The short answer
On a $1.99 card, a promoted listing fee of $0.14 is about 10% of what you actually keep, because you keep $1.42 of that sale, not $1.99.
At a 3% ad rate the maths is survivable. At 10% it is not: on cheap singles a double digit rate eats most of the margin that fees left behind. We spent $1.29 across 9 promoted sales and stopped.
Promoted Listings is sold as a percentage of the sale price, which sounds small. The problem is that your margin is not a percentage of the sale price, it is what survives after everything else.
Start from what a cheap card actually leaves
A $1.99 card returns $1.42 after eBay's cut. Take out the shipping label at $0.88 and you are left with roughly sixty cents of gross margin, before the card, the sleeve and the toploader.
Now apply an ad rate to the sale price, because that is what eBay charges on. 3% of $1.99 is six cents. 10% is twenty cents, which is a third of what was left.
What we actually paid
Between August 16 and 25 we paid 9 promoted listing fees totalling $1.29, averaging $0.14 each. Against a net of $1.42 on a floor card, that is around a tenth of the money.
Small in absolute terms. Large as a share of what a two dollar card leaves, which is the only way to read it.
The rate where it stops paying
| Ad rate | Cost on a $1.99 sale | Share of your net |
|---|---|---|
| 2% | $0.04 | About 3% |
| 3% | $0.06 | About 4% |
| 5% | $0.10 | About 7% |
| 10% | $0.20 | About 14% |
| 15% | $0.30 | About 21% |
Our read: below 5% it is a reasonable experiment on cards that are not moving. Above 10% on floor cards you are buying visibility with money you did not have.
It changes completely on a $30 card, where the same 10% still leaves plenty and the sale is worth chasing. Rate by price band, not one rate for the whole catalogue.
How the fee is actually charged
You only pay when the card sells through a promoted click, so an ad rate is not a budget you burn. That is what makes it feel harmless, and it is also why sellers leave a high rate running on a whole catalogue without noticing the cumulative cost.
The charge appears as a separate line in your payout report, not inside the selling fee, which is why it is easy to miss when you are checking whether a month worked.
Where promotion does make sense
Two situations. A card that is genuinely scarce and hard to find by search, where being visible to the few people looking is worth a real percentage. And a seasonal window, where a set is being opened heavily and attention is temporarily high.
Outside those, the money goes further into more inventory. A dollar spent on ads buys visibility once; a dollar spent on bulk buys about thirteen more cards that stay listed for years.
What we would test instead first
Price. Our data says 60% of cards that sell do it within a week, so a card sitting at day thirty is usually priced wrong rather than invisible. Advertising a mispriced card pays eBay to show more people a price they already rejected.
Then photos and title. Both are free, both change the click rate, and neither takes a percentage of every future sale.
Promote the cards where the margin can absorb it. On a floor card, the cheapest advertising is a better price.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Promoted Listings worth it on cheap cards?
Rarely above a 5% ad rate. On a $1.99 card you keep $1.42 after fees, so a $0.14 ad fee is roughly a tenth of your net before the shipping label.
- What ad rate should I use on Pokémon singles?
Below 5% for floor cards as an experiment, and only on cards that are not moving. Above 10% the fee takes a large share of what is left on a cheap card. Rate by price band rather than one rate for the catalogue.
- Does promoting a listing make it sell faster?
It increases visibility, not desirability. Our data shows most cards that sell do so within a week, so a card sitting for a month is usually priced wrong rather than unseen.
- How much did promotion cost you?
$1.29 across 9 promoted sales between August 16 and 25, 2026, averaging $0.14 each.
