Selling sneakers on eBay will soon cost a little bit more.
Beginning Jan. 22, non-store merchants listing sneakers for sale for over $100 on the peer-to-peer marketplace will face final value fees of 8 percent, while basic and above store subscribers will pay 7 percent of the value of their sales. The new policy reverses course from a 2019 decision to waive fees on sneaker sales altogether.
“As we continue to invest in our platform, we are making changes to final value fees for Men’s and Women’s sneakers listed in the Athletic Shoes category,” eBay said in a statement on its website. “This investment will allow us to continue to bring new features and services, like Authenticity Guarantee and 3D true view, that drive trust and transparency in the sneakers categories.”
As the resale market continues to heat up in apparel and footwear, streetwear-focused websites like Goat, StockX and Stadium Goods have risen to prominence in the sneaker space. EBay has invested in programs and technology designed to help sellers create high-quality listings that could encourage consumers to purchase with confidence.
Ebay closed on a deal to acquire a sneaker authentication platform from event company Sneaker Con in late November, continuing a partnership that began last fall. It worked with the group to expand its Authenticity Guarantee to cover all new and pre-owned collectible sneakers sold for more than $100 in the U.S., building out an authentication facility and implementing new verification standards. At the time, eBay said that a sneaker is sold every 1.5 seconds on its platform—signaling the need for strict authentication measures.
Earlier in December, the company announced a partnership with 3D content platform Unity to pilot new “true view” technology that uses interactive, 360-degree visualization to showcase product details on select sneakers starting this month.
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“We are among the first in the resale market to bring this level of visualization detail and ease-of-use to consumers, and we believe it will be a game changer for our sellers and buyers,” eBay chief artificial intelligence officer Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov said. The experience will allow buyers to “examine the actual item they’re looking to buy from every possible angle, as if holding it in their hands, from the stitching to the sole to the quality of the material and everything in between,” he added.
Despite its investments in advanced capabilities, eBay said the new selling fee structure remains “the most cost-competitive” among popular online marketplaces for sneaker resale. Goat charges a $5 seller fee for each pair of sneakers sold, along with a 9.5-percent commission and 2.9-percent cash-out fee. Meanwhile, StockX’s transaction fee is 10 percent, coupled with a 3-percent charge for payment processing, and Stadium Goods sellers pay 20-percent commissions and 1-percent transaction fees on each sale.