Freeland is a community marketplace for buying and selling the things people already own. There are no listing fees and no seller fees.
There is no mystery here: we are not making any money, we are simply trying to solve a problem.
There may come a point where we need to find some way to monetize Freeland to at least cover the running costs, but the mission is to never have marketplace fees taken out of the money you earn on a transaction, no matter what.
We are two guys with a vision for a new marketplace that is fair for buyers and sellers. We built this by ourselves after getting tired of the frustrations with current marketplace offerings. Read more by clicking the “About us” link at the bottom of the site.
In the US, for now. Items ship to US addresses, and prices and payments are in US dollars.
Please feel free to send feedback, and don’t be shy: constructive feedback will not hurt our feelings. We want Freeland to be as amazing as possible, so any and all criticism and suggestions are welcome.
Add it to your cart and check out, or make an offer if the seller accepts them. You choose shipping or local pickup, whichever the seller offers, and see the full price, shipping included, before you pay.
Free items check out the same way: you pay only for shipping, or nothing at all when you pick it up. Calculated shipping on a free item includes the card processing on it.
With a credit or debit card. Payments go through Stripe, and your card details go straight to them: Freeland never sees or stores your card number.
No. Carts don’t hold items, so if someone else checks out first, it’s theirs. If an item sells while you’re paying, your card isn’t charged.
If a listing accepts offers, you can offer anything from $1 up to the asking price. Your offer is for the item; when you make it, you choose a saved card and how it’s delivered, and you see the total, shipping included. The seller has 24 hours to accept, decline, or counter, and you can withdraw your offer while it’s open. You can make up to three offers on a listing, one at a time.
Offers are binding. If the seller accepts, your card is charged straight away and the item is yours, and accepting a seller’s counter works the same way. To change the card or address, withdraw your offer and make a new one.
If your card is declined, we’ll email you, and the item is held for 24 hours while you pay with another card.
Sellers have 7 days from your payment to ship. If the carrier hasn’t scanned your package by then, the order is canceled and you’re refunded in full, shipping included. If only part of an order ships, you’re refunded for the rest. You don’t need to do anything.
Every order you pay for on Freeland that ships is covered. If something’s wrong with it, you get a full refund and the seller pays return shipping, even if they don’t take returns.
What’s covered
You’re covered if your item:
How to claim
Open a return from your order page within 15 days of delivery, or within the seller’s return window if it’s longer.
If the seller disputes your return, Freeland looks at both sides and decides.
If it doesn’t arrive
You can report a package as missing from your order page the day after the carrier’s estimated delivery date, or 7 days after the carrier first scans it if there’s no estimate.
If the seller never ships it, you’re refunded automatically. If tracking hasn’t updated in 5 days, contact support and we’ll look into it.
What sellers pay
Sellers pay return shipping for anything the guarantee covers, whatever their return policy says. Their payment is held while a return is open, and a refund comes back out of it, or out of their next payouts once they’ve been paid.
What isn’t covered
Local pickup, since you see the item before you take it, so check it over when you collect. Payments made outside Freeland aren’t covered either.
Open a return from your order page and tell us what’s wrong. If it’s covered by the Freeland Guarantee, you get a full refund and the seller pays return shipping.
If the seller disputes your return, Freeland looks at both sides and decides. Send photos of the problem, with your order number, to support.
It depends on the seller. Each listing shows its return policy under “Returns and protection.” If the seller takes returns, you can send an item back within 14, 30, or 60 days of delivery, whatever their policy says, even if you’ve just changed your mind. The listing says whether you or the seller pays return shipping; if it’s you, a label from your order page comes out of your refund.
Even when a seller doesn’t take returns, the Freeland Guarantee covers you if something’s wrong with the item.
Returns are always for a full refund of what you paid, shipping included. There are no exchanges or restocking fees. Orders you pick up locally can’t be returned, so check the item over when you collect it.
