A product that sells well can still lose money once eBay's fees, postage and your costs are added up. The Fee Calculator works it out before you list, and it's free, even without an account.
The eBay Fees tab
- Pick the marketplace and category. Fees differ by category.
- Enter the sale price and the postage you charge the buyer, then your costs: item cost, your actual postage cost and anything else (packaging, for example).
- Add a Promoted Listings rate if you advertise, your shop subscription discount if you have one, and whether you're VAT-registered.
You'll see each fee (final value fee, fixed per-order fee, regulatory and international fees, VAT on fees), your net profit, margin and break-even price.
Switch to I know my target margin to work backwards: enter the margin you want and get the price you need to charge. Compare across markets runs the same sum for all eight supported eBay sites (UK, US, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Canada) and ranks them by margin.
Logged in, you can paste a listing link into Check fees by Item ID to fill in its price, and save your usual target margin as a default.
PayPal and Shipping tabs
The PayPal Fees tab works out PayPal's fee for money you receive outside eBay (your own website or direct invoices, for example), since eBay sales themselves go through eBay's own payments. The Shipping tab compares carrier label prices: USPS Flat Rate boxes in the US, and Royal Mail starting prices in the UK.
Good habits
- Price against the average selling price you saw in Search, not the highest one.
- Leave room: aim for a margin that survives a competitor dropping their price by 10%.
- Include returns. Even a few percent of returns changes thin margins.
Fee rates are kept in line with eBay's published fee pages, but some niche subcategories have special rates the calculator rounds to their parent category, and eBay Australia's free selling plan for small sellers isn't included. For a big order, confirm the rate on eBay's own fee page.