Free tool
TCG Fee Calculator
What does a card sale actuallypocket after marketplace fees, postage, and supplies? Enter your numbers for a single item in a single order and get an estimate built from each marketplace's published US fee schedule, reviewed September 24, 2026. It runs entirely in your browser.
Holds buyer-paid shipping at $0.00 and buyer sales tax at $0.00 exactly as entered — the tax is a fixed scenario amount, not a recomputed tax rate. Single item in a single order, with the same cent rounding as the line items above.
TCGplayer — US Marketplace, seller levels 1–4, standard listings. One item in one order. Fee rules reviewed September 24, 2026 (2026-09-24).
- Commission: 10.75% of item price + buyer-paid shipping, capped at $75 on a single item.
- Transaction fee: 2.5% of item price + buyer-paid shipping + buyer sales tax, plus $0.30 per order.
- Fee cents are rounded half-even (bankers rounding).
Not included: TCGplayer Pro, Direct, and Sync listings; international orders and any other seller level or program; shipping promotions, subscriptions, and account-level adjustments.
Official sources: TCGplayer fees · Fee calculation examples
These are estimates from published fee schedules, rounded so every line above adds up to the profit shown. Your actual settlement can differ — promotions, seller programs, adjustments and refunds all move the number. Your marketplace statements are the record; a ledger records what you were actually paid.
Deciding what to offer? Try the maximum buy price calculator, or explore all free seller tools.
Why sellers get this wrong
A $25 sale is not $25 in your pocket. On TCGplayer's standard US marketplace terms — 10.75% commission plus a 2.5% + $0.30 transaction fee, with no buyer-paid shipping or sales tax in this scenario — the fees come to $3.61, leaving $21.39 in net proceeds. Add $1.33 of postage and supplies, and a card that cost you $12.00 returns $8.06 — not the $13 that sale-minus-cost suggests. Change any input above and the whole chain updates.
The break-even price matters more than the profit
The break-even figure answers the question that should gate every listing: below what price does this sale lose money? Because percentage fees scale with the sale price but postage, supplies and the per-order fee don't, cheap cards break even at surprisingly high multiples of their cost — which is why bulk sellers live or die on shipping strategy. The figure holds your buyer-paid shipping and the sales tax amount you entered fixed; it solves for the item price only, and does not recompute tax at a rate. Watch for the eBay step: a sale can clear break-even, then dip back into the red just above a $10.00 total when the per-order fee rises to $0.40. The tool calls that out when it happens.
Why cost basis matters at tax time
A 1099-K from a marketplace reports grosspayments — not profit. It doesn't subtract fees, postage, supplies, or what you paid for the cards, so the figure on the form is usually much larger than anything you earned. The reporting thresholds that decide whether a form gets issued have changed over time and can differ by platform and by state, and your obligation to report income doesn't depend on whether a form arrives. What makes the difference at filing time is being able to document your costs. The IRS explains the form itself at Understanding your Form 1099-K. For your own situation, talk to a tax professional — this is a fee calculator, not tax advice.
FlipBasis helps you record inventory, costs and sales. Reconcile estimated fees against your marketplace statements to keep that record useful.
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