Max Buy Price Calculator

A max buy price calculator answers the question you should ask before you pay for inventory, not after the sale posts: given a realistic selling price, shipping, tax and the official marketplace fee, what is the most you can pay for the item and still hit a target profit? This tool starts with the US eBay schedule we transcribed on 11 November 2026, including category exceptions, the per-order fee, optional Promoted Listings and the 1.65% international fee when it applies. It is the same engine as the homepage calculator, run backwards. It will not tell you that a source is 'cheap' just because the sticker is under $20. Cheap is a function of fees, postage and the profit you actually need.

Working backwards from profit, not from hope

Most sourcing mistakes happen at the register or in a buy-bin, when you still have a rough sale price in mind and no time to rebuild a spreadsheet. The forward calculator tells you profit after you already own the item. This page does the inverse: you enter the expected item price, shipping you will charge, postage you will pay, any tax you expect to collect, the fee settings, and a target profit. The tool then solves for the highest cost of goods that still leaves that profit after fees and postage. If the number is $0 or negative, the sale price you typed cannot cover the goal, no matter how little you pay.

payout = expected total sale − tax remitted − official fees (final value, per-order, ads, international, and any listing extras you include)
max buy price = payout − postage you will pay − target profit
if that result is below zero, the expected sale cannot fund the target

The expected total sale still follows eBay's official rule: item price plus shipping charged plus sales tax. Fees are therefore larger than a casual 13.6% of the item alone. If you plan to list a $60 jacket with $8 shipping and $4.76 of tax, the fee base is $72.76, not $60. Using the no-store most-categories row, fees are 13.6% of $72.76 plus $0.40, or $10.30. After remitting tax the payout is $57.70. If postage will cost $6 and you want $20 profit, the most you should pay for the jacket is $57.70 − $6 − $20 = $31.70. Paying $35 because 'it should still clear twenty' is how thin margins disappear.

Targets, ads, and categories change the ceiling

Raise the target profit and the max buy price falls by the same amount, dollar for dollar, once fees are fixed. Change the category and the fee itself moves. A $180 pair of sneakers over $150, sold with free shipping and no tax, pays 8% of $180 and no per-order fee, or $14.40, leaving a $165.60 payout before your postage and profit target. The same $180 in most categories would pay 13.6% plus $0.40, or $24.88. That $10.48 gap is money you can, or cannot, spend at the source. Promoted Listings work the same way: a 5% ad on a $72.76 total is another $3.64 out of the payout, which lowers the max buy price by $3.64. International orders add 1.65% when that official rule applies.

This first-release tool uses eBay as the default because that is the homepage keyword and the most elaborate US schedule in the set. If you plan to list the same item on Poshmark or Mercari instead, run the comparison or those individual calculators and then subtract postage and target profit from that payout by hand, or use the batch mode on this calculator and the full comparison grid, which are free. Do not paste a 20% Poshmark rate into this eBay inverse, and do not assume Mercari's 10% on item plus shipping leaves the same ceiling. The official bases are different, so the max buy price is different.

A max buy price is a ceiling, not a bid. Condition, return risk, time to sell and whether the comparable sold prices are real still matter. The calculator only removes fee math from the guesswork.

Use it in a sourcing loop, not once

Sellers who only open a fee calculator after a listing sits for two weeks are using it as a post-mortem. The better habit is to plug in three comparable sold prices, not one asking price, and to test free shipping versus charged shipping before you buy a case of anything. If you need $15 net on a lot of $12 cards, remember the $0.40 per-order fee and the trading-card row, not the 13.6% habit. If you buy jewelry or handbags, use the flat-by-total rows, because a sale that crosses $5,000 or $2,000 can change the rate on the entire amount, not just the slice above the line.

How to use this calculator

1. Enter a realistic sold price, not a wish. Use recent comparables for the title, condition and shipping you actually plan to offer.
2. Set postage and tax the way the listing will work. Free shipping still has a cost to you. Collected tax still sits in eBay's fee base and is remitted.
3. Choose the correct category and add ads if you will boost. The inverse result is only as good as the fee row and the ad rate you will really use.
4. Read the max buy price as a ceiling. If the source wants more than that number, walk away or lower the profit target on purpose, not by accident.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and updates

• Seller fees | eBay Seller Center, checked 2026-11-11.
• Selling fees for eBay sellers (managed payments), checked 2026-11-11.