my details, and let Reeva handle the rest."

Save Time with Smart, Compliant Automation

Growing a Poshmark closet requires constant activity. We help you manage this efficiently. Our platform allows you to automatically share items to increase their visibility and send personalized offers to potential buyers without lifting a finger.

We also help you keep your closet fresh by relisting stale products. Most importantly, our system instantly delists sold items across all platforms to prevent you from ever overselling a product. This single feature is a game-changer for multi-platform sellers.

AlistairBP from Georgia says, "The feature I use 100% the most—and couldn't live without—is the AUTO-DELIST feature."

Grow Your Business with Powerful Management Tools

As your business grows, so does the administrative workload. We provide the tools to manage it all. You can update and manage hundreds of listings in bulk, track your sales and profits with powerful business analytics, and even give team members access with multi-user account options.

TUFFNY from New York shared, "I've cut down my admin time by at least 30%, which has allowed me to source more products and expand my offerings."

Take Control of Your Finances with Full-Service Accounting

Stop drowning in spreadsheets. Our platform includes built-in accounting tools that automate your bookkeeping. Connect your bank accounts to automatically record transactions, expenses, and fees. You can even upload receipt photos for seamless record-keeping.

We categorize your income and expenses, making tax time a breeze. With clear profit and loss reports, you can make smarter, data-driven decisions for your business.

Ready to see what you can accomplish with the right tools? Explore our plans and start a free 7-day trial.

Conclusion: Sell with Confidence and Scale with Ease

Success on Poshmark is about more than just having great inventory. It's about understanding the platform's rules, respecting the community guidelines, and operating your business efficiently.

By avoiding Poshmark prohibited items like unsupported health products, fakes, and used undergarments, you protect your account and build a foundation of trust with your customers. By following the selling rules, like keeping all transactions on the platform, you ensure you're covered by Poshmark's protections.

Once you've mastered the rules, the next step is to optimize your workflow so you can spend less time on manual tasks and more time on growth. Our platform is designed to do just that. From creating AI-powered listings in seconds to cross-listing across multiple marketplaces and automating your accounting, we provide everything you need in one place.

Stop juggling multiple apps and start building a scalable, efficient resale business today. Start your free 7-day trial of Reeva and discover why top resellers trust us to help them grow.