Selling Trading Cards on eBay from Bulgaria and the EU: Real Fees

Sell a One Piece leader from Sofia to a US buyer for $100 on ebay.com and about $82 reaches you, before you pay for the label. That is roughly 18% gone to fees, and it is worth paying when the card is rare enough that only a buyer across the ocean will pay full price. The reason the maths looks like this: a Bulgaria-registered account counts as "EU Unsited", because Bulgaria has no eBay site of its own, so your fees mix two eBay pages.

Who you are to eBay: the EU Unsited seller

eBay runs separate sites for some countries (ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.co.uk) and groups the rest. Sellers registered in Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and several others are "EU Unsited". For you, eBay says the selling fees come from the fees page of the site you list on, and the international fee and currency charge come from the global sellers page.

In practice that means two things:

1. The final value fee depends on which eBay site carries the listing.
2. The international fee depends on where the buyer's delivery address is, compared to your registered country.

The same seller in Plovdiv can therefore pay a different total on two identical Charizard sales, one to Vienna and one to Texas.

The fees on an ebay.com listing

On ebay.com, trading cards sit in a category group with its own rate. Collectible Card Games, Non-Sport Trading Cards and Sports Trading Cards pay 13.25% on the total amount of the sale up to $7,500, calculated per item, and 2.35% on the portion over $7,500. On top comes a per order fee: $0.30 for orders of $10.00 or less, $0.40 above.

Watch the word "total". eBay calculates the fee on the item price plus handling, the shipping the buyer pays, sales tax and other applicable fees. A card at $20 with $15 tracked shipping to the US pays 13.25% on $35, not on $20. The ebay.com fee page also lists up to 250 zero insertion fee listings a month; check the count your own account shows before you list a whole binder.

The international fee by buyer destination

For EU Unsited sellers, eBay charges an international fee when the buyer's delivery address is outside your registered address country. It is calculated on the total amount of the sale and deducted from your proceeds automatically.

So a sale from Sofia to a buyer in Germany or Italy carries no international fee, and a sale to Japan or Australia carries the highest.

The currency conversion charge

If you list in dollars and get paid in euros, eBay converts the money and keeps a margin. For sellers in all other eBay global countries, Bulgaria included, the seller currency conversion charge is 3.0%. eBay also states that from 2 December 2026 this charge will be increasing, so check the table again before you price a December batch.

What you keep: a worked example

A Bulgarian seller lists a graded One Piece leader on ebay.com. A US buyer pays $100 in total, card and shipping together.

Postage comes out of what you keep, because you bought the label. You can run your own numbers in the eBay fee calculator.

For comparison, Cardmarket keeps 5% of each sale from a private seller. The full breakdown is in Cardmarket seller fees explained. eBay costs more per sale, and in return it reaches buyers in the US and Asia, outside the European countries on Cardmarket's list of available countries.

What about ebay.de?

eBay.de has a separate page for private sellers. It says that selling items on eBay.de within Germany is free, gives 320 listings a month without an insertion fee, then €0.50 each, and charges an international fee of 5% if you organise international shipping yourself. The page lists Bulgaria among the EEA countries whose private sellers are not on the separate fee table for sellers living outside the EEA.

What the page does not spell out is how a private account registered in Bulgaria, shipping from Sofia to Munich, is charged. Do not build a price list on the word "free" until you have seen the fees on your first ebay.de sale in your own account.

Customs: UK and US buyers

Since your parcel leaves the EU, the buyer's country can add tax or duty. Only the official rules count here.

United Kingdom. For goods in consignments of £135 or less sold through an online marketplace, the UK government says the online marketplace must charge and account for VAT at the point of sale. The £135 limit applies to the value of the whole consignment, not to individual items. Above that, normal import rules apply.

United States. In July 2025 the White House ordered that the duty-free de minimis exemption shall no longer apply to any shipment, for goods entered from 29 August 2025, on a global basis regardless of value or country of origin. Small parcels of cards to US buyers can therefore carry duty that used to be waived. These rules have changed several times since, so check the current position with your postal operator or courier before the first US sale, and tell the buyer in the listing that import charges may apply.

