Guides

Amazon's cut of an FBA sale is two genuinely different fees, not one — here's what each one covers, a worked line-item example, and where the 2026 fuel & logistics surcharge actually lands.

One $50 sale run through all four platforms' real published fee formulas, side by side — plus why the ranking isn't the fair "cheapest platform" verdict it looks like.

Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee is only one of three stacked fees on every sale — including a listing fee that recharges per unit sold, not once per listing. A worked example shows the real total.

The Shopify Payments rate drops as you move up plans, and the third-party transaction fee adds a second charge on top of your own gateway's fee rather than replacing it — most explainers get this backwards.

PayPal publishes two different domestic rates, and neither beats Stripe's flat 2.9% + $0.30 at any order size — the actual formulas, run side by side, instead of an assumed crossover.

eBay's 13.6% final value fee comes with a per-order fee that jumps from $0.30 to $0.40 at a hard $10 threshold, not a smooth curve — a worked example on each side of the cliff.

The classic price = cost ÷ (1 − margin%) formula silently breaks the moment a percentage fee joins a flat one — a worked example using Stripe's real rate shows exactly how far off it lands, and why.

Walmart's own fee schedule hides two genuinely different tier mechanics behind near-identical wording — a worked example on each shows how mixing them up misses the real fee by tens of dollars, in either direction.

Poshmark's flat $2.95 fee reads like the bargain tier under $15 — but it actually costs more than the 20% commission it precedes for anything priced below $14.75. A worked table shows exactly where the crossover falls.

Mercari's flat 10% rate only applies to listings created or updated since January 6, 2025 — untouched older listings can still carry the retired 10% + 2.9% + $0.50 stack. A worked example shows exactly what that processing fee used to cost.

Meta's Selling Fee has been 10% with an $0.80 minimum since April 2024 — double the outdated 5%/$0.40 figure many fee guides still cite. Both rates hit their minimum-fee floor at the exact same order total, a detail that survived the correction.

StockX's transaction fee runs 9% down to 7% by Seller Level, plus a separate 3% processing fee and a flat $5 shipping charge that dominates the fee stack on cheap items — a worked example shows exactly how much reaching a higher level is really worth.

Reverb's 5% selling fee is bounded by a $0.50 minimum and a $500 maximum most guides never mention — the floor doubles the real fee on cheap items, and the ceiling can apply even when the item price alone is under $10,000.

TikTok Shop's flat 6% referral fee has two real carve-outs most summaries miss — a flat 5% rate for Jewelry & Pre-Owned, and a genuine 6%/3% tax-bracket-style split for Collectibles above $10,000 — worked on a $15,000 sale that crosses both.

US sellers pay $0 Depop selling fee since July 15, 2024 — the real cost today is the 3.3% + $0.45 processing fee, and the optional 12% Boosted Listing fee costs a full 12 points of margin, worked on a real $45 sale.

Reverb's $0.50 minimum selling fee turns its advertised 5% rate into an effective 10% on a $5 listing — here's the math sellers need before pricing cheap gear.

Amazon's referral fees range from 6% to 45% depending on category — the same physical item listed in the wrong one can cost you 10–30 percentage points of margin. Here's a worked example of the recategorization moves that recover the most fee.

Sellers instinctively discount high-priced items to land in Poshmark's $2.95 flat-fee tier, but the math shows that strategy often destroys more margin than the 20% commission would have. Here's the exact price point where each fee structure wins.

The 2-point fee drop from StockX Standard (9%) to Bronze (7%) sounds like easy money, but the break-even volume threshold is higher than most sellers expect — and the margin math often runs in reverse.

TikTok Shop's Collectibles category switches fee structures at $10,000 — sellers just below that threshold pay a flat 6% on the full amount, while sellers just above it pay 6% on the first portion and 3% on the rest. This guide shows exactly where that boundary costs the most and when holding out for a higher bid is worth it.