The two fees every seller pays
Ignore the long fee schedule for a second. For 95% of resellers, an eBay sale costs you exactly two things:
- Final value fee — a percentage of the total sale amount: item price + shipping charged to the buyer + sales tax. On most categories this is 13.6% on the portion up to $7,500 (up from 13.25% before eBay's February 2025 fee update).
- Per-order fee — $0.30 on orders of $10 or less, $0.40 on orders above $10.
There is no separate payment-processing fee anymore — since eBay moved to Managed Payments, processing is baked into the final value fee. That makes eBay simpler to model than platforms that stack multiple fees.
Category exceptions that actually matter
| Category | Final value fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Most categories (clothing, electronics, toys…) | 13.6% | + $0.30-$0.40 per order |
| Sneakers over $150 | 8% | No per-order fee — one of the best deals in reselling |
| Guitars & basses | 6.7% | Lowest standard rate on the platform |
| Trading cards | ~13.25% | Standard envelope shipping available cuts costs |
| Jewelry & watches | 15%, then 9% above $5,000 | Fee drops on the amount above the threshold |
| Books, movies & music | 15.3% | Higher than average — price accordingly |
Worked example: a $120 jacket
You flip a vintage jacket: bought for $45 at a thrift store, sold for $120 + $9 shipping charged to the buyer.
- Total sale amount: $129.00
- Final value fee (13.6%): −$17.54
- Per-order fee (order over $10): −$0.40
- Actual shipping label: −$9.50
- Item cost: −$45.00
Net profit: $56.56 — a 44% net margin and a 126% return on the $45 you invested. That is a good flip. Notice the fee was calculated on $129, not $120: charging the buyer for shipping does not shelter you from fees.
Want to run your own numbers? Use our free eBay fees & profit calculator — it handles the percentage, the fixed fee and ROI in one screen.
The fees people forget to count
- Promoted Listings — the “suggested” ad rate is often 10%+. On a 13.6% base fee, promoting at 10% means eBay takes nearly a quarter of your sale. Set your own rate; 2–4% is enough in most niches.
- Returns — on “free returns” you refund the sale but still paid outbound shipping; budget 2–5% of revenue depending on category.
- International fee — an extra 1.65% when the buyer is outside your registered country.
So is eBay expensive?
Compared with its US competitors, eBay sits in the middle: Poshmark takes a flat 20%, Mercari re-introduced selling fees around 10% + payment processing, and Depop charges 10% + payment fees. Vinted famously charges sellers 0% — buyers pay the protection fee instead — but its US catalog is fashion-only. If you sell across several of these, the fee structures are different enough that gut feeling will mislead you: calculate your real margin per platform instead.