My husband won an iPod shuffle a few days ago and since we already have one, we decided to sell it for the extra cash. But far be it for me to do anything without trying to learn from it so I decided to do a little test.

I decided to list this item on both eBay and Amazon at the exact same time and exact same price to see two things. Firstly, which marketplace will take out less fees and secondly, where will it sell faster.

Now I looked at Craig’s List but I feel better having a marketplace with some kind of protection so I ruled that out. I also ruled out places like eCarter and Bonanzle for the simple reason that not a lot of people were selling this sort of item there so I didn’t think it was a good fit.

Besides, eBay and Amazon are the big dogs that most of my readers are interested in anyway.

If nothing else, I thought it might be interesting to look at real world numbers. After all, we usually talk about fees on a conceptual level so I thought it might be useful to plug in some real numbers and just see the results.

I wouldn’t ship this item without insurance so I need to figure that into my shipping costs. So take the $2.07 this item would cost to ship via First Class and add the $2.25 it would cost to insure it. This means my actual shipping costs are $4.32 total. This shipping cost (and PayPal fee structure) assume I’m selling to someone in the US.

If you hate numbers and what to just skip down to my conclusions, click here.

Let’s look at Amazon first because, frankly, I figured they would be cheaper.

Amazon Marketplace (non-Pro)

So the numbers boil down like this:
List price: $49.99
Actual shipping (and insurance) cost: 4.32
Buyer pays (total): $54.98
Amazon Shipping Credit: $4.99
Amazon Commission: $4
Closing Fee: $0.50
Per-transaction fee: $0.99
Total Amazon Fees: $5.49
Total Profit: $45.17

So with Amazon, I basically lost $4.82 out of what I charged for the item.

But what if you had a Pro Amazon Marketplace account?

Amazon Marketplace (Pro Account)

So the numbers boil down like this:
List price: $49.99
Actual shipping (and insurance) cost: 4.32
Buyer pays (total): $54.98
Amazon Shipping Credit: $4.99
Amazon Commission: $4
Closing Fee: $0.50
Total Amazon Fees: $4.50
Total Profit: $46.16

So with Amazon Pro, I basically lost $3.82 out of what I charged for the item. So if you pay that $40 a month fee, you save yourself a buck on this item.

But let’s look at eBay while we are at it.

eBay with a Basic Store (getting the 20% PowerSeller discount)

So the numbers boil down like this:
List price: $49.99
Actual shipping (and insurance) cost: 4.32 (but on eBay I’m charging another dollar handling which is figured in below)
Buyer pays (total): $55.31
Insertion Fee $0.20
Final Value Fee $3.20
Total eBay Fees $3.40
PayPal Fee $1.90
Total Fees $5.30
Total Profit $45.69

So I lose $4.30 in fees with eBay. Now, from a buyer standpoint, with eBay, the total cost is about 50 cents more. So if you take out that 50 cents (say, if you don’t charge a handling fee) then your buyer is paying the exact same amount as on Amazon and you are making very close to the exact same amount.

Now, the numbers above reflect what I am actually getting. But what if you don’t have the 20% discount? Or what if you don’t have an eBay store? (If you have a higher level store, its no contest, the eBay fees are much lower than Amazon.)

eBay with a Basic Store (without the 20% PowerSeller Discount)
Insertion Fee $0.20
Final Value Fee $4.00
Total eBay Fees $4.20
PayPal Fee $1.90
Total Fees $6.10
Total Profit $44.89

So the PS discount saves us 80 cents.

But what if you don’t have a store at all?

eBay without any store or discount
Insertion Fee $0.50
Final Value Fee $4.00
Total eBay Fees $4.50
PayPal Fee $1.90
Total Fees $6.40
Total Profit $44.59

So if we are just a regular eBay user, we pay $5.40 in fees on this transaction.

But what if we have a higher level store?

eBay Premium Store (with no discount)
Insertion Fee $0.05
Final Value Fee $4.00
Total eBay Fees $4.05
PayPal Fee $1.90
Total Fees $5.95
Total Profit $45.04

eBay Anchor Store (with no discount)
Insertion Fee $0.03
Final Value Fee $4.00
Total eBay Fees $4.03
PayPal Fee $1.90
Total Fees $5.93
Total Profit $45.06

So let’s review. On an $49.99 item, here is how the fees compare.

Amazon Marketplace (non-Pro)
Total Profit: $45.17
Amazon Marketplace (Pro Account)
Total Profit: $46.16
eBay with a Basic Store (getting the 20% PowerSeller discount)
Total Profit $45.69
eBay with a Basic Store (without the 20% PowerSeller Discount)
Total Profit $44.89
eBay Premium Store (with no discount)
Total Profit $45.04
eBay Anchor Store (with no discount)
Total Profit $45.06
eBay without any store or discount
Total Profit $44.59

You know what surprised me the most about this exercise? How close all these profits are together. I came into this expecting Amazon to be far and away cheaper (after all, people call eBay FeeBay for a reason, right?) but they are so close. Selling on the Amazon Marketplace with a Pro Account gives you the most profit and selling on eBay without any store or discount gives you the least profit but we are talking about a difference of $1.57 between the two greatest extremes. Especially when you consider than you’d be pay $40 a month for an Amazon Pro account to save just $1.57 over a “nothing a month” regular old eBay account. It’s a really interesting result. Even the difference between a Basic Store and eBay without any store ownership is only 30 cents and you are paying $15 a month for that Store.

Now I know that every penny adds up over the course of running a business but what if you are talking about a single item? What if, like us, you won something and just wanted to sell a single item? You’re a one time seller? What platform should you go to? You wouldn’t be willing to pay a monthly fee for a single item. You’d get the most money from a free Amazon Marketplace account but we are talking mere cents so the answer isn’t as cut and dry as that.

Now, you could argue that my calculations above are all based on charging a dollar handling fee on eBay but I don’t think that messes up the numbers as there are very few sellers that don’t charge $1 handling fee. And as we showed in the first eBay example, even taking the handling fee out doesn’t change the number by more than 50 cents. Also, without the handling fee, the total price of the item comes to more on Amazon than eBay anyway.

Now, there are a million other factors to consider. Here are just a few:

  • What if you charge more than actual shipping on eBay?
  • Would these prices still be so close if it wasn’t an item that needed to be insured?
  • How do international sales figure in?
  • If the item was going to sit for a while, how do the eBay insertion fees eat into profits?
  • How would the numbers change if you were using Amazon FBA?
  • Does the handling fee make that much of a difference?
  • What if you have a business PayPal account or other discounts? What if you use another payment method on eBay other than PayPal?

But this exercise isn’t supposed to give you an answer, just to give you something to think about. To me, these numbers are surprising. Amazon’s fees seem simpler and eBay’s fees seem complicated so they must be higher. But when you put the numbers side by side, suddenly you realize they are pretty similar.

Now, in the end, all that matters to me is where it sells fastest. After all, $1.57 may be well worth it to sell the item a week or two earlier. So I will give you an update when this item actually sells.

But what do you take away from these numbers?