Writing Marketplace Listings in Polish When It Is Not Your Language

Condition words exactly as Vinted shows them

Vinted's catalogue rules require every listing to declare a condition, so getting the Polish word right is not optional. Vinted's Polish help page (checked September 2026), titled "Jak poprawnie ustawić stan przedmiotu?", defines five bands plus one for electronics:

Use these exact words, not a synonym or an invented variant like "Nowy z metką" — that phrase doesn't exist on Vinted's own condition list. The Polish page also states plainly that sellers must show defects in photos and describe wear in more detail than the condition band alone implies ("opisz wady bardziej szczegółowo"); a condition label is a starting point, not the whole disclosure.

Sizes, measurements and materials

Write real measurements in centimetres, always naming what you measured: "długość" (length), "szerokość pod pachami" (width, armpit to armpit), "długość rękawa" (sleeve length). Put the number first — say a garment is 68 cm long: write "68 cm długości", which reads the way a Polish seller actually writes it. Don't build your own size-conversion table from memory; measure the garment on a flat surface and let the buyer compare the centimetres with something they already own.

For materials, Vinted's catalogue rules allow up to 3 materials per listing — name the ones that are actually on the care label ("bawełna" cotton, "wełna" wool, "poliester" polyester, "skóra" leather, "jedwab" silk), and resist the urge to stuff in extra brand names or unrelated fabric words to catch more searches; the same catalogue rules ban that kind of keyword spam.

Describing defects without sounding worse

A defect described plainly in Polish protects you more than it costs you. Useful neutral phrases: "niewielka plama" (small stain), "widoczne mechacenie" (visible pilling), "delikatne zarysowanie" (light scratch), "brakuje jednego guzika" (missing one button). State where it is and how big, the same way you would in English — precision reads as honesty, vagueness reads as hiding something.

This matters beyond Vinted's own disclosure rule. On OLX, Pakiet Ochronny treats a mismatch between the listing and the item as a seller-side problem: title, description, photos, quantity, function, colour, size, undisclosed damage, a "new" item that shows wear, or an incomplete item all count. A defect you named precisely in Polish is one a buyer can't later claim you hid.

Shipping and pickup phrases

Keep the shipping vocabulary generic and platform-accurate rather than translating English idioms literally. "Odbiór osobisty" means personal pickup; "wysyłka" is shipping in general; "możliwa wysyłka" tells the buyer you can post it if asked. On OLX, sellers sometimes add "możliwa wysyłka OLX" to flag that OLX's own delivery option is available — keep the platform's own name rather than a generic translation. Allegro Lokalnie separates its two listing types by name: "ogłoszenie lokalne" (0 zł, meant for pickup) and "Kup teraz" (a paid checkout format, 7.9% generally and 4.9% in Elektronika) — the type you pick already tells the buyer how the deal will work, so the wording just needs to match it.

Title patterns that read naturally

A Polish title that reads naturally follows the same shape as a good English one: brand or item type, plus size, plus the one feature that matters. "Kurtka puchowa damska rozm. M, granatowa" (women's down jacket, size M, navy) tells a buyer everything a search filter can't.

The good version costs nothing extra to write, but it answers the three questions a buyer types into search — item, size, colour — before they've read a word of the description. If you're about to write many listings like this in one sitting, reva's List module (early access) prepares drafts for Vinted, OLX and Allegro Lokalnie — it doesn't translate for you, but it starts the draft you then correct.

Bilingual mini-glossary

For the abbreviations buyers use in condition shorthand across platforms, see condition abbreviations.

Checking your Polish before publishing

Read the finished listing aloud — a phrase that looks fine on the page often trips on the tongue if the word order is off. Open a similar, well-written listing in the same category and compare your wording sentence by sentence; Polish sellers have their own conventions for what goes in the first line versus the description. For your first handful of templates, ask a native speaker to check them once — after that, you're mostly reusing checked phrases with new numbers.

Machine translation is a fine starting point for a first draft, but treat the output as something to correct, not to publish. It gets condition words, measurement phrasing and platform-specific terms like "ogłoszenie lokalne" wrong often enough that a buyer notices, and a bad first line costs you the click before your price or photos get a chance to work.

• Use Vinted's exact Polish condition words, not a synonym or invented variant
• State every measurement as a number plus what you measured, in cm
• Name only materials actually on the care label, up to 3
• Describe defects with a neutral, specific phrase and photograph them
• Match your shipping wording to the platform's own listing type
• Read the finished text aloud and compare it with a real listing before publishing

If you sell across several platforms, the same vocabulary carries over — see crosslisting to Poland for how listings move between them, and batch listing workflow for writing several at once.

Once the listing is live and the questions start, buyer message templates cover the replies themselves.