A used guitar is listed at $800 plus $75 shipping. You pay $65 to ship it. You paid $450 for the guitar and $10 to set it up. Reverb marketplace is entered at 5% of the item, payment at 3.19% + $0.49 on item plus shipping charged. These are starting points, not live schedules — overwrite them on the calculator.
Reverb marketplace fee sits on the item, not on postage. Free shipping that keeps the same $875 checkout folds the $75 into the list, so marketplace rises from $40.00 to $43.75. Local pickup keeps the $800 list and drops both shipping charged and the $65 you would have spent.
| Path | Buyer checkout | Fees | Net cash | vs buyer-pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer pays shipping | $875.00 | $68.40 | $281.60 | +$0.00 |
| Shipping included in the price | $875.00 | $72.15 | $277.85 | −$3.75 |
| Local pickup | $800.00 | $66.01 | $273.99 | −$7.61 |
On this example, charging shipping still leaves the most cash. Folding postage into the list costs $3.75 more in marketplace fees. Local pickup leaves −$7.61 versus charging shipping, because you give up $75 of shipping charged to save $65 of postage and a little payment fee. To keep buyer-pays cash with shipping included, list at $879.08.
Pickup can still win when the postage you pay is larger than what you charge, or when shipping charged is already zero. Keeping the $800 list and absorbing the label is a fourth path — walk that on should I eat the shipping. None of those sentences is advice to offer free shipping or pickup — they are the arithmetic on the inputs above.
Change shipping charged, shipping you pay, or the marketplace rate on the calculator and the paths update. Your numbers stay in the browser. Offer versus list is a different question — walk that on should I take this Reverb offer. Buying Reverb's insured label versus your own postage is another question — walk that on should I buy Reverb Safe Shipping. Comparing this guitar to eBay, Etsy, Amazon, or your own store? The where-to-sell calculator ranks Reverb against them with this item's price, shipping, and cost already filled in.
On the worked example — $800 list, $75 shipping charged, $65 postage you pay, $450 gear cost, 5% marketplace, 3.19%+$0.49 payment — charging shipping leaves $281.60. Folding the $75 into an $875 list leaves $277.85 because marketplace fee rises by $3.75. Local pickup at $800 leaves $273.99. The included list that matches buyer-pays cash is $879.08.
Marketplace and Reverb Gives apply to the item price. Payment processing applies to item plus shipping charged. Baking postage into the list moves that postage onto the marketplace line. Enter the rates from your last payout; this page does not claim Reverb's live schedule.
Local pickup uses your list with no shipping charged and no postage you pay. On the worked example that leaves $273.99 versus $281.60 if the buyer pays $75 shipping and you spend $65 to ship. Pickup can win when postage you pay is larger than shipping charged, or when shipping charged is already zero.