Promoting trust in the fetish community since 2001. Figures, sources, dates.
Selling used panties is a posting problem before it is a selling problem. Three different rules, and each one asks a different question. The post asks: does anything smell through the parcel? The selling sites ask: how did you word the advert? And for body material the question is: what are you sending it for? Most advice online mixes the three up. Below you get every rule in its own words, and two things you do not need to buy.
This page is about the United States only. German and British law are not covered here.Read it once and the whole thing looks different. The rule is about the state of the parcel, not about what is in it. It never mentions worn underwear, and it does not need to. A sealed parcel that gives off nothing may be posted. An open one that stinks on the sorting belt may not — whatever is inside.
USPS Publication 52 § 451.2, non-mailable matter, odour provision. Checked
The rule, word for word
USPS Publication 52 § 451.2
“Any matter that is a source of an obnoxious odor is nonmailable.”
In plain words: forbidden is that the smell comes out — not the goods themselves. Every word of that sentence is about the state of the parcel. “A source of a bad smell” means something is getting out into the post. It does not name a type of product. That is why there is no list of banned garments to argue about.
Primary text, quoted in full. Checked
What follows from it
Everything else a seller buys makes the work easier, faster or prettier. A sealer does something else: it stops the smell getting out, and that is exactly what the rule is about. So it is the only purchase on this site that a rule really asks for.
Derived from § 451.2. Our reading of the provision, not a postal instruction. Our maths
What people say
The US post demands vacuum bags for worn items
What is true
The rule says nothing about vacuum bags
We suggest a sealer on this very page, so the correction goes right next to it and not somewhere further down. What the rule asks for is one thing only: no smell getting out. Sealing is one way to manage that. “The post office demands vacuum bags” is not in the text, and nobody should claim it.
USPS Pub 52 § 451, read in full. Checked
Not a ranked list of shops. The site rules themselves, quoted — including the one permission nobody expects.
Six words in eBay’s list of banned items. They make bras the one thing worn on the body that a big, normal site lets you sell. Nobody found a loophole here. eBay sorted bras that way itself, in writing.
eBay, prohibited and restricted items policy. Checked
“language or images that fetishize the item”
eBay, same policy — prohibited
So what you are allowed to do is sell a bra. Write in the advert how long you wore it, and the same rulebook stops you — two paragraphs below the line that just let you post it. One rulebook, two rules, and people almost always quote only one of them.
eBay, prohibited and restricted items policy. Checked
“Used under garments are prohibited”
CCBill, prohibited products
Plain and final. No case-by-case, no exception. Worth knowing, because this rule is not linked anywhere you would look. It sits with the payment company, not in the seller rules of a shop. That is why sellers only meet it once a buyer claims their money back — never before they post the advert.
CCBill, prohibited products list. Checked
Where to sell used panties — what is allowed where
| What you sell | Big, normal selling sites | The post | Written down in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worn panties | Prohibited | Smell rule applies | CCBill; eBay; Poshmark; Mercari; Etsy |
| Socks | Prohibited | Smell rule applies | eBay names socks outright |
| Tights | No site rule mentions them | Smell rule applies | no site rule found |
| Shoes | Not counted as underwear | Smell rule applies | CCBill’s wording leaves them out |
| Sportswear | Not mentioned by name | Smell rule applies | no clear ban found |
| Bras | eBay allows it | Smell rule applies | eBay: “bras are not considered underwear” |
| Hair | Nobody bans it | No problem here | 49 CFR 173.134 does not apply |
| Nails | Nobody bans it | No problem here | 49 CFR 173.134 does not apply |
| Urine | Prohibited | A crime in 12 states or more | state laws; see the wording finding |
| Menstrual blood | Prohibited | In practice you cannot post it | OSHA bloodborne classification |
| Faeces | Prohibited | Up to 5 years in prison | 18 U.S.C. § 1461, “filthy or vile” |
← swipe the table sideways →
Every box in this table points to a named document in the source list below. Where no rule exists, the box says so instead of guessing. Checked
Not “is it banned?”. The question is what you are sending it for — and a fetish sale gives the wrong answer all four times.
It is the story you hear most often in this market: write “medical sample” on the parcel and the strict rules for dangerous goods go easy on you. But it comes down to what you are sending it for. The rule lists four purposes, and only those four count.
The four purposes that count — and where a fetish parcel stands on each
For research or for a diagnosis, yes. For a fetish sale, no. A fetish parcel matches none of the four, so there is no exception for you to claim.
