How the result is calculated
eBay's main charge is the final value fee, taken when an item sells. It is a percentage, set by category, of what eBay calls the total amount of the sale: the item price, the postage the buyer pays and, on the sites that add it at checkout, the sales tax or VAT. Many categories charge a lower rate above a threshold, so a $9,500 trading card pays 13.25% on the first $7,500 and 2.35% on the rest, the way income tax bands work.
On top of the percentage comes a per-order fee, a fixed amount that is usually higher once the order passes a small threshold. Then there are fees that apply only to some sales: an international fee when the buyer is outside the site's country, a promoted listing fee at the ad rate you chose when an advert led to the sale, and on some European sites a regulatory operating fee of a fraction of a percent on every sale.
Final value feesum over tiers of rate × slice of T
Feesfinal value fee + f + T × (i + g + a)
Profititem price + postage charged − fees − your costs
- T
- the total sale: item price, postage charged and tax added at checkout
- tiers
- the category's rates, each charged on the slice of T inside its band
- f
- the per-order fee for an order of that total
- i
- the international fee for the buyer's region, when the buyer is abroad
- g
- the regulatory operating fee, on the sites that charge one
- a
- your promoted listing ad rate, when an ad led to the sale
The sales tax is part of the base but not of your revenue: eBay collects it and passes it to the tax authority, yet still charges its percentage on it.
Worked example
The calculator opens on a $50 item in the most common category on ebay.com, with $8 postage, sold without a promoted listing to a buyer in the US by a seller with no eBay Store.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Total sale | $58.00 | 50 + 8, no sales tax entered |
| Final value fee | $7.89 | 13.6% × 58 |
| Per-order fee | $0.40 | the order is over $10 |
| Total eBay fees | $8.29 | 14.3% of the $58 you receive |
| Your costs | $28.00 | 20 for the item, 8 for postage |
| Profit | $21.71 | 58 − 8.29 − 28 |
The same sale on ebay.co.uk depends on who is selling. A business seller pays the category rate, the regulatory operating fee and the per-order fee; a private seller in Britain pays nothing on a domestic sale.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee | £12.90 | 12.9% × 100 |
| Regulatory operating fee | £0.35 | 0.35% × 100 |
| Per-order fee | £0.40 | the order is over £10 |
| Total eBay fees | £13.65 | a private seller would pay £0 |
Reading the result
The headline is everything eBay takes from the sale, with its share of the price and postage you receive. The tiles give the profit, the margin on that revenue and your own costs, and the chart shows how the sale splits between the three. Each fee in the breakdown has its own working: the category rate and the slice it was charged on, the per-order band the order fell into, and the rate behind any international or promoted fee.
A negative profit is shown as a warning, and so is postage that costs you more than the buyer pays for it, because eBay's fee on the postage charge comes out of the gap as well.
What changes the result
The category
Rates vary more by category than by anything else you control. On ebay.com most items pay 13.6%, books and music 15.3%, guitars 6.7%, heavy equipment 3%. On ebay.co.uk phones and laptops pay 6.9% up to £1,000 while jewellery pays 14.9%. Check which category your listing sits in before comparing.
Who you are and where the buyer is
The seller type matters on the British, German, French and Australian sites, where private or small sellers pay nothing on domestic sales. On the Irish, Dutch and Spanish sites private sellers still pay a final value fee, with a lower per-order fee on small orders. A buyer abroad adds the international fee, which on the euro sites is zero for a buyer in the euro area or Sweden and 3.3% for one outside Europe and North America.
Promotion
A promoted listing fee is a percentage of the same total, so a 10% ad rate on an ebay.com sale in most categories adds three quarters to the fee. Enter it only for the sales the ad actually produced.
What is not included
The calculator uses each site's rates for sellers without an eBay Store. A Store subscription lowers the final value fee in many categories but has a monthly cost, and Australia's paid Pro plans work the same way; neither is modelled. Insertion fees beyond your free listings, listing upgrades and vehicle categories are left out, as are the surcharges eBay adds for sellers rated Below Standard. A few categories switch rate for the whole sale above a price rather than for the slice above it, such as sneakers on the American and German sites, and they are not offered rather than approximated.
Business sellers in Britain and the EU pay VAT on eBay's fees, which they can usually reclaim; the figures here are before that tax. The buyer protection fee some sites charge private sellers' buyers is paid by the buyer and does not reduce your proceeds.
Using the result
Use the fee share to set prices. On ebay.com a sale that loses 14% to fees needs a price about a sixth above the money you want to keep, before your own costs. Compare the margin with what you would keep on another channel: the Etsy and Amazon calculators on this site work the same way, and the margin calculator turns a target margin into a price.
Watch the per-order fee on cheap items, where it can cost more than the percentage, and check whether free postage or a postage charge works out better in your category: both are inside the total eBay charges on. When eBay changes its fees, the rates here change with them; the date each schedule was last checked is under every fee's working.