What is left after an eBay sale
eBay is where commission actually moves the number. Where Vinted takes nothing from a private seller, the eBay cut depends on the category, on your seller status and on whether you run a shop — which is exactly why this calculator will not guess it on your behalf.
The calculation
Read your rate off the eBay fee schedule before you calculate: it varies by category, by whether you sell as a private individual or a business, and by the eBay site you sell on. A rate copied from a blog post stands a good chance of being out of date.
Amounts are in euros here. eBay bills in the currency of the site you sell on, so if that is not the euro, read the € signs as your own currency — the arithmetic is identical. We would rather leave the symbol alone than convert at a rate we cannot keep current, which is the same reason no fee percentage is printed on this page.
Why we print no rate here
Because it would change, and we would not know. A page showing a precise percentage for two years ends up costing money to the people who trusted it, and it does so in silence — nobody comes back to check a page that has already answered.
It is the same rule as everywhere else on this site: we do not write down a number we cannot keep current. What we can do is leave nothing out of the calculation once you have yours.
In practice, fetch three numbers from your seller account: the percentage applied to your category, the fixed fee per transaction, and any threshold above which the rate changes. All three take a minute to type in here.
Fixed fees, the trap on small amounts
A percentage is proportional: it takes the same share of a €10 item and of a €200 one. A fixed fee does not. It weighs more the cheaper the item is, and that is what makes eBay structurally wrong for everyday clothing.
| Sale price | Weight of a €0.35 fixed fee | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| €10 | 3.5% of the price | On top of the commission |
| €35 | 1.0% | Marginal |
| €200 | 0.2% | Negligible |
The amount used above is arbitrary: it is there to show the mechanism, nothing more. Put your own in — the conclusion does not move. The pricier the item, the less the eBay fee structure penalises you.
Find your threshold in the calculator: enter your commission and your fixed fee, then push the sale price up until the net profit becomes acceptable. That price is your floor on this platform.
Selling abroad: what it adds, what it complicates
This is the main draw of eBay and its main source of nasty surprises. A buyer in another country widens the market for a sought-after piece considerably; it also brings postage on a different scale from a domestic parcel, longer transit, and paperwork that varies with the destination.
- Postage weighs more than the commission on long-distance shipments. Put it in the calculator before you set your price, not after.
- Longer transit stretches disputes. A parcel that takes three weeks produces anxious messages and sometimes claims, even when nothing goes wrong.
- Paperwork varies with the destination. It costs the seller no money, but it costs time and attention.
The organising side is worked through in vendre sur eBay à l’international (in French). The calculator is for checking one simple thing before you commit: does the sale still pay once the real postage is in it?
What eBay gives back in exchange
An international audience, and whole categories a clothing app simply does not reach: spare parts, collectibles, technical gear, brands with no local market. On those items the commission gets paid without argument — the alternative is not a cheaper sale, it is no sale.
The choice of platform is made per family of product, not by preference. Which one takes which is set out in Vinted, Leboncoin ou eBay : où vendre (in French — it weighs eBay against the two French-market platforms).
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Read next: What is left after a Vinted sale · Estimating a resale price