eBay and Etsy are both marketplaces, both well established, and both regularly grouped together by beginners deciding where to sell — but they're built for genuinely different kinds of products and shoppers.
eBay is a general marketplace that supports almost any product category, both new and used, sold at a fixed price or through auction-style listings. It has a long history and a broad shopper base looking for a wide range of items, from everyday products to collectibles and hard-to-find parts. eBay tends to suit sellers with varied inventory, including used, refurbished, or niche items that wouldn't necessarily fit a more specialised platform.
Etsy is specifically positioned around handmade items, craft supplies, vintage goods (typically 20+ years old), and print-on-demand products. Its shopper base is actively looking for that kind of product, which means a generic mass-manufactured item is a much harder sell on Etsy than it would be on eBay or Amazon. Etsy also has its own seller policies specifically defining what counts as handmade or vintage, which sellers need to genuinely meet, not just claim.
The honest starting question isn't "which platform is better" — it's "which platform's shoppers are actually looking for what I sell." A handmade or vintage product will generally find a more receptive audience on Etsy. A broader range of new, used or niche products, sold at competitive prices, tends to fit eBay's audience better. Some sellers eventually list on both, once they understand how each platform's audience responds to their specific products.