49 CFR 173.134, “patient specimen” definition. The four purposes are quoted from the regulation; the verdict is our application of them. Checked
18 U.S.C. § 1461; OSHA bloodborne pathogens classification; state statutes. Checked
These laws only bite if you mean to help someone cheat a drug test. A fetish sale does not mean that — until the advert says it. These are the words that say it:
“clean” “drug-free” “passes tests”
The goods did not change at all. The advert changed, and with it what the sale is for. Here, the safest advert is the one that says the least.
Summary of the relevant statutes: all require deceptive intent regarding drug testing. Stated as a summary, not per-statute — see the weakness note in the page memo. Checked
This is the US law that makes you keep ID copies for clearly sexual pictures. It is the law people here worry about most, and mostly for nothing: what it covers is a short, fixed list.
You only have to keep ID copies for pictures that show real sexual acts. The law spells out what that means. It covers:
18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A). Checked
And what it does not cover
Anything outside that list needs no ID copies, nobody to keep them and no address where they are kept. And that covers almost everything the sellers reading this page actually do.
18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A), by exclusion. Checked
What people say
The ID-copy law covers everything for adults
It does not cover foot pictures
18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A): anus, genitals, pubic area, intercourse, masturbation. Breasts no. Feet no. Clothed no. Checked
The three rules, side by side
Most bad advice online is the answer to one of these three questions, given to one of the other two.
Our framing of the three cited norms. Our maths
One price, no weight steps — and two things the numbers say you should not buy.
$6.93 to post one parcel through Click-N-Ship — the same price whether it weighs 4 ounces or a whole pound. That has been true since 12 July 2026. There is no weight step you could aim for. That is why a letter scale saves you nothing, and why the packaging you pick barely moves the total.
USPS Notice 123, Commercial rates, effective 12.07.2026. Checked
The number people pass around
$7.90 to post a parcel under 1 lb
The number that applies
$6.93 — the price over Click-N-Ship
$7.90 is the counter price — what you pay standing at the post office window. $6.93 is what you pay when you buy the label online through Click-N-Ship, which is how these parcels actually go. That is 97 cents too much on every parcel, and always in the same direction: you price a loss into every sale.
USPS Notice 123 — Retail vs. Commercial rates. Checked
What the packaging costs
Of the $7.14 one parcel costs you, the packaging is 21 cents. Saving on that is a side show: the postage is 97 % of the cost, and the price list decides it, not you.
$7.14 − $6.93 = $0.21. Checked
What you have to charge
What you must charge to break even, if the site keeps 0 / 15 / 40 % of it. Of the $7.14 per parcel, $6.93 is postage and 21 cents is packaging. Checked
Do not buy these two
Over Click-N-Ship there is one single price from 4 ounces up to just under a pound. Weighing your parcel more exactly cannot push it into a cheaper group, because under 1 lb there are no groups.
You save $0.00 — not “a little”, not “it depends”. Nothing, and that will not change.
It starts paying for itself at 2,825 parcels. One person can only wear so much — 10 to 30 items a month is the limit — so that is 7.8 to 23.5 years of selling without a break.
It is not a bad deal. It is one you will never reach: it pays off later than anyone keeps doing this.
Derived from USPS Notice 123 and the 10–30 items/month body limit. Checked
This order comes out of the rules above. It is not somebody’s tip.
Not on the big, normal selling sites, if it is panties or socks — eBay, Poshmark, Mercari and Etsy all ban them. And because CCBill blocks these goods at the card level, your way of getting paid can close behind you even when the advert itself stays up.
The one exception on a big site is a bra on eBay, sold plainly, with nothing in the text about having worn it. Everything else goes to a fetish site. That turns it into a question about getting paid rather than about posting — “Getting paid” covers where the money disappears.
Get the state right: nothing gets out. A sealed bag inside a mailer you cannot see through does that, and the rule says nothing about how you manage it.
Say it that way to buyers too. “Vacuum sealed” describes what you did. “The post office requires vacuum sealing” is a claim about the rule — and the rule does not say that.
A real parcel needs an address on the back, and that is the one detail about you this page gives away. That makes it a question about who can find you, not about posting — “Who can find you” sorts these details by whether you can change them. This one you can.
Posting a garment shows nothing, so the ID-copy law never comes in through the parcel. It comes in through photos, and only those showing what the law lists — anus, genitals, pubic area, sex, masturbation.
A photo of the item itself is outside that, whether you wore it or not, and whether someone has clothes on or the garment is shown empty.
For body material there is no way to do it as a private person. The US post wants written permission on the letterhead of a proper institution, and even the samples that are allowed only travel “between eligible institutions”. As a private individual you have no legal route abroad for that kind of thing.
For clothing, the smell rule goes with the parcel. What the destination country allows to come in is not covered on this page.
Everything people sell turns up under every question. This page answered one of five.