Thrift Flip Profit Calculator
Profit on a resale after fees, postage and supplies.
Calculate profit on reselling a thrifted item after platform fees, postage and supplies, with the list price needed for a target profit.
Profit
$37.15
57.2% margin · $74.30/hr
Fees are charged on the total the buyer paid, shipping included — which is why the fee is larger than the item price alone suggests. The list price above solves backwards through that fee rather than adding it on top.
How the Thrift Flip Profit Calculator works
The two figures resellers get wrong are in opposite directions. Fees apply to the shipping the buyer paid as well as the item, which makes the fee larger than expected; and the postage you actually paid rarely matches what you charged, which quietly eats the difference. Both are here, along with the list price that would hit a profit you name.
Also known as: reseller profit calculator · flip profit calculator
Two errors that point opposite ways
The first is that platform fees apply to the shipping the buyer paid, not just the item. A 13% fee on a £60 item with £5 postage is charged on £65, so it is £8.45 rather than £7.80. Small per item, relentless across a year.
The second is the gap between postage charged and postage paid. Sellers set a flat rate and carrier prices rise, so the difference is absorbed quietly on every order. It shows up as margin that never quite materialises.
Working backwards to a list price hits a third problem: the fee is charged on the price you are solving for. Adding the fee to your target gives an answer that is short. The correct form divides — target plus costs, over one minus the fee rate — which is the same shape as reverse VAT.
A worked example
An item sourced for £12, sold for £60 with £5 postage charged, on a platform taking 13% plus £0.40. Revenue is £65, fees are £8.85, so £56.15 lands. Take off the £12 cost, £6 of actual postage and £1 of packaging and the profit is £37.15 — a 57% margin and a 310% return on cost.
To clear £20 on the same item, the list price is not £20 plus costs. It is (£20 + £12 + £6 + £0.40 − £5 × 0.87) ÷ 0.87, which is about £39. Adding the fee on top instead would have produced a price roughly £5 short.
Where the answer misleads
Per-item profit says nothing about whether the business works. An item earning £37 that took two hours to source, photograph, list and pack pays under £19 an hour before any unsold stock is counted. The hourly rate calculator is the honest companion to this one.
It also assumes the item sells. Sell-through on general resale is commonly 50 to 70% within a season, so the items that never sell have to be carried by the ones that do. A 57% margin on the sold half is a 25% margin overall.
Returns are the other omission. A returned item costs the outbound postage, sometimes the return postage, and the fee is not always refunded in full. On categories with high return rates that is a real deduction from every calculated margin.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate resale profit?
Take the sale price plus any shipping the buyer paid, subtract the platform's percentage and flat fee on that whole amount, then subtract what the item cost, the postage you paid and your packaging. What is left is profit.
Do fees apply to shipping?
On most marketplaces, yes — the fee is charged on the total the buyer paid, including postage. That surprises sellers who price the item to cover the fee and forget the shipping is also being charged.
What margin should I aim for?
Resellers commonly target 50 to 70% of the sale price after fees and cost of goods. Below about 30% there is no room for a return, a postage rise or an item that sells for less than hoped — all of which happen routinely.
What price should I list at?
Work backwards from the profit you want. Because the fee is charged on the price you are solving for, the calculation divides rather than adds: target plus costs, divided by one minus the fee rate.