How the fee calculators are checked

On this page

Where the rates come from

Every rate, threshold and fixed charge is taken from the marketplace's own fee page or help article. Fee figures from third-party calculators, seller forums and news articles aren't used, even as a cross-check. When two of a marketplace's pages disagree, the calculator follows the newest policy and its page notes the difference.

How the math works

Money is counted in whole cents. Amounts are stored as integer cents and rates in basis points (hundredths of a percent), so there are no floating-point errors. Each fee line is computed exactly, then rounded to the nearest cent, with an exact half cent going up. eBay's own trading card example shows a fee of $1,054.545, which it charges as $1,054.55. The calculators give the same answer.

Sales tax is on the item and shipping. Where a fee depends on tax, the tax is your rate applied to the sale price and any buyer-paid shipping combined. Not every state taxes shipping, so in those states the calculators overstate the tax by a few cents and the fees that depend on it by less.

Payout leaves out the tax. The marketplace collects sales tax and pays it to the state, so it never reaches you. Payout is the item price plus buyer-paid shipping, minus fees. Profit is that payout less the label and the item's cost.

How the calculators are tested

Automated tests run each calculator against worked examples, including the ones the marketplaces publish themselves. Every fee boundary has a test on each side of it, such as eBay's $10.00 per-order threshold, the $150 athletic shoe rule, the edges of eBay's rate bands and Poshmark's $15 cutoff. The tests run on every change to the site's code or fee data.

When fees are rechecked

Each marketplace's fee pages are read again every quarter, and sooner whenever a platform announces a change. The check date on each calculator moves only after that review is done. When a fee does change, the calculator's rates and its tests are updated together, and the paid Reseller Profit Tracker spreadsheet is rebuilt from the same fee data and uploaded again, so it never falls behind the calculators.

When each marketplace was last checked

What the calculators don't cover

The tools are for US sellers on standard accounts. They leave out insertion and listing fees, cash-out and instant payment charges, temporary promotions, and any fee a marketplace charges outside a normal sale, such as penalties for late shipping or low seller ratings. They also don't cover income tax on your profit. Each calculator page lists anything else it skips for that marketplace.