Why We Built the Apos Marketplace

Most online selling platforms are massive businesses designed to extract as much value as possible from every transaction. Seller fees keep climbing, policies are becoming increasingly reliant on AI, and the people actually buying and selling gear are starting to feel secondary to the platform itself. As of this writing, eBay charges around 13.6% in seller fees. That’s a big cut from every product sold. We wanted to build something different for the community.

The goal of the Apos Marketplace comes from the philosophy of a no-profit, no-loss system in which the community can thrive. To that end, the Apos Marketplace charges among the lowest seller feeds in the industry. The fee is intended only to keep the marketplace sustainable, and if operating costs decrease as the community grows, we plan to lower fees and return value back to users.

Our goal is to create a trusted place for enthusiasts, collectors, hobbyists, small shops, and builders to buy and sell gear without losing a huge percentage of every transaction to the platform. At the same time, we understand why large marketplaces became popular in the first place. Forums and community classifieds can work well, but they leave buyers and sellers to handle everything themselves: payments, disputes, fraud concerns, shipping issues, and trust. Large platforms solved many of those problems, but at the cost of high fees.

The Apos Marketplace is the middle ground.

We handle payments. We arbitrate disputes. We help create trust between buyers and sellers. We personally vet sellers. We’re intentionally growing the marketplace slowly and carefully rather than opening it to everyone all at once.

In a nutshell, we built the Apos Marketplace to provide the structure and protection people want from a marketplace without extracting maximum value from each transaction. We only want to charge what we need to keep the system healthy and sustainable for the community.

Who Can Sell on Apos?

Trust is difficult to build and easy to lose. That’s why the Apos Marketplace is currently operating as a curated platform where every seller is personally selected and vetted by our team before they’re allowed to list products.

We’re intentionally keeping the marketplace small while it’s in beta. Rather than opening the platform to hundreds of sellers and relying entirely on automated systems or feedback scores to sort things out later, we’re growing carefully with businesses and people we know, trust, and believe will represent the community well.

Over time, we may expand into a broader system supported by reputation systems and additional verification processes. But even as the marketplace grows, the core philosophy stays the same: build a platform centered around trust, accountability, and long-term community health.

As of June 2026, the marketplace is only open to buyers and sellers in the US and Canada. Once we feel that we can proficiently manage and provide help to users outside these regions, we'll open up to other regions as well. 

How to apply to be a seller

How we approve sellers

Seller approval is currently handled entirely by hand. We’re starting with a small group of sellers we already know and trust while we continue refining the marketplace and learning how the community uses it, which means approvals are intentionally slow and selective rather than instant or automated.

When evaluating potential sellers, we care far more about trust and service than inventory size. Clear communication, accurate listings, responsible shipping practices, and a genuine understanding of the products they sell all matter to us because the goal isn’t to fill the marketplace with products, but to create a place where people feel comfortable buying high-value gear from sellers who care about the community.

How we handle disputes

In cases where escalation is required, you can depend on Apos’ Trusted Community Support Team to help resolve issues, whether it be communication problems, condition disputes, shipping issues, payment concerns, or fulfillment problems.

How we handle payments

We use an escrow-style payment structure to help establish trust between buyers, sellers, and the platform itself. Funds will be temporarily held while transactions are completed and confirmed successfully, adding an additional layer of protection and accountability for all parties. As buyers and sellers build stronger reputations, escrow hold periods will be reduced. The system is designed to adapt over time, becoming faster and more seamless as trust is earned and reinforced.

Shop the Apos Marketplace