Can you make money buying, selling & investing in LEGO? Let's break down the numbers!
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- My Ebay Store: www.ebay.com/str/jakesbricks
LEGO catalogue for MSRP and retirement dates: Brickset.com
Time Codes
0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Set #1
2:15 - Breaking down the numbers
6:00 - Set #2
8:59 - The key to LEGO investing
10:01 - Set #3
13:28 - Set #4
17:02 - My Final Thoughts
#LEGOinvesting #Investing #LEGO #SideHustle
What a great video
Probably the most honest perspective on LEGO investing especially in light of the number of articles spouting LEGO as a great investment.
Some think you can just buy it and let it sit for several years and get 1000% msrp
Great work Jake
Wow thanks Kevin! Appreciate the feedback!
Love all of your videos! I’ve learned so much from them! Thanks and keep up the awesome work!
Anthony! Thanks my friend appreciate it!
This is the most accurate, most relevant video I’ve ever seen regarding LEGO investing. This made me excited again as it mirrors my style and experience. A lot seems to boast their Amazon sales or how they are ungated but that’s not realistic for some hobbyists that just want to find their hobbies a bit. I only sell on eBay, it seems to be my happy medium and have been successful with it but haven’t sold much. I learned and confirmed what I know this video and learning more. I can’t wait for your next videos. Thank you sir.
Well thanks for the feedback IC! Sounds like we are close to the same level of selling... I am far from doing this full time but love doing it as a side hustle! More videos to come! Happy building and investing!
@@JakesBricks thanks again for sharing your experience. I just started using the boxes and hopefully make it easier to find stuff now that I’ll probably ramp up selling this year. Question though, point me to the right direction if you already posted it, how do you manage inventory? Just Excel? Any apps? You gave me some tips how to streamline my excel too.
Love the info! Thanks!
Sure thing!
Love the vids, keep em up
Thanks Jacks!
Love the channel and the positivity.
Well thanks Connor!
Nice calculated.
Everyone think it's easy, but sometimes you never know with set will be performing well.
Extremely good video, similar to my spreadsheet 👍
Thanks! Appreciate it
keep up the good work. Your balanced perspective of winners and losers is good, the audience will appreciate it.
Thanks Kal!
That was an awesome idea jake mate thank you
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A useful video - thanks!
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Ah yes, the old adage of 'make your money on the buy', great vid Jake! This is a fairly accurate breakdown of the true fees and costs associated with reselling Lego, a good counterpoint to all the 'lego is more lucrative than gold' articles that keep popping up.
Here's my latest win: my 200 tie fighter helmets have appreciated quite nicely, I was able to get a third of my quantity for only $25 each during that crazy Target Black Friday sale. I've been selling them for $150.
DANG!!! well done TFF. Those Tie Helmets are HOT right now
Those unexpected wins are the most rewarding
Just subbed to you!!! You’re so awesome! Love legos!
Thx Matthew!
@@JakesBricks you’re welcome! Can’t wait to know more about the botanical, Architecture and Disney sets :)
Thanks for the video. What about packing and shipping costs? How do you box and pack the bought items? Thank you!
I actually use recycled boxes and packing materials from amazon, Walmart, and target for 90% of my orders.
I have been seriously considering starting to do this myself. My personal lego collection has gotten to that "wife is seriously annoyed" level. and Because of my own collection, and looking around e-commerce stores ~1 hour a day, I have learned a lot about potential valuations. While I would love to pick someone's brain with a firehouse of questions, the biggest one is how much time and how much money is required from the first "bulk" purchase & hoard... to start breaking even on my own lego purchases which let's say are ~ between $750-1k/month.
Hey Jacob great question. I may do a video that gives some insight into this soon!
have you (or will you) done any videos on your profits for a quarter or year? I'm always curious. Most videos I come across are like this of what you could make, but I don't really see videos on what people do make.
I have not yet! I probably should pull back the curtain a bit a give a window into my profitability. Will do a video on that soon.
Yeah this is so much different in Europe. The first thing is that when I buy a set tax is included in the price. So let's say it's one of the modular that I've got for 650 PLN. When it retires the price goes up to 1-2 years ~1500-2000 more than 2 years ~2500-3000 PLN. When I sell it on Allegro which is a better version of e-bay. I will have to pay ~8% for commission. The shipping cost is 20zł. If I do this from time to time and I'm not a company I don't have to pay extra tax. The buyer also doesn't pay any taxes. For the buyer, it's just the price.
