How much does it cost to dropship on eBay? -

There is a simple answer to this question, which is: not much. At least, it is definitely cheaper on eBay than selling on Amazon in terms of fees.

And, because you get up to 200 listings for free, it is possible to get started dropshipping on eBay for virtually nothing. You can get a rough idea of how much it will all cost using eBay’s fee calculator.

So that’s the simple answer.

For a more comprehensive answer to the question of how much it costs to dropship on eBay, we need to understand the eBay seller fees properly.

For most product niches, you’ll be paying 2 basic fees to eBay.

First, you pay an insertion fee. This is a charge for putting your listing up on eBay.
Then you pay a final value fee when you make a sale. EBay takes a percentage of the total value of the sale, including shipping costs.

Let’s go into a bit more detail on these fees.

EBay insertion fees – how much will I pay?

As we’ve already mentioned, you get up to 200 free listings on eBay every month (or 250 if you use eBay’s Manager Payments service). So, if you stay within this amount, you won’t have to pay anything.

Once you have used up your free listings, you then pay $0.35 per listing. And that’s pretty much it, just remember these points.

This is a fee for creating the listing. So, even if your item doesn’t sell, you won’t get the fee back.
If you list the same item in two or more different categories, you pay the insertion fee for each category your item is in.
You pay the insertion fee every time you relist an item.

EBay final value fees – how much will I pay?

The amount you’ll pay in final value fees as a dropshipper depends on the type of product you are selling. Let’s take a look at the fees that will apply to most drop shippers, then look at one exception.

EBay final value fees for most drop shipped products

Most products that are drop shipped – including top trending products in 2021 like yoga mats, wireless charging stations, and dog jackets – fall under eBay’s fee structure for “most products.”

For these products, the following fees apply:

A $0.35 insertion fee
A 10% final value fee. This means eBay will take a 10% cut of the total value of the product you sell, including shipping. So, let’s say you dropship a yoga mat for $40, and shipping is an additional $5. In this case, you’re going to pay eBay $4.50.

There is a cap on the total final value fee you have to pay, but it is set at $750 for these products. The product and shipping would need to have a value exceeding $7,500 for this cap to apply, so it’s not going to be relevant for most dropshippers on eBay.

EBay final value fees for athletic shoes

One product category that enjoys lower fees on eBay is athletic shoes. Clearly, this is a niche that eBay wants to encourage on its marketplace, so it has created some great conditions for dropshippers selling sneakers. These conditions include:

zero insertion fee if the price is $100 or more,
0% final value fee if the price is $100 or more. If the price is under $100, you pay 10% just like other product categories.

EBay is encouraging the sale of sneakers on its marketplace by making it free to sell them if the price is over $100

There are a couple of other categories with different fee conditions, but it’s highly unlikely you will be dropshipping bass guitars, commercial printing presses, books, or food trucks. If you are, you can check out a full breakdown of the fees here.

Other fees on eBay

There are 2 other types of fees you’ll need to factor in when you dropship on eBay.

EBay fees for payments

First, you’ll need to think about payment processing, eBay’s managed payments scheme launched in 2018. As this announcement on managed payments explains, it becomes compulsory. Once you are on the managed payments scheme, the final value fee increases to 12.55% for most product categories. This basically covers the cost of Amazon handling your payments.

On the other hand, with eBay managed payments you will no longer be paying fees to PayPal.

EBay fees for upgrading your listing

Second, you can “upgrade” your listing in a couple of ways.

You should also definitely consider upgrading at least some of your listings. As a new seller, it can be hard to get your products in front of shoppers. Once you have more traction, you can increase your profitability by cutting back on some of these upgrades.

You can have the listing appear in bold on the page so it stands out. You can also add “Gallery Plus”, which lets users see a larger image during their search.

With Gallery Plus, your product images enlarge when a shopper interacts with the listing. Image source: eBay

But there are fees for these services.

For auction-style selling, it is adding bold costs of $2 per listing for items under $150 and $3 for items over $150. Adding gallery plus costs $0.35 per listing for items under $150 and $0.70 for items over $150.
For fixed price selling (eBay calls these “Good ‘til Cancelled Listings”), adding bold will cost you $4 per listing for items under $150 and $6 for items over $150. Meanwhile, the prices for adding gallery plus are $1 per listing for items under $150 and $2 for items over $150.

There are other services available, such as setting a minimum price for your product – you can find details of all eBay listing services and their price in this article by eBay