Seller fee guides

Each guide is worked out from the marketplaces’ own fee tables (checked 28 October 2026) using the same data as the Selnook calculators, so the numbers on these pages and in the calculators always agree.

• Amazon’s referral fee cliffs: the prices that earn less than a cheaper one

  $20.01–$21.68 clothing prices net less than $20.00; grocery from $15.01 to $16.23 nets less than $15.00.

  In four Amazon categories the referral fee rate is set by the whole sale price, not by the part above a threshold. One cent over the line raises the fee on every dollar. We worked out exactly where that leaves you worse off than the cheaper price.

• The eBay prices where one more cent pays you more

  A $150.00 sneaker sale keeps $8.81 more than $149.99 — and the buyer’s sales tax counts toward the $150.

  A few eBay categories drop to a lower rate on the whole sale once the total passes a line. Just under it you pay the high rate on everything. These are the lines, what each is worth, and the detail most sellers miss: eBay counts the buyer’s sales tax in the total.

• What Amazon, eBay and Etsy actually keep at every price

  Etsy (without Offsite Ads) is cheapest above $8.19; eBay beats a 15% Amazon category above $28.58; a $5 eBay sale loses 19.6% to fees.

  Headline commission rates hide the fixed fees, and fixed fees are what decide the cost of cheap items. We ran each marketplace’s official fee table from $3 to $200 to see who takes the most at each price, and where the order flips.

• Etsy fees by seller country: what a $30 order costs in 64 locations

  $3.30 in fees on a $30 order for a US seller, $4.88 in Türkiye.

  Etsy’s 6.5% transaction fee and $0.20 listing fee are the same everywhere. The payment processing fee and the regulatory operating fee are not — they follow the location of the seller’s bank account. Here is the full bill for the same order in every Etsy Payments location.

• Before you list: work out three prices, not one

  Break-even $11.07, $17.78 for a 25% margin, and how Offsite Ads move the floor to $14.56.

  Most sellers price from the product cost up. It is quicker, and safer, to work backwards from three numbers: the price where you stop losing money, the price that hits your margin, and the most you can pay for the product at the price the market will bear.

• How to use Selnook: a three-minute walkthrough

  Screenshots of every part of the calculators: inputs, result card, fee tables, target margin, price ladder and the A/B comparison.

  Selnook answers one question — what does a single order really earn? — for any channel, with dedicated pages for Amazon, eBay, Etsy and imported goods. Here is every part of the screen and what to do with it.