Interesting… looks like things are much different in Poland! Great to know and thx for the comment
Awesome
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Very good video, & by the way, the Ebay fees are even higher by a couple of dollars or so, because it's 12.55% X ( $209.00 + 8% State Sales Tax ). I know it's only about a couple of dollars more in this case, but to me it doesn't make sense that Ebay is taking even more of our money by including those taxes. Imagine if you were to sell a $2,000 set, or a $200,000 baseball card.
Agree. Make zero sense to calc fee based on after tax price. eBay is so greedy
EBAY is so greedy! I did forget to add that to my calculation Gators! Thanks for the reminder.
Question:
I have a huge lot of used harry potter sets I want to sell. They are all basically complete with all the minifigures. Should I sell all of it in 1 or should I sell the castle parts as one thing and the minifigures as a separate thing?
I think it’s usually worth it to sell as complete sets with instructions. If you sell all the sets as a whole lot your return will be less but sometimes that’s way easier
Hi there. I'm UK based. Found your video very interesting as our markets are slightly different.
Yes I have several friends in the LEGO community on your side of the pond... I think the markets are very different. Certain sets with much higher returns other sets with no value at all.
@@JakesBricks we have stock shortages here. For example the Adam West Batmobile is impossible to find. It's only in Lego shops. I see it's in Walmart in the US
Really nice video, but you actually underestimate the eBay fees, as I learned the hard way. eBay takes 12.5%. (+$.30) of the total purchase price, which includes not only shipping but also tax the BUYER pays on the sale. So you essentially have to guess what tax they’re paying, and add that in to the calculation before you multiple by 12.5%. I usually multiple by 14% just to be safe. Thanks for all the great videos!
This is also why having to pay tax on your eBay gains is absolute BS.
You are very right forgot to mention they charge fees based on tax which is absolutely ridiculous!
Just sell on Mercari. So simple and discounted shipping.
@@noampitlik2332 True true... but I have noticed typically lower selling prices and equal fees to ebay
@@JakesBricks Well, there is no listing fee and all sales are 10% to the house. Also, they had a 3 pound fedex deal for 7.99. Now it is 9.66. Their 13 dollar 9 pound ups rate is awesome. And the feedback ratings are unseen until both rate the transaction. Much less petty feadback games.
But, also far less people looking on Mercari. Things sell slower.
nice video!
Thanks!
@@JakesBricks welcome! you have super super cool coolections!
Hey Jake, here in KC, where do you buy your lego? I’ve been hitting the lego store of course but we only have one and it’s small. what about secondary market? Any good lego reseller retail stores I don’t know about?
Sam What's up man! Would love to chat feel free to shoot me an email. jake@jakesbricks.com
Really enjoyed your analysis Jake! I bought 5 of the Tantives in December of 2020 as well for $160 and got the Charles Dickens Christmas promo GWP with each one so that has made it a more tolerable investment. Too bad I didn't put that money in Tie Fighter Helmets 😕
mothe.... that's why I couldn't get any tantive for myself.
Same Same! I did get the Dickens promo with one of mine forgot about that!
They were available for a long time at $160 on LEGO.com if I recall a couple of weeks if I remember correctly
I like how reality base these videos are!
What are your thoughts on the 501st set I see that many stores still have it. Have u gotten any sets and if so how much?
I think MOC builders with Clone armies will need them but I think they are heavily hoarded and readily available everywhere... So I am not sold that they will have great returns. I have 6 currently at $24 each
Thoughts on 41927 dots creative party kit? I bought one for 10 bucks clearance. I'm nervous to pull the trigger on 10 more.
Sorry 41926
I am not sold out on dots yet but I did pick up a bunch at 70% off 2 years ago... They haven't really appreciated in value but I shouldn't "lose" money ha!
Thanks for the reply. I might buy 5 because I'm at about 70 percent off.
@@brianproctor7619 it’s hard to pass up LEGO at 70% off so I would probably do the same 😏
Can you start by investing in smaller not so expensive sets at the beginning?
