How It Works

The market price is the recent eBay sold price for the card — not the listed price, but actual completed sales. Check eBay’s “Sold Items” filter or use TCGPlayer’s market price. For a $100 market price example, all calculations below use this as the baseline.

The market price represents what a buyer would pay before taxes and shipping, and what a seller would receive before fees. It’s the neutral starting point both sides agree on.

When a buyer purchases a card on eBay, they pay more than the market price. eBay automatically collects sales tax based on the buyer’s state, and most sellers charge shipping separately.

This is the buyer’s ceiling — the maximum a fair cash price should ever be. Any higher, and the buyer would be better off buying on eBay.

eBay’s Final Value Fee is 13.25% of the total transaction— including the card price, the shipping charge, and any sales tax collected. Plus there’s a $0.30 fixed fee per transaction.

This is the seller’s floor — the minimum a fair cash price should be. Below this, the seller would be better off listing on eBay.

Why does shipping cancel out?On eBay, the seller charges the buyer for shipping and uses that money to pay the carrier. It’s a pass-through — no net gain or loss for the seller. However, eBay does charge its fee on the shipping amount, which is why shipping appears in the fee calculation above.

Any cash price between the seller’s floor and buyer’s ceiling is better for both parties than eBay. The question is just how that eBay “savings” gets split between them.

The even splitis the midpoint — it’s the price where the seller saves the same dollar amount vs. eBay that the buyer saves vs. eBay. It’s the most objectively fair price, though any deal in range is mutually beneficial.

When you enter a proposed price, the calculator shows exactly where it falls in the fair range and what each party saves vs. eBay.

The position bar shows visually where the proposed price falls between the seller floor and buyer ceiling. The range is split into five verdict zones:

A “Fair Deal” means the price is in the fair middle zone — not necessarily equal savings. The ★ Even Split at exactly 50% is the only price where both parties save the same dollar amount vs. eBay.

This is why “85% of market” — while often presented as the seller’s break-even — actually favors the buyer quite heavily. The seller nets just $0.17 above their eBay floor, while the buyer saves $27.25. The even split at $98.54 gives both parties $13.71 in savings vs. eBay.

Every input you enter is encoded into the URL in real time. You can share your deal two ways:

• Share Image — generates a deal card image you can send via iMessage, post to Facebook groups, Reddit, Discord, and more
• Copy Link — copies the current URL which encodes all your inputs; anyone who opens the link sees the exact same calculator state
• Show your phone screen directly to the other party

The goal is to make the negotiation transparent — when both parties can see the same numbers, the deal either makes sense or it doesn’t.