Home → How to Evaluate Marketplace Fees
Online marketplace seller fees decide whether a sale is worth making — yet the headline percentage almost never equals what you actually pay. Here is the method we use behind every calculator on this site, in five steps.
The effective rate is total fees ÷ sale price, with every fixed per-order charge included. Example from the 2026 eBay schedule (13.6% + $0.40 per order): a $50 sale loses $7.20 — an effective 14.4%, not 13.6%. Run your real price through the fee comparison tool instead of trusting the sticker percentage.
Fixed per-order charges scale against you as price drops. The same eBay schedule takes 16.6% of a $10 sale vs 13.8% of a $250 sale. Platforms with flat-fee tiers behave even more sharply: Poshmark charges a flat $2.95 under $15 — that is 29.5% of a $10 item — but 20% above it.
eBay, Etsy and Amazon vary rates by category; several platforms add authentication, listing or payment-processing fees on top of the seller fee. Evaluate fees for your item's category, and re-check quarterly — schedules change several times a year. Every rate in our open fee dataset carries its official source link and review date.
The cheapest platform is not automatically the most profitable. A 0% fee with no buyers earns $0; a 15% fee on a marketplace that sells your item in a day can beat it. Evaluate expected profit per listing: fee rate × realistic sell-through, not fee rate alone.
Same item, same price, different platform. Effective seller fee and take-home on a $50 and a $250 sale, 2026 published rates (computed by the same in-browser engine as our calculators):
| Platform | Eff. fee @ $50 | You keep @ $50 | Eff. fee @ $250 | You keep @ $250 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vinted | 0% | $50.00 | 0% | $250.00 |
| Depop | 4.2% | $47.90 | 3.5% | $241.30 |
| Facebook Marketplace | 5% | $47.50 | 5% | $237.50 |
| TikTok Shop | 8% | $46.00 | 8% | $230.00 |
| Reverb | 9.2% | $45.42 | 8.4% | $229.04 |
| Mercari | 10% | $45.00 | 10% | $225.00 |
| Etsy | 10.4% | $44.80 | 9.7% | $225.80 |
| Grailed | 10.5% | $44.77 | 12.7% | $218.29 |
| Gumroad | 11% | $44.50 | 10.2% | $224.50 |
| Whatnot | 11.5% | $44.25 | 11% | $222.45 |
| StockX | 12% | $44.00 | 12% | $220.00 |
| OfferUp | 12.9% | $43.55 | 12.9% | $217.75 |
| eBay | 14.4% | $42.80 | 13.8% | $215.60 |
| Amazon | 15% | $42.50 | 15% | $212.50 |
| Walmart Marketplace | 15% | $42.50 | 15% | $212.50 |
| GOAT | 19.5% | $40.25 | 11.5% | $221.25 |
| Poshmark | 20% | $40.00 | 20% | $200.00 |
Seller-side fees only, US schedules; payment processors (Stripe/PayPal/Square) excluded. Many platforms vary fees by category and volume — verify against the official source before financial decisions.
The total fees divided by your sale price, including every per-order fixed charge. A 13.6% headline rate becomes 14.4% effective on a $50 eBay sale once the $0.40 per-order fee is added — and 16.6% on a $10 sale.
Because they hit small sales hardest. On eBay a $10 item loses 16.6% to fees while a $250 item loses 13.8%. If you sell low-priced items, the fixed fee — not the percentage — decides your margin.
No. Fees are one side of the equation; traffic is the other. Vinted charges sellers nothing but has a smaller US audience, while eBay costs the most and brings the most buyers. Compare expected profit per listing, not just fee rate.
Yes. eBay, Etsy and Amazon all vary rates by category, and many platforms add payment-processing or authentication fees on top. Always run your actual item's category and price through a calculator before deciding.
Several times a year across the industry, usually without individual notice to sellers. Re-check the rates behind your listings every quarter — our dataset shows the review date for every platform.