See how eBay's marketplace works for sellers: final value fees, store subscription tiers from $21.95 to $299.95/month, and tools for running a shop.
eBay is one of the internet's oldest and largest online marketplaces, launched by Pierre Omidyar in San Jose, California in September 1995 under the name AuctionWeb. What began as a peer-to-peer auction site has grown into a global commerce platform operated by eBay Inc., connecting millions of buyers and sellers across dozens of countries and product categories, from electronics and collectibles to fashion, auto parts, and industrial equipment.
Unlike marketplaces that only support fixed-price checkout, eBay still offers both auction-style bidding and Buy It Now fixed-price listings side by side, a format it pioneered. Sellers range from individuals clearing out a garage to full-time resellers and small businesses running storefronts through eBay Stores, with the platform reporting tens of billions of dollars in annual gross merchandise volume.
eBay's core selling tools include bulk listing templates, promoted listings for paid visibility, managed payments that consolidate payouts into a single system, and seller performance dashboards that track defect rates, shipping times, and customer service metrics. The Seller Hub gives merchants a single place to manage active listings, orders, returns, and messages.
For buyers, eBay offers Money Back Guarantee protections, saved searches with price-drop alerts, and an authentication service for luxury goods, sneakers, and trading cards. Developers and larger sellers can also integrate through eBay's APIs to sync inventory, pricing, and order data with external systems like Shopify or dedicated multichannel listing tools.
Buying on eBay is free. Selling is free for casual sellers up to a monthly allowance of 250 zero-insertion-fee listings, after which each additional listing costs $0.35. When an item sells, eBay charges a final value fee calculated as a percentage of the total sale amount, including shipping and tax collected, typically around 13.6% plus a $0.40 per-order fee for most categories, though rates vary by category from roughly 6.7% up to 15.3%.
Sellers who want more free listings, storefront branding, and reduced fees can subscribe to an eBay Store. Store tiers include Basic at about $21.95 per month, Premium at about $59.95 per month, and Anchor at about $299.95 per month, all on annual billing, with an Enterprise tier available for high-volume sellers. Monthly (non-annual) billing costs noticeably more at every tier.
Yes, casual sellers get up to 250 free listings per month; beyond that, eBay charges a small insertion fee plus a final value fee on completed sales.
eBay's final value fee is typically around 13.6% of the total sale amount (including shipping) plus roughly $0.40 per order, though the exact percentage varies by product category.
No, a Store subscription is optional. It adds more free listings, a branded storefront, and discounted fees, which can pay off for sellers listing high volumes.
It's eBay's built-in payment processing system that collects buyer payments and deposits seller payouts directly, replacing the older PayPal-centric checkout.
Both. eBay supports individual casual sellers and registered businesses, including high-volume merchants who use eBay Stores, APIs, and bulk listing tools.