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The story
It started with a post: ‘I listed something for 1,000 yen and got a comment asking for a 100 yen discount — it creeped me out.’ A reply pushing back — ‘Mercari is a flea market, so haggling is a given. If you don’t like it, sell to a recycle shop instead’ — racked up 20,000 likes, and when the exchange was shared on 5ch, the thread split right down the middle. Is haggling simply ‘part of the nature of a flea market,’ or is it ‘just a feature that exists — not something you’re obligated to accept’? Both sides kept trading concrete examples to make their case.
What people said
In the replies, one comment got 20,000 likes: 'Mercari is an online flea market. Haggling is a given. If you don't like it, go sell it to a recycle shop — they'd give you less than 100 yen for it anyway.'
Who's right here?
The answer's right there. Stuff that Book Off (a secondhand bookstore chain) would only give you 10 yen for can still turn a profit of several hundred yen on Mercari.
Items that are actually going to sell, sell before any discount comment ever shows up.
Mercari's whole concept is a flea market, and the official service even encourages price negotiation.
Just because you *can* doesn't mean it's a given.
Where's the official source, then?
Exactly this.
So I'll list it at 1,050 yen and knock off 50 yen lol, here, buy it, cheapskate lol
Happy now?
If that's priced above market rate, it won't sell. Items that actually sell, sell before any discount-request comment ever shows up.
First off, it's not like it costs me anything if it doesn't sell lol
Most normal buyers don't ask for discounts.
So why not just buy from a listing that's already at market price?
That's such a pain.
If you've actually used Mercari you'd know — overpriced stuff just doesn't sell. You'll end up marking it down yourself anyway.
The whole idea of a 'market rate' on a flea-market app is weird to begin with.
Mercari's the one overstepping by dictating prices.
Hello there.
Sorry! A discount won't be possible!
If you're after a lower price, why not try looking for the same item at an actual flea market?
Apparently you might be able to get it for around 100 yen there.
Best of luck to you!
If you don't want that, just write 'no discounts' on your profile.
So why does everyone skip that feature and haggle in the comments instead?
Yahoo Auctions has its own problem — it's crawling with self-styled 'pros' (really just difficult old guys), and it's become the norm that you can't even buy anything with a zero rating.
At the very least, Mercari is an online flea market, Rakuma's a flea market too, and Yahoo Flea Market is obviously a flea market as well.
You go use Yahoo Auctions instead.
Guess it's less 'flea market' and more 'haggling is a given.' My bad.
If it's not a flea market, then what is it?
Furniture and stuff is way cheaper there than on Mercari anyway.
Well, furniture shipping costs are basically insane on Mercari.
Re: #1 literally says discounting is a given.
Accepting or refusing is up to the seller.
Being creeped out by it is up to whoever.
Why is that so hard to understand?
Even today, go to a local shopping street and you can still get a discount (or a little extra thrown in for free).
Like getting a little extra from the greengrocer, or having the odd change rounded off. That kind of thing used to show up all the time in Sazae-san and Crayon Shin-chan.
But it's a sight you don't see anymore now that chain stores have taken over everywhere.
That's not something shopkeepers do for just anyone, though. You get that kind of service because you look presentable or you're friendly.
If some total stranger you've never met, whose face you don't even know, tells you 'knock 100 yen off that 1,000 yen item,' that's just plain creepy.
Why are you so worked up about this?
You're more worked up than the haggler ever was.
A flea market listing is meaningless if it doesn't sell, so in the end you discount it. It's not an ongoing business relationship, so there's no long-term rapport to worry about either.
The very first purchase I ever made, I haggled.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Mercari does have a ‘price-change / comment’ feature that lets sellers choose whether to entertain price negotiations, but the company has never made haggling mandatory, and no one in the thread produced an official document stating that discounting is ‘a given’ (when >>35 asked for an official source, no answer ever came). The debate split into two main camps: one holding that ‘given the nature of a flea-market platform, haggling is a deeply rooted custom,’ the other arguing that ‘it’s merely a feature that’s available — there’s no obligation to accept it.’ Meanwhile, the claim that ‘you get haggled at because you priced it above market rate’ and the counter that ‘the whole notion of a market rate has no place on a flea-market app to begin with’ talked past each other without ever really connecting. One point readers can easily get wrong: on similar services like Yahoo Flea Market and Rakuma too, whether to accept haggling isn’t governed by platform rules at all — it’s left entirely up to each individual seller. It’s often framed as if it were a blanket ‘Mercari rule,’ but in reality, practice varies seller by seller.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyou G) thread ‘Mercari Erupts Into an Insane Debate Over Something Ridiculous wwwwwwwwwwwww‘.
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