If you're making or collecting ACEO art cards, you have more platform options in 2026 than at any point in the format's 20-year history. The problem is most of them take a meaningful cut of every sale. On art that typically sells between $5 and $30, fees matter more than almost any other category.
Here's the honest breakdown.
eBay. The Original. Still the Biggest. Still Expensive.
eBay is where Lisa Luree coined the term ACEO in 2004. It's still the largest marketplace for art cards, with over 13,000 active listings in the ACEO Art Paintings category alone.
The reach is real. Hundreds of millions of active buyers. If you list it, someone might find it.
The fees are steep. eBay charges a 12.7% final value fee on art category sales (increased from 12.35% in February 2025), plus a $0.30 to $0.40 per-order fee. For a $20 ACEO, that's roughly $2.94 gone before you ship anything.
The bigger problem is discovery. eBay has no curation for ACEOs. No community. No events. You're listing into a sea of 13,000 other cards and hoping someone types the right search term. The platform treats a $15 hand-painted watercolor the same as a $15 phone case. There's no context for what makes the art special.
For buyers, eBay's protection is solid. For artists, 12.7% on a $15 sale is $1.91 you'll never see.
Etsy. The Fee Stack Nobody Reads.
Etsy is the second biggest destination for ACEOs. The audience skews toward handmade and original work, which is right for the format.
The fee structure is where it falls apart.
Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee on every sale, including shipping. Add the $0.20 listing fee per item (renewed every four months whether it sells or not). Add the 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. That's already roughly 10% + $0.45 per sale before you've done anything wrong.
Then there's the offsite ads trap. If your shop earns under $10,000 a year, Etsy may run offsite ads for your listings and charge you 15% of the sale if someone clicks one. You can opt out. But if your shop crosses $10,000 in annual revenue, offsite ads become mandatory at 12% per attributed sale. You cannot turn them off. Ever.
For a typical ACEO artist doing steady volume, the effective take rate lands between 13% and 25% depending on whether offsite ads hit. On a $25 ACEO, you could lose $3 to $6 in fees.
Etsy's search algorithm also increasingly favors shops that pay for promoted listings. Organic visibility gets harder every year. The platform works, but it's expensive and getting more expensive.
TinyGallery. Built for ACEOs. 12% Fee.
TinyGallery.io is the most interesting new entrant. It's built specifically for the 2.5 x 3.5 format. Handmade originals only. No prints. No mass-produced cards.
The platform has two tiers. The free tier charges a 12% platform fee per sale, plus card processing fees passed to the buyer at checkout. The Pro tier drops the platform fee to 3% but costs $10 a month. Pro also adds a customizable portfolio tab that functions like a Linktree for commissions and social links.
TinyGallery has a sealed offers feature where buyers submit private bids during a set window. When time expires, the seller reviews all offers at once and picks a winner. It's a clever alternative to public auctions that eliminates last-second sniping.
The problem is scale. TinyGallery describes itself as "brand new" and is still building its seller and buyer base. A purpose-built ACEO marketplace is exactly what the community needs. But a marketplace without buyers is a gallery with no visitors. Artists listing on TinyGallery today are betting on the platform's future, not its present.
At 12% on the free tier, TinyGallery is roughly the same cost as eBay but with a fraction of the audience. The Pro tier at 3% + $10/month makes sense only if you're selling consistently enough that the subscription pays for itself.
Worth watching. Not yet worth relying on as your primary sales channel.
ACEOriginals. A Listing Board, Not a Marketplace.
ACEOriginals.com is a dedicated ACEO platform that lets artists post listings with one to three images. When a buyer shows interest, the site connects them with the artist's contact info. The artist and buyer arrange payment directly, off-platform.
ACEOriginals claims artists keep every dollar they earn. That's technically true because the site doesn't process any transactions. There's no cart. No checkout. No payment processing. It's a classified ad board for ACEOs.
That model has a fundamental limitation. Every sale requires manual back-and-forth between buyer and seller. No buyer protection. No dispute resolution. No shipping integration. For casual browsers used to one-click purchasing, the friction is a dealbreaker.
Good concept for connecting artists with collectors who already know what they want. Not a replacement for a marketplace with actual transaction infrastructure.
Nerdworth. Zero Fees. Largest ACEO Artist Database.
Full disclosure. Nerdworth is ours. Built by Nerdbeak. So take this section knowing where it comes from.
Artists list on Nerdworth for free. No listing fees. No final value fees. No transaction fees. Zero. The artist keeps what the collector pays.
Nerdworth has the largest database of ACEO artists and art card listings of any dedicated platform. The marketplace runs themed auction events where artists submit original pieces, collectors bid, and the community decides the price.
The trade-off is scale. Nerdworth doesn't have eBay's 130 million buyers or Etsy's search traffic. What it has is a focused collector community and a growing artist roster that keeps coming back because nobody takes a cut.
For artists, zero fees means a $20 sale is $20. On eBay, that same sale is roughly $17. On Etsy, $16 to $17. On TinyGallery's free tier, $17.60. Over a year of consistent selling, that gap compounds fast.
The Fee Math
Here's what a $25 ACEO sale looks like across platforms after fees:
eBay: $25 minus 12.7% ($3.18) minus $0.40 per-order fee = $21.42
Etsy: $25 minus 6.5% ($1.63) minus $0.20 listing fee minus 3% + $0.25 processing ($1.00) = $22.12 (before offsite ads hit)
TinyGallery (Free): $25 minus 12% ($3.00) = $22.00
TinyGallery (Pro): $25 minus 3% ($0.75) = $24.25 (minus $10/month subscription)
Nerdworth: $25 minus $0 = $25.00
Over 100 sales at $25 each, that's $358 in eBay fees, $288 in Etsy fees, $300 on TinyGallery Free, or $0 on Nerdworth.
Where the Community Lives
The ACEO community isn't centralized on any single platform. Artists and collectors spread across eBay groups, Etsy teams, DeviantArt communities (ACEO-ATC-ART, AceoPlanet, ACEO-Addict), Instagram hashtags, TikTok, and Discord servers.
The format is growing on TikTok. Artists post creation videos and sell through link-in-bio shops. The 2.5 x 3.5 format is perfect for short-form video. Small canvas. Fast painting. Satisfying result.
Instagram remains the strongest social platform for ACEO artists building a following. Collectors DM artists directly for commissions and first access to new pieces.
Pick Your Platform Based on What You Need
If you want maximum reach and can absorb the fees, eBay is still the default.
If you want a handmade-friendly audience and can navigate the fee stack, Etsy works.
If you want a dedicated ACEO platform and are willing to bet on an early-stage marketplace, TinyGallery is worth trying.
If you want zero fees and the largest dedicated ACEO artist community, list on Nerdworth.
Most serious ACEO artists list on multiple platforms. There's no exclusivity requirement anywhere. Put your work where the buyers are and let the market tell you what works.
The format is 20 years old and still growing. The platforms are finally catching up to what the community has been doing all along.