Your own income tax is a separate question. In Bulgaria the tax exemption for selling your own belongings excludes collectibles (ЗДДФЛ чл. 13), and whether trading cards count as collectibles is not settled, so keep your purchase receipts. Marketplaces also report sellers with 30 or more sales or over €2,000 a year to the tax authority under DAC7 (ДОПК чл. 143я).

This is not legal or tax advice. Check with an accountant or your courier for your case.

Selling on eBay from Bulgaria: a checklist for today

1. Register your eBay account with your real Bulgarian address, so the EU Unsited fee rules apply to you correctly.
2. Pick the site by buyer: ebay.com for US and worldwide reach, and check the fee page of any other site before you list there.
3. Price in the buyer's currency, and add the 3.0% conversion charge to your maths.
4. Use tracked shipping for anything you would cry over. Our guide to shipping trading cards safely in the EU covers the packing.
5. Write "import charges may apply" in every listing that ships outside the EU.
6. After the first sale, open the fee report in your account and check every line against this guide.

When eBay is worth it, and when it is not

eBay is very good at reach. A US collector hunting a specific alt art, a Japanese buyer chasing an English first edition, a UK player who never opened Cardmarket: eBay puts your listing in front of all of them. For cards worth $100 or more, where 18% still leaves a healthy number and the global audience lifts the price, it earns its fee.

It works less well for €2 to €20 singles going to buyers in your own country. A €10 card sold to a buyer in Sofia carries the full card category fee, and the buyer pays postage from a stranger instead of meeting you at the tournament. Buyers who live near you, or who already know you, rarely need eBay in the middle.

Vinted is another option many European sellers try for cheaper cards. See selling trading cards on Vinted for how its fee model differs.

Your own shop for the buyers you already have

A split that makes sense: eBay for the expensive card that needs the world, a zero-commission shop for everyone else.

On Foilio the shop is free, Foilio takes no cut of your sales, and the buyer pays you directly by the method you offer, agreed in the order chat. You can upload your stock as a CSV or Excel file, up to 300 cards per upload, and every card shows a Cardmarket reference trend next to your price.

For Bulgarian buyers shipped with Speedy, set every parcel up the same way: the buyer can inspect before paying, pays cash or card, no declared value and no insurance fee, and the recipient pays delivery, so the cash on delivery amount is the cards only. Speedy lists office to office at €2.69 up to 3 kg with delivery in one working day, and inspecting before paying is free with cash on delivery but not available for lockers, so send to an office or an address.

Foilio does not bring a global audience the way eBay does, and it holds no money between you and the buyer. It is the place where the people who already buy from you can do it without a fee on every card. See Delin Collectibles in Sofia for a working example, and the step by step in how to open a shop.

FAQ

What is eBay's fee for trading cards on ebay.com?

13.25% of the total sale up to $7,500 per item, 2.35% above that, plus $0.30 or $0.40 per order. The total includes shipping the buyer pays.

Does a seller in Bulgaria pay eBay's international fee on sales to Germany?

No, if the account is registered in Bulgaria. The EU Unsited table charges 0% for buyers in the Eurozone and Sweden. UK buyers cost 1.2%, the US and Canada 1.6%.

Can I avoid the currency conversion charge?

The 3.0% applies when eBay converts your funds because the listing currency differs from your payout currency. Selling in euros on a euro site to euro buyers avoids the conversion.

Will my UK buyer pay VAT on a card I sell on eBay?

For consignments of £135 or less sold through a marketplace, eBay as the marketplace charges and accounts for the UK VAT at checkout. Above £135, normal import rules apply.

Is eBay or Cardmarket cheaper for a seller in the EU?

Cardmarket keeps 5% from private sellers; eBay.com's card fee is 13.25% plus extras. Cardmarket is cheaper inside Europe, eBay reaches buyers outside it. You can use both, plus your own shop for buyers who already know you.

Start selling

Open your free shop → It takes a name and a minute, and Foilio takes no cut.

See a live shop → Delin Collectibles in Sofia, set up the way this guide describes.