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You sell a jacket on eBay for $50. The buyer pays $8 shipping and $4.06 sales tax, so $62.06 leaves their card. eBay’s fee isn’t 13.6% of $50. It’s 13.6% of $62.06, plus 40 cents.
That’s $8.84, not the $6.80 most new sellers pencil in. The tax goes to the state, the fee goes to eBay, and $49.16 lands with you. $8 of that is the postage you still have to buy.
Everything below is from eBay’s own selling fees page and store fees page, checked on 27 September 2026. Where a number comes from somewhere else, we say so.
The final value fee: 13.6% of everything the buyer paid
eBay charges a final value fee on each completed sale. For most categories it’s 13.6% of the total up to $7,500 per item, then 2.35% on anything above that. On top of that there’s a per-order fee: 30 cents if the order is $10 or under, 40 cents if it’s over.
“Total” is the word that costs people money. eBay’s own wording is that the fee applies to “the item price, any handling charges, any shipping costs collected from the buyer” and “sales tax”. You don’t receive the sales tax. eBay collects it and remits it. You still pay 13.6% on it.
A seller on eBay’s forum asked the obvious question this spring, why the fee includes shipping and tax at all. The mentor’s answer was history: when shipping was exempt, people listed $1 items with $30 postage. eBay closed that door, and it’s stayed shut.
Some categories are different, and the differences go both ways:
| Category | Final value fee |
|---|---|
| Most categories | 13.6% up to $7,500, then 2.35% |
| Books, movies, music | 15.3% up to $7,500 |
| Jewellery and watches | 15% up to $5,000, then 9% |
| Women’s handbags | 15% up to $2,000, then 9% |
| Trading cards, comics, coins | 13.25% up to $7,500 |
| Guitars and basses | 6.7% up to $7,500 |
| Athletic shoes listed at $150 or more | 8%, no per-order fee |
| Heavy equipment | 3% up to $15,000, then 0.5% |
Check the category eBay actually assigned to your listing. Two sellers with the same product can pay different rates because one picked “Collectibles” and the other picked “Toys”.
What you pay before anything sells
Listing is free for the first 250 listings a month. After that, 35 cents each. Auctions and fixed-price both count.
If you list more than 250 a month, a Store subscription is cheaper than paying insertion fees, and it cuts the final value fee too. Basic, Premium, Anchor and Enterprise subscribers pay 12.7% instead of 13.6% on most categories, up to $2,500 per item.
| Store tier | Monthly (billed yearly) | Free fixed-price listings |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $4.95 | 250 |
| Basic | $21.95 | 1,000 |
| Premium | $59.95 | 10,000 |
| Anchor | $299.95 | 25,000 |
Starter doesn’t get the lower fee rate. Basic does. On $3,000 of monthly sales, the 0.9 point difference is $27, which is more than Basic costs.
The fees that show up later
Payment disputes. If a buyer’s bank reverses a payment and eBay finds you responsible, it’s $20 per dispute. Tracking that shows delivery is the defence.
International buyers. If the delivery or registered address is outside the US and you’re not using eBay International Shipping, add 1.65% of the total.
Promoted Listings. Optional. You set an ad rate as a percentage of the sale and pay it only when a promoted click leads to a purchase. There’s no fixed rate to quote because you pick it. eBay’s suggested rate is a suggestion, and it’s rarely the low end.
Top Rated Plus. Not a fee, a discount. Sellers who hold Top Rated status and offer same-day or one-day handling with 30-day free returns get 10% off the final value fee on those listings. On the $50 jacket that’s 84 cents back. The requirements are strict, which is why not everyone has it.
The worked example, three ways
Same $50 jacket, $8 shipping charged to the buyer, $4.06 tax.
| No store | Basic store | Basic store, Top Rated Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee base | $62.06 | $62.06 | $62.06 |
| Final value fee | 13.6% = $8.44 | 12.7% = $7.88 | $7.88 less 10% = $7.09 |
| Per-order fee | $0.40 | $0.40 | $0.40 |
| Total eBay fee | $8.84 | $8.28 | $7.49 |
| You keep (before postage; tax goes to the state) | $49.16 | $49.72 | $50.51 |
Postage on an $8-shipping jacket is usually $6 to $9, so the real margin question is the label, not the fee.
Where the money question turns into a stock question
Most people reading this don’t sell on eBay alone. They sell the jacket on eBay and on Etsy, or eBay and a Shopify store, and the fee on each is easy compared to the count. eBay doesn’t tell us the moment something sells; we check every two minutes, and the other shops hear about it within seconds of that. It’s slower than Shopify’s instant webhook, and it still means the jacket comes off the other shelf before a second buyer gets to checkout.
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The short version
- 13.6% of the total the buyer paid, tax and shipping included, plus 40 cents an order.
- 250 free listings a month, 35 cents each after that.
- A Basic store or higher drops the rate to 12.7% and is worth it past about $3,000 a month.
- $20 per lost payment dispute, 1.65% extra on overseas buyers.
- Top Rated Plus gives 10% off the fee on qualifying listings.
If eBay is one of several places you sell, we keep the stock count matched across all of them. Start 14-day trial, no credit card.