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Asking for a Lower Price on Mercari: Price Requests, Comments and Mercari Shops
On Mercari you can ask a seller for a lower price with the price request button or a comment, but Mercari Shops items have no price request button. Here are the differences and what to keep in mind.
Written by Koetsu Co., Ltd.
On Mercari you can ask a seller to lower the price of an item you want. The tools available, however, differ between personal listings and Mercari Shops items. Based on Mercari's help pages, this guide compares the price request button, comments and enquiries to shops.
The price request button
According to Mercari Help, a buyer taps the price request button on the item page, enters the price they would like, and taps the button to send the request to the seller.
The seller can choose to sell or not to sell. If they choose to sell, a price change screen opens and the seller changes the price.
Note that acceptance does not reserve the item for you. Mercari Help states that other buyers can also purchase an item after a price request is accepted, and the item is removed from your to-do list if it is not bought within 24 hours of acceptance. When you are notified, decide promptly whether to buy.
When the button does not appear
- Items priced at ¥300 or less
- Mercari Shops items
- Sold-out items
- Items listed in auction format
Mercari Help says the price request button does not appear for the items listed above. If you cannot find the button, first check whether the item falls into one of these groups.
Asking in the comments
On personal listings, some buyers ask for a lower price in the comments. Mercari's help page on changing and negotiating prices explains that such requests may arrive as comments and that whether to accept them is up to the seller.
The same page advises sellers to decline if they cannot agree. Keep your request short, and accept a refusal without pressing further. Prices also cannot be changed after an item has sold.
Mercari Shops
Mercari Shops items do not show the price request button. According to Mercari Help, Shops also has no comment feature; instead you contact the shop one-to-one, for example with "Ask about this item" on the listing. Items from Loop KOBE, the shop we run, are Mercari Shops items and work the same way.
Some shops offer coupons instead. We explain how they work in "Mercari Shops Coupon vs Mercari Coupon".
Buying from overseas through a proxy
If you buy from outside Japan through a proxy service, whether you can ask for a lower price depends on how that service works, so check with them first. We compare proxies and forwarding services in "Japan Proxy Shopping vs Package Forwarding".
This article was edited by Koetsu Co., Ltd. after checking Mercari's help pages on 1 October 2026. Features and screens can change, so rely on the app and the latest help pages.