Listing is free, and Freeland takes no seller fees. Stripe’s card processing fee comes out of each sale, as does the cost of any shipping labels you buy through Freeland.
A Freeland account, and payouts set up with Stripe. Stripe asks for a bank account or debit card and a few details to confirm who you are. You can write listings before you’re set up; they’re saved as drafts until you finish.
Yes. You can edit the photos, title, details, price, quantity, offers, shipping, and returns at any time. Only the condition is fixed once a listing is live, and once someone has bought it, you can add to the description but not change what’s there. Orders keep the price, shipping, and returns they were bought with.
Yes. Lower the price by 5% or more, below the lowest it’s been, and your listing moves back up in Freeland’s feeds as if you’d just listed it. That can happen once a week, starting a week after you list it. Raising it back above the price you dropped to undoes it. There’s no need to take a listing down and post it again.
Turn on offers when you create or edit a listing. You have 24 hours to accept, decline, or counter each one. You can also set an automatic acceptance price, which buyers never see: any offer at or above it is accepted for you.
Offers are binding, so when you accept one, the buyer’s card is charged straight away and the sale is done.
Yes. Turn on List it free under the price. A free listing doesn’t take offers, and the buyer pays for shipping, flat rate or calculated, or picks it up from you, so free shipping isn’t an option for it.
With flat-rate shipping, Stripe’s processing fee (2.9% + 30¢) comes out of the shipping price you set, so set it to cover the label and the fee. With calculated shipping, the buyer pays the card processing on top of the carrier’s rate, and the label is bought for you.
Yes. Set a quantity on the listing, and buyers can buy several at once. With flat-rate shipping, you can charge less to ship each extra one.
No. Set your return policy in Seller settings: whether buyers can send items back if they change their mind, for 14, 30, or 60 days after delivery, and who pays return shipping. Your listings follow it, or you can set returns for one listing when you edit it. Returns are always for a full refund, with no restocking fees.
Whatever you choose, the Freeland Guarantee covers buyers if an order doesn’t arrive, isn’t as described, is the wrong item, arrives damaged, or is counterfeit, and you pay return shipping for those. Local pickup orders aren’t covered.
You have 3 days to accept it, refund the buyer without the item, or ask Freeland to step in. If you don’t answer, it’s accepted for you. Once the item’s back, you have 3 days to check it: refund the buyer, or ask Freeland to step in if it isn’t what you sent. If you don’t, the buyer is refunded automatically.
If you ask Freeland to step in, send photos and anything else that helps to support.
Stripe processes every payment on Freeland. Buyers pay by card through Stripe, and sellers are paid to their bank account or debit card through Stripe. Freeland never sees or stores card numbers or bank details.
Currently Freeland is integrated with Stripe, a company with a long-standing reputation as a secure payment processor. After your first sale, Stripe will hold funds for 7 days for verification. After that, sales typically reach your bank account or debit card within 1–3 business days.
We never see or store your bank account or card details at Freeland; those are held securely by Stripe.
We are working to add additional payment methods for more flexibility as fast as possible. Right now Stripe is the most plug-and-play method that offers the proper security needed.
It is important to note that Stripe, and any future payment methods added, will still take their processing fee from your transaction. Unfortunately, for now we are only able to remove the marketplace seller fees, but we have ideas to get around this as well, so stay tuned.
Three days after the buyer gets the item: when the carrier marks it delivered, or the buyer confirms they’ve picked it up. The wait gives the buyer time to check it; if they open a return first, the payment is held until it’s settled.
Once it’s released, the money is in your Stripe balance, and Stripe pays it to your bank account or debit card on its usual schedule.
Buyers can still open a return after your payment is released, within your return window or the Freeland Guarantee’s. If they’re refunded, the refund comes back out of your Stripe balance, so it’s taken from your next payouts. If your balance can’t cover it, Stripe may take it from your bank account.
You receive the sale total, including any shipping the buyer paid, less:
There are no Freeland fees.
