What 271 thrift flips actually made us on eBay

• We paid $4.32. That is the typical (median) cost of an item that sold.
• It sold for $23.74.
• It left $10.88 after eBay's fees, the shipping label, ads, refunds, and what we paid for it.

Across all 271 sales, profit came to 243% of what we paid for the items. That sounds high, and it is, because thrift prices are low. It is also the number that leaves out the parts this page cannot measure: our time, our mileage, and everything still sitting on the shelf.

The biggest cost was not eBay. Shipping labels took $21.20 of every $100, more than eBay's fees at $13.60 and more than the items themselves at $15.70. Buyers paid $20.60 toward shipping, so most of the label came back to us, but not all of it.

That is why the label is the first thing we check now. We wrote up what shipping did to our store over two and a half years in what rising shipping costs did to our eBay sales. For eBay's side, the table of what eBay takes shows the fee at common prices, and the eBay fee calculator works it out for one item.

Items we paid $1 to $3 for made a typical $7.19 each. Items we paid $3 to $10 for sold higher and made a typical $11.08, and that group earned 51% of all our profit. A few pricier buys did very well, but there were only a handful of them.

Our takeaway: a $5 item that sells for $25 is a better use of a shelf than a $1 item that sells for $10, because the label costs about the same for both. Before we buy, we check what an item can sell for and what we can afford to pay. The max buy price calculator does that math with the fees and label included.

222 of our 271 sales (82%) had a Promoted Listings fee, typically 4.3% of the sale. Across everything, ads came to $4.10 out of every $100. We run them for the extra visibility eBay sells them on, but on a low-priced item the ad and the label together can be most of the margin. The Promoted Listings calculator shows the highest ad rate a given item can carry before it stops making money.

Not every flip works. 30 of our 271 sales (11%) ended in a loss once everything was counted:

• 13 had a label that cost more than half the sale price. On these, the label alone took most of the margin.
• 8 were refunded or returned. A return can cost the sale, the label out, and sometimes the label back.
• 1 sold for less than we paid for it.
• The other 8 were small items where fees, ads, and the label added up to more than the sale left.

Our worst was a six-light track lighting kit. We paid $27.06, sold it for $269.99, and the sale was refunded. Counting the refund, the label, and what we paid, it lost us $66.55. One return on a big item can erase several good small sales.

• A Philips Senseo coffee pod machine, new in an opened box. We paid $19.99, it sold for $299.99, and it left $214.88 after every fee and the label.
• A Harman Kardon stereo amplifier, tested and working. We paid $7.99, it sold for $249.99, and it left $186.64 after every fee and the label.
• A vintage Kirby upright vacuum with its attachments. We paid $27.49, it sold for $189.99, and it left $152.21 after every fee and the label.
• A lot of 28 Koh-I-Noor plotter pens. We paid $3.99, it sold for $161.49, and it left $128.51 after every fee and the label.
• A snowmobile chest protector. We paid $14.06, it sold for $150.00, and it left $100.66 after every fee and the label.

What they have in common: a recognizable brand or an item made for a specific use. That is where checking sold listings on eBay before buying tells you the most.

Every figure comes from our own eBay store, Stroop Stash, synced into Strooply. It covers the 271 sales from March 9, 2026 to October 31, 2026 where we had recorded what we paid; sales without a recorded cost are left out. Fees and payouts are eBay's own figures, labels are the labels we bought through eBay, and refunds and return shipping are counted against the sale they belong to. "Typical" means the median, the middle sale.

Not included: our time, mileage, packing supplies, items we bought and have not sold, and any income tax. This is one seller in one part of the country, mostly secondhand goods bought at thrift stores and yard sales, so your numbers will differ. It is an account of what happened in our store, not a prediction of what yours will make.

We could only write this because every sale already had its fees, label, ad, and cost in one place. Strooply's eBay profit tracker shows what each sale left after fees and cost, and the same numbers are there for your store once you connect it.