Is the final value fee really 13%?

It is around that in many categories and different in others, and it applies to the total including postage. Treat any single number as an estimate and check your own categories.

Do I pay the ad rate on every sale?

No. Promoted Listings General charges only when the buyer reached you through the ad. That is why it is worth seeing profit both ways before deciding a rate.

What margin should I aim for?

Below about 20% after every deduction, one return or one supplier price rise erases the sale. Sellers who last tend to work well above that.

Guides 7 min readUpdated 25 September 2026

eBay fees and what is actually left

A product bought for $11 and sold for $21 does not make $10. By the time eBay has taken its cut and the delivery is paid for, it makes about $6 — and if the sale came through an ad, less again.

Here is the whole calculation, in the order the money leaves.

The five things that come out

What	Roughly	Notes
Final value fee	~13% of the total	Varies by category; check yours
Fixed order fee	a few cents to ~$0.30	Per order, not per item
Product cost	what you pay the supplier	Your own account’s price, not the list price
Delivery	$0 to $10+	Free above the supplier’s threshold
Ad rate	0–20% of the sale	Only charged when the sale came through the ad

Worked through

Sell at $20.99. eBay takes about $2.78 in final value fee and $0.30 fixed. The product costs $11.58 and delivery is free above the threshold. What is left is roughly $6.33, or about 30%.

Now suppose the sale came through a promoted listing at 8%. That is another $1.68, leaving $4.65 — about 22%. Both numbers are real; which one applies depends on how the buyer found you.

Why a margin can look fine and not be

Delivery left out of the cost — the commonest one, and it can be the whole margin
The fixed fee ignored because it is small — on a $6 item it is 5%
The ad rate ignored because it is only charged sometimes
The supplier’s price taken from the page rather than from your own account
Currency converted at a rate that was true last month

The floor worth setting

A percentage markup alone produces silly prices at both ends: too little on cheap items to be worth posting, too much on expensive ones to be competitive.

Set a minimum profit in money as well as a percentage, and let the rule take whichever is higher.

Questions

Is the final value fee really 13%?: It is around that in many categories and different in others, and it applies to the total including postage. Treat any single number as an estimate and check your own categories.
Do I pay the ad rate on every sale?: No. Promoted Listings General charges only when the buyer reached you through the ad. That is why it is worth seeing profit both ways before deciding a rate.
What margin should I aim for?: Below about 20% after every deduction, one return or one supplier price rise erases the sale. Sellers who last tend to work well above that.