If this is your first time using the calculator you may find yourself a little overwhelmed with all of the options, so
that's why I've written this quick step-by-step guide showing you how to get started.
1.) The first step in calculating your eBay and PayPal fees is to choose whether your auction is a
Single Item Auction or a
Multiple Item Auction...
2.) Next, you choose your options for that particular auction type...
3.) Next, you choose any
listing upgrades you may be using (including
eBay Picture Services)...
4.) Next, you choose whether or not you are listing your item in
eBay Stores (and if so, the duration of your listing). If you are not selling an
item in eBay Stores simply choose the Off option in the eBay Stores option box...
5.) Next, you choose whether or not you are selling your item in the special
Business & Industrial category on eBay
(simply because items listed in this category carry a different fee structure)...
6.) Next, you set your options for receiving
PayPal payments. You get to specify what country the payment is coming from,
what country the payment is going to, and what your Monthly Sales Volume is. By using those 3 pieces of information eBCalc
will automatically determine the correct PayPal fee rate you will be charnged and will fill it into the PayPal fee rate
textbox. You can also edit this amount manually if you like. You can change both the PayPal percentage and the PayPal fixed
fee. If you are not using PayPal simply enter in 0 for both the PayPal percentage and the PayPal fixed fee. Also, in the
PayPal options box you can choose whether your item sold or not by choosing the approriate Item Sold or
Item Did Not Sell radio button.
7.) Next, you enter in the amounts of your auction. First you enter in your "Opening Bid", then your "Listing Duration"
(1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days), then your "Closing Bid", then your "S&H Charged" (that is, the amount you are charging your
buyer for S&H), then your "Actual S&H" (that is, your true cost of postage), then your "Cost To
Acquire" (that is the price you paid to initially acquire the item). After that, simply press the
Calculate button to have the calculator
calculate and display your eBay and PayPal fees
for those amounts.
As you can see the calculator gives us a number of useful pieces of information. It tells us what our total
Insertion Fees have come out to be, our total Listing Upgrade Fees, our total
Final Value Fees, and of course the sum of those three which makes our Total eBay Fees.
The calculator also displays your Total PayPal Fees and combines them with your Total eBay
Fees to form your Total Fees. The last and most useful piece of information the calculator
gives you is your Net Profit. Your Net Profit is what you have left over after all
fees, costs, and charges have been removed. For example, let's say I bought an item at a Flea Market for $5. I then sold
this item on eBay for $20 and I charged my buyer $5 for shipping (even though my actual chost of shipping is only $3.85).
So the buyer sends me a total of $25. To find out my Net Profit, I first have to subtract my PayPal fees from that which leaves me with $23.98. I then have to
subtract my eBay fees which leaves me with $22.33. Then I have to account for my actual cost of shipping ($3.85)
which leaves me with $18.48. Finally, I have to subtract the price I paid to initially acquire the item (in this case
$5) which leaves me with $13.48. So, in this case I am walking away with $13.48 in Net Profit.
8.) There are some cases in which you would like to receive a certain amount of Net Profit. Following our
previous example, the calculator has just shown us that we would make $13.48 in Net Profit from that particular auction.
Let's say we wanted to make $15 in Net Profit, what would we do? Well one thing we can do is to slightly increase our
Shipping & Handling amount to account for eBay and PayPal fees. Let's say in this case we
wanted to receive $15 in Net Profit. All you would have to do in that case is simply type in $15 into the
Reverse Net Profit Calculator
and press Calculate. The calculator will then tell you exactly what you
would need to charge for Shipping & Handling to reach that exact amount of Net Profit. In this case, we would have
to charge exactly $6.57 for Shipping & Handling in order to receive exactly $15 in Net Profit.