You for sure can! That’s how I started. I will try and talk about that more in an upcoming video
I noticed that you do free shipping on all of your sets. I’m wondering what your thought is behind that. Versus having the buyer pay for shipping. I think it does help that you’re in the middle of the country essentially so maybe you can be confident in what your shipping costs are going to be. I am in Seattle and so shipping can vary quite a bit since everything‘s going somewhere across the country.
Hey Mick great question. When you search for a set on eBay typically I have noticed they like to put free shipping searches towards the top. I usually make it so that my price is 3-10% higher than the lowest available+shipping. For example if a set is available for 200+shipping and I see the shipping costs as $15 so $215 total I will typically charge $225-$240 and will likely end up selling the item quicker than if I charged shipping. That’s been my experience but others have disagreed with me… sure it hurts when I have to ship to Seattle or Maine but I usually make that back shipping to Texas, Colorado, Illinois, etc. overall I’d say it evens out and I think eBay buyers search by free shipping often as well. That’s my 2 cents hope it helps
How do u know how much the legos increase in price? It says 11% on google but doing more research I found it it’s 7.1 % with Harry Potter legos. But I have new and vintage Harry Potter legos so I was wondering how that worked do vintage go up in value more depending on the set? And do they for sure go up 7.1 % and is that if there retired sets or normal and does it just depend if it goes up in price or not?
Hey DBP! Those are great questions and not questions I have a universal answer to. I don't typical invest in older or vintage LEGO sets as their price jumps typical fall off after 2-3 years. 11% annually is probably the average. Some sets don't go up at all and others go up 50-60% per year. There are a ton of factors that play into quality sets for investing which I will talk about in another video
I think the real question is whether the interest in Lego investing starts to overwhelm the limited supply seen in the past and reduce the profit margins. I'm not sure we'll start to see hedge funds warehouse Lego anytime soon but Wallstreet's entrance into the space could complicate matters greatly. Would we see an ETF of Lego where folks just trade interests in a warehouse full of Lego indexed to actual sales (would there need to be a more official Lego exchange first?). Would the ETF window allow shareholders to exchange shares for Lego sets or even deposit Lego in exchange for shares? Would the warehousing of such actually cause the supply to be more limited as the real supply is set aside to just sit in a warehouse and cause prices to rise further? I think we probably should all hope that Wallstreet doesn't enter the picture...seriously though most video attempts at determining investment returns suggest that most mutual fund managers should just abandon stocks and bonds and just buy retiring lego sets (perhaps even the Tantive IV).
Ya the moment a big player shows up on the scene it could change the game... But Wall street (from my limited knowledge) focuses a lot on stocks and real estate not so much CPG. But Again I am a novice in that area.
Why are the shipping and handling costs not all passed to the buyer? I would have thought this would be a wash. Is the competition for shipping costs such that sellers are subsidizing shipping costs? Ie should column G really be used in the profit calc?
Hey Sidney... I think I understand what you are saying. I choose to do free shipping on Ebay because I have found that is more attractive to the buyer and just eat the cost. I noticed that I can sell items at a higher price with free shipping. The only time it hurts is when I have to ship to Seattle or South Florida.
Bro I also live in KC. But I'm like an hour away from the Overland Park Lego store so that sucks.
I am 45 min... I does suck not gunna lie.
Hello sir just getting my feet wet in the Lego investment world… question is recently discovered that the Disney castle is retiring. Would this be a good place for me to begin in the investments of legos?
It would be a great place to start. Although that is an expensive set to buy to get your feet wet. I am not 100% certain it is retiring this year but when it does I’m sure it will do great!
I’ve been heading to my local bin store and have been picking up really good sets for 8-10 dollars. Some sell for 60-100+ dollars a pop.
Invader this is amazing!!! Well done!
I ve read an article in a financial magazine that said Lego is an investment with the highest return.
It is a great investment but it takes a lot of work
So how do u make money from Lego if sets don’t retire until around the end of the year? Or is this like a side hustle and you just wait till the end of the year?
Oh ya this is totally a side hustle I am not doing this full time. I would have to scale up about 500% to be able to support myself. I really just give lego selling advice to people who want side income or want to help fund their collection like I do!
If I want to start with a 1000 dollar how different lego set and which one and how many set should I get of each
Hard to answer that question right now. But would love to have you join the Jake’s bricks district to learn more and ask questions district.net/jakesbricks
Question cant you charge for shipping so that you dont have to eat the cost of shipping?
