Fee methodology & sources

For any sale we first work out the gross: the item price plus buyer-paid shipping, excluding buyer tax. This total is not always seller income: with standard prepaid-label flows on Whatnot, Mercari, Vinted and Poshmark, the platform handles the buyer’s label payment and that shipping does not reach the seller. Percentage fees that scale with the sale — final value, transaction, payment processing, regulatory operating, and cross-border fees — use the base specified by that platform’s model. Buyer tax is excluded from your proceeds, but is included in a fee base when the modeled fee charges on it. Where a platform’s percentage is banded — eBay’s final value fee, for example, is 13.6% on the portion of the sale up to $7,500 and 2.35% on the portion above it — each band is charged only on the part of the sale that falls inside it, so the effective rate drops on high-value sales. Where a platform charges its selling fee on the item price only (as Whatnot does), that is how we compute it, and the receipt line shows the exact base used. The thresholds in a whole-sale schedule instead select a rate for the entire fee base, as with eBay Bullion and Amazon clothing. Advertising uses the platform’s stated base: eBay includes item price, buyer-paid shipping and buyer tax; Etsy Offsite Ads and Depop boosted listings include item price and seller-arranged shipping, with Etsy Offsite Ads capped at $100. Other optional ad rates use the item price. Tiered commissions such as Poshmark’s apply to the item price. Any modeled minimum and maximum fees are enforced after the percentage is calculated.

Each fee is calculated and rounded to the cent on its own line, then the rounded lines are added up to get total fees. Rounding per component, rather than once at the end, is the rounding convention used by this model and prevents tiny floating-point errors from stacking up. Platforms may use different invoice conventions. Net payout is gross minus total fees, buyer-paid shipping remitted to the platform, and any seller-paid shipping deducted from payout. Profit then subtracts item cost and shipping paid separately. Shipping already deducted from payout is counted only once, so it is not subtracted again when calculating profit. The receipt shows shipping deductions separately from platform fees.

The reverse solver (“price to net an amount”) searches the price ranges separated by fee thresholds, minimums and caps. It checks candidate prices against the rounded calculation and returns a supported cent price within one cent of your target payout. If the target cannot be reached within that tolerance, the calculator says so explicitly.

Comparison tables include only schedules marked source-checked and never mix currencies. They apply one item amount, while setting buyer-paid shipping, seller shipping cost, item cost, advertising, and cross-border surcharges to zero unless you enter shipping on the interactive comparison.

Each product retains its own default category, plan, sale type, and payment method. Buyer-paid shipping follows that model too: with a platform-provided label, its payment may fund shipping rather than reach the seller. The resulting order compares modeled seller deductions only. It is not a like-for-like service ranking: a payment processor, marketplace, and commerce platform provide different audiences, tools, protections, and fulfilment services. Buyer-paid fees, taxes, subscriptions, negotiated rates, and promotions may also sit outside the snapshot.