Reselling News: Whatnot Puts Its First National TV Ad On Air Today and eBay Live Drops Commission to Zero Through October 29

Most weeks the reselling news is a fee going up. This week two platforms are spending money to pull buyers toward live selling, and there is a third date on the calendar that quietly closes on Wednesday.

Whatnot bought national TV time, and the first spot airs today

Whatnot launched its first nationwide US advertising campaign, called Take a Shopping Trip, which debuted October 21. Value Added Resource has the details. The 30-second commercial features NFL running back Cam Skattebo alongside real Whatnot sellers, and it premieres during today's Giants game. More spots built around fashion and collectibles run through the end of the year on NFL and NBA broadcasts.

The numbers behind the spend are the part worth writing down. Whatnot says its sellers moved over $8 billion in sales in the first half of 2026, that more than 650,000 new buyers join every week, and that fashion orders have more than doubled year over year. The same announcement covered a new Dublin headquarters and a plan to open the platform to Irish small businesses in 2027.

Read that honestly. A national ad buy does not make Whatnot the right platform for your inventory, and it does not create demand for an item nobody wants. What it does is put a large number of first-time buyers into a live-selling app over the next two months, which is the window where a new seller is competing against the smallest number of established shows.

What to do: if you have ever considered trying live selling, the cheapest version of that test is now, while the platform is paying to bring strangers through the door. Run one short show with items you already have listed rather than buying inventory for it.

eBay is paying zero commission on Live sales through October 29

eBay is running a promotion that waives commission fees on eligible US eBay Live transactions completed and paid for between October 19 and October 29. Value Added Resource covered the offer.

The normal eBay Live commission is 4 percent on coins, bullion and eligible sneakers and 6 percent on most other categories, capped at 100 dollars per item. That is the piece being waived. Payment processing still applies at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction, or 10 cents on orders under 10 dollars through December 31.

Two limits matter. This is invitation only, aimed at accounts eBay selected, including sellers who have Live Studio access but have never hosted a stream. And it covers completed, paid transactions only, so cancelled, refunded or reversed sales fall out of it.

What to do: check your eBay messages and seller notifications today rather than later in the week. If the invitation is in there, you have four days of selling at a commission rate you will not see again, and the timing lines up with the same holiday traffic Whatnot is advertising into.

Amazon's last Black Friday inbound deadline is October 28

If you sell through FBA, Wednesday is the cutoff. Amazon's published inbound deadlines for Black Friday week and Cyber Monday were October 14 for AWD shipments, October 21 for minimal shipment splits, and October 28 for Amazon-optimized splits, which is the option most sellers use.

Inventory that arrives after that date is not guaranteed to be checked in and sellable for the biggest shopping week of the year. Holiday peak fulfillment fees are already running, from October 15 through January 14, averaging 32 cents per unit above non-peak rates with a 3.5 percent fuel and logistics surcharge stacked on top.

What to do: anything already boxed goes out today or tomorrow. Anything not boxed by Wednesday should be planned around a December arrival instead, and priced with the peak fee in it.

The takeaway

Three dates, one shape. Whatnot and eBay are both buying attention for live selling right now, and Amazon's shelf space for the holiday rush closes Wednesday. None of these will be true in two weeks, which is the whole reason to act on them in the week they are live rather than reading about them later.

Knowing which of your items belong in a live show, which belong in a fixed-price listing, and which should never have been bought is the sorting we work through together inside The Income Lab.

Hero image: the Whatnot logo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.