You sold a trading card for €50. That sounds like a good result, but €50 is revenue, not profit. Before deciding whether the sale was worthwhile, you need to subtract what the card cost you, the selling charges and the cost of getting it safely to the buyer.
This guide walks through a simple EUR example without assuming a universal eBay fee rate. Use your own transaction figures and the Cardmarket and eBay fee and profit calculator to check the numbers before buying or listing another card.
1. Start with the money received
Write down the card's selling price and any postage paid by the buyer separately. Together, they are the income for this calculation. Do not confuse the amount paid into your bank account with the full sale amount: charges may already have been deducted, and subtracting them again would understate your profit.
For our example, the card sells for €50 and the buyer pays €3 for delivery. Total income is therefore €53. Keep those two inputs separate in your records so you can see whether your delivery charge actually covers sending the order.
2. Include the card's full acquisition cost
Use what you actually paid to acquire the card, including an appropriate share of any inbound postage. If you bought several cards together, choose a consistent way to allocate that delivery cost rather than forgetting it.
Here, the card cost €28 and its allocated inbound postage was €1. The total acquisition cost is €29. For cards bought in a collection, record a reasonable allocation of the purchase price instead of treating every card as free once the first few sales recover your money.
3. Use actual selling charges, not a guessed rate
Check the charges shown for your transaction and include any other selling costs attributable to it. For an estimate before a sale, verify the current official eBay guidance for your marketplace and seller circumstances, and check any assumptions the calculator uses.
In this worked example, we assume €6 in total selling charges purely to demonstrate the arithmetic. That is a fictional input, not an eBay fee quote, published rate or prediction for your account. Replace it with your own verified amount. This article deliberately provides no fee table or percentage schedule.
4. Subtract postage and protective packaging
The delivery money collected from the buyer is not automatically profit. Subtract the postage you actually purchase, plus the sleeve, rigid protection, envelope and other packaging used for this order.
Our example uses €3.20 for outbound postage and €0.80 for packaging, a combined €4. If you buy packaging in bulk, divide the pack cost by the usable quantity to get a sensible per-order figure.
5. Calculate the result
The calculation is: income minus acquisition cost, selling charges, outbound postage and packaging.
€53 − €29 − €6 − €3.20 − €0.80 = €14 profit.
You kept €14 after the costs included here, not €50. This is a transaction-level result before overheads, the value of your time and any applicable taxes. If an order involves a refund, return or another later adjustment, revisit the record so your result reflects what actually happened.
6. Repeat the calculation before your next purchase
Open the Cardmarket and eBay fee and profit calculator and use your expected sale amount, purchase cost and relevant selling and delivery costs. Compare a realistic selling price with a lower-price scenario. A deal that works only at the highest possible sale price leaves little room for negotiation or surprises.
For ongoing tracking, TCGPro is a Mac app costing €39 one-time, with local data. It reads Cardmarket stock through a free, read-only Chrome/Edge extension when you press Sync, and uses a read-only eBay API. Listing and sales entry remain manual.
Start with the calculator, replace assumptions with verified figures, and judge each card by what you keep, not just what it sells for.