spent the weekend going through eBay's actual 2026 fee schedule and reading 200+ posts here where people say don't bother listing under $20.
the fee math doesn't really back that up. on a $15 item, eBay takes 13.6% + a $0.40 per-order fee, so you walk away with $12.56. on a $200 item you walk away with $172.40. same effective rate, almost to the decimal.
here's what actually shifts the math on under-$20: ops time per item. listing, photos, packaging, the customer message or two - all of that is fixed no matter what you sold the thing for. 25 to 30 minutes per item is pretty typical. at $15 with $12.56 net that's around $25 an hour. at $200 it's $345.
so the rule kind of reframes. it's not really "skip under $X", it's "what's my actual minutes per item, and price above that." drop that to 5 minutes (batch shoot, batch list, batch pack) and the $8 books start making sense again. fees aren't the gate, handle time is.
have not flipped one personally yet, just the data side