Reselling News: eBay Cuts 9 Percent of Its Staff and Poshmark Wants Holiday Inventory Listed by October 31

Two things landed on the same day yesterday, and they pull in opposite directions. One marketplace is getting noticeably smaller right as Q4 starts. Another one just told sellers the clock runs out in nine days.

eBay is cutting about 9 percent of its workforce

On October 21, Reuters reported that CEO Jamie Iannone told staff in an internal memo that eBay is cutting roughly 9 percent of its workforce, in what Reuters framed as a push to simplify operations and move resources toward the company's fastest-growing areas. The memo quote going around is "Our strategy is working," followed by the line that "continuing to capture the significant opportunity ahead requires us to make thoughtful choices about where we focus and invest." BNN Bloomberg carried the Reuters report with the headcount context: eBay reported 12,300 employees at the end of last year, which puts a 9 percent cut at somewhere around 1,100 people.

This is the second round this year. eBay cut about 6 percent, roughly 800 jobs, back in February. Value Added Resource has eBay's statement, which says the reductions are meant to let the company "continue to operate from a position of strength by aligning our teams and resources with our top strategic priorities." Affected employees were told they would hear in the coming days.

Here is the honest limit on what we know. eBay did not say which teams are being cut. February's round hit engineering, development, payments and finance, but nobody has published a department list for this one, so anyone telling you seller support is getting gutted is guessing.

What to do: plan your fourth quarter as though help will be slow, because that is the cheap assumption either way. Open a case the day a problem starts instead of on day 29. Keep your own paper trail on every messy order, including tracking numbers, message screenshots and the dates you contacted anyone. If you have a policy question that could cost you money in December, ask it in October while the queue is shorter.

Poshmark wants your holiday inventory live by October 31

Poshmark published its 2026 Holiday Listing Guide on October 21, and the instruction is blunt: get holiday inventory listed by October 31 so shoppers find it as the season opens. That is nine days from today.

Two dates matter in that guide. October 31 is the soft one, the listing target. December 17 is the hard one, the last USPS Ground Advantage ship date Poshmark gives for holiday arrival. The second date is the one worth writing somewhere you will see it in six weeks.

The guide also names what Poshmark expects shoppers to hunt: dresses and skirts, outerwear, sweaters, boots and cold weather accessories, with brands like Carhartt, Patagonia, UGG, Sorel and Ralph Lauren called out. On the gift side it points at home decor, statement jewelry, cozy winter wear, luxury bags and collectibles. Poshmark also claims listings using its Smart Sell automation are about 50 percent more likely to sell, which is the platform's own number rather than an independent one, so treat it as a nudge toward the feature and not a measured fact.

What to do: if your winter inventory is sitting in a bin waiting for a slow evening, that evening is this week. Listings need days of visibility before they convert, and a sweater posted December 8 is competing against sweaters that have been collecting likes since Halloween.

The takeaway

The platform side of this business got leaner yesterday and the selling calendar got shorter. You do not control either one. What you control is whether your coats are live before November and whether you can prove your side of a case without needing someone in San Jose to pick up.

Deciding which inventory earns a spot in your Q4 lineup, and how to handle a platform dispute so it does not eat a week, is the kind of work we do together inside The Income Lab.

Hero photo by Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.