Tag & Tally
Tool 2 · Max buy price

Should I buy it? What’s the most I can pay?

Standing in the aisle with an item in your hand: type what it sells for and the profit you want to make. You get the highest price you can pay and still hit it, after the platform’s fees, postage, packaging and any ad rate.

1The sale
$
Use recent sold prices, not asking prices.
$
0 for free shipping. Poshmark ignores this: the buyer pays Poshmark.
$
Ignored for Poshmark and local sales.
$
Mailer, tape, tissue.
%
eBay, Facebook and Depop take their fee on the tax too. Try 8.
2Where you’ll sell it and what you want
Your target
$
After fees, postage, packaging and what you pay.
$
Anything you’ll spend on it on top of the price tag.
3Platform settings
Rates from eBay’s fee page. Sneakers at $150+ also skip the per-order fee.
%
General campaign. Charged on item + shipping + tax, only when the sale follows an ad click. 0 if you don’t promote.

Nothing extra to set for this platform.

Pay no more than
$0.00

    Same item, other platforms

    PlatformMax buyBreak-even

    Uses your same target. eBay rows use your category and ad rate; Depop uses your boost setting.

    How the max buy price is worked out

    Profit in dollars

    max buy = (price + shipping − fees − postage − packaging) − target − repairs

    Everything in the brackets is what the sale leaves you before you’ve paid for the item.

    Return on cost

    max buy = (what the sale leaves) ÷ (1 + ROI) − repairs

    ROI here is profit divided by what you put in (the price plus repairs). 100% means you double your money.

    Rules of thumb vs the maths

    Plenty of flippers say “pay no more than a third of what it sells for.” That works on mid-priced items, but on cheap ones the fixed fees and postage take a much bigger bite, so the safe share drops. The “% of the sale price” line shows where your item really lands.

    Pay no more than$0.00