Notes on fees, comps, and the math of resale
Long-form guides for buyers and resellers: how marketplace fees actually stack, how to read sold comps, and how to turn sourcing into a repeatable system.
eBay fee calculator: what sellers actually pay in 2026
eBay's fee schedule is three separate charges stacked on the same sale. Most sellers quote the headline percentage and lose the rest to rounding. Here is the full stack.
Sold comps vs asking price: how to read the market
An item 'listed for $400' tells you what one hopeful seller wants. The same item's last thirty completed sales tell you what buyers actually paid. Only one of those numbers should drive your buy decision.
eBay vs Amazon selling fees compared
Both platforms take roughly an eighth to a sixth of your sale, but they take it in completely different places. The cheaper platform depends on your category, price point, and who ships the box.
What to resell for profit: a data-first framework
'What sells?' is the wrong question. The right question is: what sells quickly, with deep sold-comp data, at a margin that survives fees, in a product I can identify without guessing?
How to calculate reselling profit (the landed cost formula)
Profit is not sale price minus buy price. It is net payout minus landed cost — and both of those numbers have more line items than most sellers count.
Arbitrage sourcing: building a repeatable buy list
Sourcing does not scale by searching harder. It scales by converting every good search you ever run into a standing order that alerts you when the price is right.