When a buyer checks out a cart with items from several sellers, Stripe charges one fee for the whole cart. It’s split by each seller’s share of the cart total, shipping included, so you only pay the fee on your own sale.
On the Payouts page in your account, which shows your balance, your payouts, and the bank account or debit card you’re paid to, and lets you update your details.
The seller decides, for each listing:
A free item always ships at the buyer’s cost, flat rate or calculated, or is picked up.
It’s shown on the listing and at checkout, before you pay, and never changes afterwards. For calculated shipping, you see live rates once you enter your address.
Anywhere in the US. Freeland doesn’t ship internationally yet.
Yes. A listing can offer shipping, local pickup, or both, and there’s no shipping charge for pickup. Arrange a time and place in messages. When it’s ready, mark the order ready for pickup, and the buyer confirms on the order once they’ve collected it.
Open the order and buy a label, or add a tracking number if you’d rather ship it yourself. A label needs the packed weight and, over a pound, a size: Small, Medium, or Large. Save the package on the listing and the label is one tap when it sells. Labels you buy here are USPS for now, and you can add tracking from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL Express. No printer? Every label comes with a QR code, and the Post Office prints it for you.
Weigh the packed box and round up. USPS checks every package, and if it’s heavier or bigger than its label, the extra postage comes out of that order’s payout.
With calculated shipping, the label is bought as soon as the buyer pays, so you only need to print it.
7 days from when the buyer pays, and we remind you 2 days before. If the carrier hasn’t scanned the package by then, the order is canceled and the buyer is refunded.
Yes, until the carrier scans it. Void the label from the order and buy a new one. The carrier refunds the old label, which can take up to 14 business days, and you’re only charged for it if they turn the refund down. You can replace a package’s label twice.
The full rules are in our Terms & Conditions.
Paying on Freeland is what protects you. Every order that ships is covered by the Freeland Guarantee: if it doesn’t arrive, isn’t as described, or arrives damaged, you get a full refund. Buyers are refunded automatically if an order never ships, and the seller’s payment is held while a return is open. If you pay someone directly, we can’t help if something goes wrong.
Once an order is delivered or picked up, the buyer and the seller can each leave the other one review.
Use the menu on their profile, their listing, or your conversation with them to report or block them. You can also report a single comment or message from the menu beside it. Reports go to the Freeland team. Blocking stops messages and offers between you, in both directions.
Only report people who break the rules. Reporting someone to harass them, or to try to get them suspended, breaks our rules too. We keep track of how often each member reports others, review accounts that misuse reports, and may suspend them.
We check every listing when it’s published. Most go live straight away. If something looks like it might break the rules, the listing shows as Pending review until someone on our team looks at it. We’ll either publish it, ask you about it, send it back for you to change, or decide not to approve it. Listings we don’t approve show under Not approved in your listings and can’t be published again.
Messages are checked as they’re sent. A message with a phone number, an email address, or a request to pay or talk outside Freeland isn’t sent, and you can reword it. Abusive messages are held for our team, and the other member doesn’t see them unless we deliver them.
Comments and reviews are checked as they’re posted. One that looks like spam, a scam, or abuse waits for our team before anyone else sees it. Honest reviews are welcome, good or bad; we only take down ones that break our rules, such as insults, threats, or contact details.
We also watch for spam: sending the same message to lots of members, or messaging lots of members you haven’t talked to in a short time.
We suspend accounts that break our rules, such as by selling prohibited or counterfeit items, scamming, spamming other members, or misusing reports. Some suspensions happen automatically and our team then reviews them. That happens when an account sends the same message to many members, messages many members at once, or is reported by several members in a short time.
While your account is suspended, your profile and listings are hidden and any open offers are closed. You can still sign in, and we’ll still email you about your orders. We tell you why when we suspend it, by email and when you sign in.
Mistakes happen, especially with automatic checks, and we want to fix them.