Are Reselling Bots Allowed? Automation and Crosslisting Rules

How to read marketplace terms before you automate

A browser extension can click anything you can, so what software is able to do tells you nothing. The clause decides. For each marketplace, note the exact wording, the version and country, and the exception it leaves open. That exception is always in the marketplace's hands:

• "Not named" is not "allowed". If crosslisting isn't mentioned, the general software clause still applies to the tool doing it.
• A vendor's statement is not the marketplace's permission. A help centre can describe a tool's design; it can't grant rights under another company's terms.
• Versions matter. Vinted's UK Terms quoted here apply from 30 April 2026 and change in October 2026. eBay's quotes are from the US agreement.

Decision rule: if a clause needs the marketplace's permission and nobody can show you where it was given, treat the tool as not covered.

Are reselling bots allowed? The side-by-side table

Two patterns stand out. Every marketplace whose terms we could read, apart from OLX, has a bot or automated-access clause, and any exception runs through the marketplace. And only Depop names crosslisting tools; elsewhere, how a tool posts (browser, API, server) decides which clause it meets.

Vinted: external tools, scraping, delete-and-relist and the Pro Integrations API

Vinted's UK Terms (from 30 April 2026) list these among things users must not do; the German, French (8 September 2025) and Polish (15 September 2025) versions carry matching clauses:

• External tools: "use any kind of external software tools (including but not limited to: bots, scraping programs, crawling programs, spiders) when registering on the Site and/or when using the Site and/or Services … unless such a use is authorised, offered or in any other way allowed by us". Promoting items and adding items to favourites are named as purposes.
• Scraping: "data mine, screen scrape, crawl, disassemble, decompile or reverse engineer any part of the Site".
• Relisting: "delete and re-list the same Item multiple times or multiple Items in bulk" (PL: "wielokrotnie usuwać i ponownie ogłaszać tego samego Przedmiotu lub wielu Przedmiotów w formie zbiorczej").
• Messages: "unsolicited or mass messages that are sent to 5 or more Users".

Sanctions run from a warning through "demote, hide or remove your Content" to temporary or permanent blocks, and Vinted "may sometimes use automated software or algorithms to detect" breaches. No durations are given for bot use.

The official route is narrow. Vinted Pro Integrations (Items API, Orders API, webhooks) "is available only to a limited set of allowlisted Vinted Pro businesses", and Vinted's Polish help page says Pro is not open to Polish businesses.

Clause-by-clause detail and enforcement claims sorted into official and unofficial are on Vinted bot and automation rules. For moving stock onto Vinted by hand, see how to crosslist to Vinted.

OLX: one listing per item, duplicates and automation signals

OLX.pl's Terms (effective 27 April 2026) are the one document here where our text search found no explicit bot or scraping clause. The rules that exist target what repost automation produces:

An auto-repost tool that ends listings and re-adds them creates duplicates inside the 14-day window by design. To get a listing seen again, Annex 2's Odświeżenie (refresh) moves it up as if newly added.

Decision rule: on OLX, edit or refresh a live listing; never end it and post the same item again within 14 days, by hand or by tool. The exact wording is in OLX refresh vs relist, and quotas are in the OLX reselling guide.

eBay: the bots clause (§8.2), duplicate listings and the API licence

eBay's US User Agreement, effective 28 June 2026 for existing users, prohibits using:

"any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or any automated means (including, without limitation buy-for-me agents, LLM-driven bots, or any end-to-end flow that attempts to place orders without human review) to access our Services for any purpose, except with the prior express permission of eBay"

In our summary, the same agreement lets sellers use translation, image-editing and generative-AI tools to create listings while staying responsible for accuracy. We read only the US version.

Duplicates (US policy): no more than one fixed price listing of an identical item at a time, across categories and usernames, and an "inconsequential bonus item" doesn't make listings different. Identical auctions without Buy It Now are the exception. Breaches can bring listing removal, warnings, restrictions or suspension.

The API License Agreement binds developers, and requires their apps to comply with the User Agreement too. What matters when you judge an API-based tool:

• Seller arbitrage: apps may not "promote or engage in seller arbitrage", for example "automatically ordering sold items from other third-party sites" or repricing eBay listings in response to other sites' prices.
• Price modelling: using eBay content to suggest or model eBay prices needs express written consent.
• Freshness and limits: displayed listing data may be at most 6 hours older than eBay's; exceeding call limits can mean suspension.
• AI training: eBay content may not train machine learning models or LLMs.