It’s all relative. I just charge a bit more and then offer free shipping
eBay currently calc the fee based on selling price + shipping + tax. Fee will be a little higher actually
That's true forgot about tax on the sale
What about creating a Shopify or WordPress site to sell Lego from?
That is a great option to save on fees you just will get significantly less traffic. I have a squarespace site that I haven't put much time into that would love to have e-commerce set up on some day but dont yet.
I don't understand the added tax portion, it that capital gains or does the advertised price not include sales tax in the USA?
Advertised price does not include sales tax in the US
@@JakesBricks so when anyone in the US does a review video of a set and they show the price, would you assume that that is the price before tax?
@@lunch2102 I would! It varies here is the US state to state and city to city. For example Delaware has no sales tax but if you are in Kansas City, Kansas it can be as high as 9%
Cool explain, thank you! My allowance monthly is $30 and I with my brother also want to invest in Lego (sounds easy money). Will it be not risky to pickup some cool $30 Lego set, and resell it in a month for let's say $40? This way, next moth I have already more to spend and basically just within a half year will reach $100 level of Leo sets. And this is already different league. Bit concerning me also possibility to get robbed by meeting some person and reselling my Lego.
If you can find a first flying lesson or classic batmobile I’d start there
@@JakesBricks Thank you!! After watching few more your videos, I am thinking about Harry Potter Chess. I see this set available locally with discounts, which made me think, that it completely "under radar", so I will get bit more money and grab it. I personally not "Harry Potter" fan, so wouldn't even pay attention to this set, but you were right about it. Except it - the Lego Chess is relative novelty, and people might want it after one one year or so.
Ideally most the time you’d prefer the buyer to pay shipping so that’s more $ in your pocket
True! I usually go based on the free shipping baseline for sold listings
I was wondering why the shipping cost was being deducted from the profit when it was being charged to the buyer in most of the listings shown as examples. Glad that got cleared up 👍🏼
this video needs to be relabeled hot spreadsheet tips
your probably right!
$32 if you sell at $209, but where another seller had to accept something under $199, that shows low demand. I would suggest your actual profit might be $10. eBay and FedEx are the ones making all the money here.
Too true
what with the ultimate warrior facepaint?
Face paint?
in my country at local website for buying and selling we pay 0$ to put add and when we sell, but only people from this country and maybe some near country look at those sites, so i dont know if would sell legos when i want to sell. if i would use ebay i would asume someone in the world would buy it, but here no way to have that info if i can sell.
Curious what country you are in?
@@JakesBricks Serbia
Jake I live in KC, and just started investing in January. anyway you could give me some advice. Maybe we could meet up and talk shop.
Hey Sam just sent you a message on your other comment. Shoot me an email Jake@jakesbricks.com
You don't seem to realize that Tantive IV set was a remake of earlier version. Remakes generally dilute the profitability. It had nothing to do with the UCS label LOL...
This is very true! But from what I have noticed remakes dilute profitability of the original set more than the newer set but that is a great thought that I didn't mention/consider
@@JakesBricks It also depends on if the original or remake is the better set. Sometimes the newer remake is not an improvement.
@@studebricker2845 that is a great point!
Theres always 2 ways to make money on something
Thees an old saying you make money on the buy not the sell
You need to make sure your buy in price is low to maximise your profits or reduce your losses and most of all reduce your holding costs
Fbmp always has NIB items so can also be a worthwhile place to find sets to hold that have already retired , esp after christmas theres unwanted gifts
Ebay fees are huge , bricklink has low fees and sits there like ebay , but fbmp can be the real winner , set your price and have local buyers pickup theres no fees and no shipping so esp on that larger set youve now made a huge margin instead of losing it on ebay fees and shipping
Great great thoughts J5s! Love your perspective
@@JakesBricks another thing to be very mindful of is not putting all your eggs in one basket being ebay ,
Read any of the ebay fb groups and regularly there will be a seller that ebay shuts down and they will not allow them back on the site nor give them any reason as to why they have shut them down nor discuss it
Lego investing should be for hobby and fun only because the profit you mention will go "poof" on a tank of gas or a nice diner for 2. Selling on eBay takes a lot of time to list and if it sells, it takes time to find a box and package it, and then drive to the post office or whatever to mail it. By the time its all done you probably have spent 3 hours from beginning to end. Your time per hour should be the minimum wage of $15/hr which means 3 hrs equals to $45 that should be calculated to your cost on the profit. I was a collector of collectibles, and for long term investment I was better off putting my money in the SP500. The other collectible stuff I sold, yes I made a profit but not as much when adjusted for inflation...
