Mercari vs eBay Fees: What the Same Sale Leaves You
It depends on the sale — but on fees alone, Mercari's flat 10% beats eBay's most-categories rate at every price we priced. The gap is small on a $10 sale ($0.66) and grows with the price ($9.40 on a $250 sale). The tables below show the arithmetic; the sections after them cover the two things the tables can't: eBay's fee varies by category, and fees are not the whole decision.
The two fee structures
| Mercari | eBay (most categories) | |
|---|---|---|
| Selling fee | 10% flat | 13.6% on the first $7,500, 2.35% above |
| Charged on | Item price + buyer-paid shipping | Item price + shipping + sales tax |
| Per-order fee | None | $0.30 (sale of $10 or less) / $0.40 (over $10) |
| Processing fee | None | Included in the selling fee |
| Listing fee | Free, unlimited | 250 free listings/month, then $0.35 each |
| Buyer-side fee | Buyer pays 3.6% Buyer Protection on top | None added at checkout |
Worked examples — free shipping, no sales tax
| Item price | Mercari fee | You keep (Mercari) | eBay fee | You keep (eBay) | Mercari ahead by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | $1.00 | $9.00 | $1.66 | $8.34 | $0.66 |
| $25 | $2.50 | $22.50 | $3.80 | $21.20 | $1.30 |
| $50 | $5.00 | $45.00 | $7.20 | $42.80 | $2.20 |
| $100 | $10.00 | $90.00 | $14.00 | $86.00 | $4.00 |
| $250 | $25.00 | $225.00 | $34.40 | $215.60 | $9.40 |
Worked examples — buyer pays $6 shipping
Both platforms charge their percentage on the shipping as well. Sales tax is still $0 here; on eBay, tax collected on a sale would enlarge the fee base slightly.
| Item price | Mercari fee | You keep (Mercari) | eBay fee | You keep (eBay) | Mercari ahead by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $3.10 | $27.90 | $4.62 | $26.38 | $1.52 |
| $50 | $5.60 | $50.40 | $8.02 | $47.98 | $2.42 |
| $100 | $10.60 | $95.40 | $14.82 | $91.18 | $4.22 |
The category caveat
"Most categories" is doing real work in this comparison. eBay's rate is 13.6% for most things a casual seller lists, but some categories differ sharply — guitars and basses are 6.7%, heavy equipment 3%, while handbags run 15% up to $2,000. Mercari's 10% does not move by category. Price your exact item in the eBay fee calculator (it has the category list) and the Mercari fee calculator before deciding where a high-value item belongs.
Fees are not the whole decision
This page prices fees, and only fees. It says nothing about which platform shows your item to more buyers, how fast it sells, or what it sells for — a higher sale price on the more expensive platform can outweigh the fee gap, and neither platform's traffic is something we can verify for your category. What the tables do settle: if the same item sells for the same price on both, Mercari currently leaves you more of it. For the full six-platform picture, see compare seller fees, or track real sales in the seller profit spreadsheet.
Fees verified: Mercari Oct 22, 2026 (mercari.com, official Help Center — structure effective Jan 6, 2025); eBay Oct 19, 2026 (ebay.com, "Selling fees"). Examples assume most-categories eBay items, $0 sales tax, and no optional add-ons; each fee line is rounded to cents. Platforms change fees; confirm before relying on a figure.