eBay Spreadsheet: What Reselling an AliExpress Buy on eBay Actually Leaves You

What's left after eBay's fees on an AliExpress item?

The numbers below are illustrative — your item, price and postage will differ — but the fee rates are eBay's published ones for most US categories, and every line is calculated, not estimated.

Fee rates from eBay's Seller Center (most categories, US). Item, price and postage are our example figures.

Two things stand out. First, eBay charges its percentage on the shipping you collect too, so a high shipping charge doesn't dodge the fee. Second, the fixed costs — postage and the per-order fee — weigh heavily on cheap items. At $14.57 you only break even; below that, every sale loses money.

Verdict: On a low-priced item, postage and the per-order fee decide whether reselling is worth it. Work out break-even before you buy stock.

eBay's seller fees in one table

eBay's main US fees for sellers without a store subscription:

Sources: eBay Seller Center; Taxomate (updated June 9, 2026). Other categories and store subscriptions differ.

Sourcing from AliExpress affects one more cost that doesn't appear in eBay's table: time. AliExpress delivery to you takes one to three weeks, so either you hold stock, or you list items you don't yet have and accept that late delivery will hurt your seller rating. Most sellers hold a little stock of what sells reliably.

A free margin spreadsheet for eBay

The free AliExpress dropshipping CSV does this sum for every product in a list. You enter the AliExpress cost, your selling price, the shipping you charge and your postage, and set the marketplace fee — 13.6% and $0.40 for eBay, or whatever your platform charges — and it returns profit and margin per row. Open it in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

If you buy in quantity, it's worth adding a second cost column for the same product on 1688 through an agent. The 1688 page shows the landed cost per unit falling to around half the AliExpress price at twenty units, which can turn a thin eBay margin into a comfortable one.

What you can and can't resell

A word on what you resell. eBay's VeRO programme lets brand owners have listings removed, and repeated removals can restrict an account. The branded-looking items on many community spreadsheets are exactly what VeRO targets. Reselling works with unbranded goods, generic accessories, and products under your own label — not with items that borrow someone else's trademark.

The same caution applies on AliExpress, whose EU fine in 2026 was specifically about illegal and unsafe products: listings that look branded are removed more often, so a supplier you relied on can disappear overnight. Keep two suppliers for anything that sells well.

Timing: AliExpress delivery against eBay handling times

eBay asks sellers to state a handling time — how long before an order is dispatched — and buyers expect delivery within a few days. AliExpress delivery to you typically takes one to three weeks. That gap is the practical problem with reselling AliExpress goods, and there are two honest ways around it.

The first is to hold stock: buy a few units of products that sell steadily, so you can ship eBay orders from home the same week. The second is to list with a longer handling or delivery estimate and make that clear in the listing, which suits buyers who value price over speed but reduces your visibility in search. Listing items you don't have with short handling times, and hoping AliExpress arrives in time, is the approach that damages seller ratings. Track what you've ordered and when it's due with the order tracker, so stock never surprises you.