Great feedback! And 100% agree I don't think LEGO investing and buying/selling will probably be many peoples full time gig but it has helped me fund my building hobby!
You need to do a follow up and add in the federal taxes on profits that went into effect this year. Cap to report sales was $20k and is now $600. Government gotta get their cut of Lego now.
I mean you should have been reporting your sales all along even if you didn't get a 1099...
What about packaging, PayPal fees and potential returns
Great question. 99% of my packaging I reuse from other orders. Out of 5 years on eBay I have gotten 6 returns and offers 8 partial refunds. In the video I talk about eBay fees. PayPal and eBay aren’t really friends anymore
I've only done this a few times, but always just sell local on Craigslist. I hadn't been on Ebay in a long time and checked on them last year, 14% more or less to sell? LOL, nope. So basically as their sales volume went up so did their share of the sales? Greedy.
It can make money, but not as much as people think. I'm sitting on a UCS Millennium Falcon to sell once that retires, but I wonder how well it will do since I'm sure everyone else has had the same idea.
Hey Wally thx for the comment! Do you actually still sell on Craigslist!? I didn’t know anyone used it anymore! Do you have success selling there?
@@JakesBricks Yeah, never had any big issues. I live less than an hour from a Lego store in DE, so no sales tax. Buy there, sell on Craigslist, pure profit. If you were trying to do more than a few here and there the time wasted by meeting up with buyers would be a factor.
Facebook marketplace can work too, same basic thing.
Us shipping costs seem crazy expensive I just shipped a bass guitar in a huge box for £11
Unreal! Are you UK based?
@@JakesBricks yeah I am
@@Jkv20000 I’ve heard shipping is cheaper inside the UK but I guess it’s close comparable to shipping between two states in the US. I.e. Illinois to Missouri (roughly the same size as the UK) but gotta say I am jealous of those low shipping costs
@@JakesBricks for a box 45cm x 35cm wide 16cm thick you can post for like £3.35 which covers a lot of the smaller sets too. 61 x 46 x 46 is only like £7 as well When the prices are that low people often will pay full price + shipping which helps with profits
Alternative title: why not to sell Lego sets on eBay because their fees are stupid. You’re better off with BrickLink, or even Facebook marketplace.
Very True! But I have noticed that the sell prices are significantly lower on those platforms... I really should investigate bricklink more though
@@JakesBricks I think the prices have started normalizing. Also, most of the cheaper prices are in places like Hong Kong or in Europe, and shipping is a nightmare and expensive now. So it should be better than it's been in previous years.
I dont understand why anyone would use Ebay to sell lego. On bricklink i pay 3% fees.
True but sell prices are much lower... I have found it quite difficult to navigate their platform as well. I probably should look into it more
Most important thing to remember: never get high on your own supply.
Ha truth!!!
How do you feel about the government forcing you to get taxed as income if you make over $600 in a year off doing this now?
It's a bummer but it's fair as I do this as income... I usually make more than $600 and have to report it anyways
@@JakesBricks imo it's not fair. Corporations don't pay any taxes lol
@@JakesBricks I'd be curious to know how that factors into your profits, as you'd have another amount to subtract. After that, is reselling still worth it overall?
I dont own any lego. So no experience. But I think im going to dabble. Will only buy a few star wars and harry potter items selectivly for about $500 to a $1000 See what happens 🤷♂️
Sahweet! Excited for you to start investing in LEGO
@@JakesBricks awsome thanks!
I think eBay make a lot of many, for sure
Well the amount of dollars in fees they charge they sure are
Yeah nice argumentation. But there always has to be someone who absolutely want this exact set for a high price. When you have 5 sells on ebay for a profitable price but there were 20 sellers for a set. Then 15 sellers dont make any profit.