Decision rule: if an eBay tool reprices from other sites or orders stock from them automatically, ask how that fits the seller-arbitrage clause before connecting your account.

Depop: crosslisting tools explicitly allowed

Depop's Terms of Service, "Effective from 2 September 2026", say you "may simultaneously list your items for sale on other platforms and/or marketplaces … via third party cross-listing platforms" if you:

1. comply with the terms in full;
2. remove the item from Depop promptly if it sells elsewhere;
3. accept full responsibility if it sells on both, including refunding the buyer.

The same terms ban users who "mine data, scrape or crawl the Service … or use any bots or other third party software on the Service". The permission covers crosslisting platforms, not auto-offer or auto-follow bots bundled into the same subscription.

Decision rule: a crosslister on Depop is covered only while you meet all three conditions; check every other automation in the tool against the bots clause. Fees and boosts are in Depop fees for sellers.

Grailed and Poshmark: extensions and human review of each purchase

Grailed's terms ban robots, scrapers and "artificial intelligence or machine learning systems (including large language models)" used to collect data; automated offer, purchase or checkout tools "without direct human initiation and review of each transaction"; and "any applications, browser extensions, plugins, or third-party tools that interact with our Services without our prior written consent". Crosslisting isn't named, but an extension-based crosslister matches the last clause.

Poshmark's Community Guidelines don't "allow Poshers to use unauthorized programs or other forms of automation", naming "deleting and reposting content, liking, sharing, following, and unfollowing"; human helpers are allowed. Its Terms ban software that collects data and multiple accounts "to evade punishment or avoid restrictions".

Decision rule: on Grailed, no written consent means no extension; on Poshmark, keep sharing, following and reposting manual.

Mercari, Kleinanzeigen and Allegro

• Mercari (US) bans "any robot, spambot, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means or interface not provided by us to access the Service or to extract data". Crosslisting isn't addressed on that page.
• Kleinanzeigen (§5 Nr. 1) bans "Crawler, Spider, Scraper oder andere automatisierte Mechanismen" without express written consent, and allows at most two accounts per user, one private and one commercial. We read these terms through a summariser, which dated them 17 February 2024; check the live page.
• Allegro and Allegro Lokalnie: Allegro's current Terms returned an error when our research tried to read them, and the Lokalnie pages we read cover fees, not tools. No clause to quote is not a permission.

Decision rule: where no clause could be read, ask the marketplace's support in writing before you automate, and keep the reply.

Automated buying vs assisted checkout: control and security, not a rules exemption

Software that buys for you and software that takes you to checkout differ in who controls the order. The terms we read don't separate them. eBay names flows that place orders "without human review" and still requires permission for automated access in general. Grailed wants a person to start and review each transaction. Vinted's external-tools clause covers software used "when using the Site and/or Services" and sets no carve-out for buying. No clause we read exempts software running in your own logged-in session, so whether a marketplace permits it depends on its terms.

Control does change your exposure when something goes wrong. Ask any buying tool:

• Who presses pay: the software, or you after seeing the item and total?
• Does it store your marketplace password or payment details?
• Do you get screenshots or timestamps of what it did, for an appeal?

Decision rule: if a tool can pay without your click, it is the pattern eBay's clause names. If it stops before payment, the permission question still goes back to the marketplace's terms. Assisted checkout vs autobuy bots defines both models step by step.

Reading an automation tool's claims critically

On Vinted, one fact settles most claims: its API is open only to allowlisted Pro businesses, and none of Vendoo, List Perfectly, Flyp or Crosslist says it uses it. The crosslisting guide for European resellers compares what crosslisters say about Vinted support and regions.

A risk checklist before you install anything

Run it per marketplace the tool touches, not once per tool:

• Find the clause on bots, third-party tools or automated access, with its version and date
• Note the exception wording: authorised, express permission, written consent, or an interface the marketplace provides
• Ask the vendor which route it relies on and where the marketplace says so
• List everything the tool does without your click: publish, delete, relist, favourite, offer, message, buy
• Check those actions against the duplicate, relisting and messaging rules
• Confirm who presses pay, and whether your password or card details are stored
• Keep dated screenshots of settings and actions, and re-read the terms after updates such as Vinted's in October 2026

If a tool fails two or more checks for a marketplace, keep that marketplace manual.