eBay's fee structure confuses a lot of sellers. Getting this wrong means building listings around margins that don't actually exist.
The main fee components
Listing fees: eBay gives sellers a certain number of free listings per month (typically 250 for personal sellers in the UK). Beyond that, you pay a small insertion fee. For most resellers, the free allowance covers their volume.
Final Value Fee: This is the main cost. eBay charges a percentage of the total transaction amount — item price plus shipping — when a sale completes. For used clothing and fashion it's typically around 12–15%. If you're a new seller without a store subscription, you may be paying toward the higher end.
Payment processing is included in the final value fee calculation, not a separate charge.
What this means in practice
On a £50 sale with free shipping, you'll pay roughly £6–7.50 in final value fees. On a £100 sale, roughly £12–15. These numbers seem manageable until you multiply them across hundreds of sales and realise they represent a significant chunk of your turnover.
If you're sourcing items for £20 and selling for £50, your gross margin is £30 — but after eBay fees of £7.50 and shipping of £4, you're actually netting around £18.50.
eBay Store subscriptions
eBay store subscriptions reduce your final value fee by 2–4 percentage points in most categories. Whether a subscription makes sense depends on your volume. For most part-time resellers, the maths doesn't work until you're doing meaningful volume per month.
A simple margin check
Before listing any item, run this: sale price minus (sale price × 0.135) minus shipping cost minus cost of goods. If that number isn't worth your time to source, photograph, list, pack, and post, either price it higher or don't list it.
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