This is great analysis! 100% agree
eBay fees being over 5-6 percent is a crime honestly
It's tough... but they have done a great job cornering the market as an alternative to amazon
You pay 35$ for a package inside the usa? In Germany it costs 5 Euro to everywhere in Germany. The first advantage I see 🙂
Compare size of USA to Germany size
Sounds like your taxes are higher but shipping costs are lower.
@Roman That's a great point Germany in size is smaller than US
@@romanszewczyk8218 yes, the US is huuuuge. Like from Germany to Iraq... but many sets are cheaper in the US than in Germany! Thors Hammer for example. 99usd and 119 Euro? Thats mean. :-)
YES! BUT IF U FIND A REAL JOB AND USE LEGO TO PLAY IS BETTER
I do have a regular job! But that doesn't fund my building hobby so I sell/invest in LEGO on the side to fund my building hobby!
@@JakesBricks I was not referring specifically to you ;) love your videos
But remember you need to sell all 10, not sure it will be done so.
True true
The main reasons I stopped using ebay to sell, is the fees getting out of hand, and feedback policies.
It is tough out there! Where do you sell nowadays?
Everything's performing well. Ebay fees are performing the best.
That platform is highway robbery
Definitely but it’s all we have basically
@@dgripper05 are there really no alternative platforms to resell items besides ebay and amazon?
@@ImaginationHobbies there’s BrickLink but idk about how their fees are since over never sold on there, only bought and the prices to buy for buying in the USA are about the same as on eBay, but yeah eBay, Amazon and BrickLink are the big 3
@Imagination Hobbies Ebay is expensive but like @Dgr1zzle said... It's all we got ha!
I have never sold on brick link but I believe their fees are near 5%
Lego economy school.
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Short answer I don’t think you can make anything to talk about. I have Lego sets that are over 40 years old classic technically oh sets with the technic Lego man and they’re worth a few hundred dollars at most.
I would disagree… although the classic stuff from the 80s has had trouble appreciating there are several sets that have increased 1000% in value over the years
@@JakesBricks so where can I magically get this awesome person that gives me all this money for these sets? Btw. You just proved my point. 1000% of $80 for example is only $800 not exactly what I was hoping for after them being collectables and antique
@@artieartya I started with $100 7 years ago. And yes 1000% return for 40 years is not great. But I know sets that are 1000% return after 5 years. Certainly not all but there are some for sure!
You have 8% tax? WTF, we have 19%... and when we make a profit, we pay 45% taxes of that profit...
Where do you live?
NO
Have you tried?
Sell on Mercari.
I have sold there in the past but I feel like sell prices tend to be lower
@@JakesBricks That may be true. I just wait it out for my price.
@@noampitlik2332 💪💪
I sold a Modular Palace Cinema on eBay yesterday for $340, plus buyer paid $28.36 shipping, plus $27.20 tax. eBay charges 12.9% fees on ALL of that ($395.56 total), so I paid $7.17 fees on $55.56 that I never see. PLUS, since I don't have a balance that eBay already owes me, they charge my credit card for the shipping and pay me back when I get my "settlement." I miss the days when you had the money right away from PayPal and could buy postage from them. I used to be a pretty big BrickLink seller. I have no complaints about BrickLink, but I find that since I seldom sell Lego anymore, it isn't worth the time. Also, eBay does seem to have a larger consumer base who are willing to pay more for sealed sets. Based on my experience, BrickLink is best for part sales and complete sets are best sold elsewhere. Good video, BTW. It is worth mentioning that you might also factor in that buying sets from Lego earns you 5-10% back in points (depending on whether it's Double Points), so that can be helpful...you can save enough points to get a really valuable set at serious discount or free and sell it profitably. And, if you're really crafty, you can use credit card incentives/points to your advantage too. A friend used to get a cash back or discount incentive (I think 6%) on his Toys R Us credit card which you can carry right to the bottom line. Keep up the good work!
PS: More math: Selling Price $340 (Total charged to buyer $395.56) My fees: $51.33, Postage: $28.36, my final proceeds on item sold for $340 was $288.67. Not horrible, since I paid $149.99 for it about 5 years ago (plus tax). I also likely bought it during double points and didn't use points on the purchase.
Steve this area all great thoughts and yes I totally forgot to include the final sell price with tax into my fee calculation. Thanks for the note. Appreciate it and I will probably use some of that advice in future videos