Profit margin, not revenue
The sale price is only the starting point. The business works when the money left is strong.
Example margin
24.6%
ExcellentMarket
$20
Buy
$14.00
Sell
$26.00
The terms
What is inside each number?
Revenue
What the buyer pays
The top-line number before costs are removed.
Card sale price
Selected sell %
Before fees
Profit
What you keep
The real result after the whole cost stack.
Purchase cost
Marketplace fees
Payment fees
Packing
Fixed cost share
Markup
Price vs. cost
Useful for deciding a listing price.
Buy price
Sell price
Market % rule
Margin
Profit as % of sale
The cleanest health number for the business.
Profit
Revenue
Net margin %
How the calculation works
Two different calculations
First calculate nominal profit in dollars. Then turn that profit into a margin percentage.
Calculation 1
Nominal profit
Revenue
$26.00
Costs
$19.60
Profit
$6.40
Calculation 2
Profit margin %
Profit
$6.40
Revenue
$26.00
Margin
24.6%
Interactive example
Change the assumptions live
Buy at market value
70%
50%
100%
Sell at market value
130%
80%
160%
Platform/payment fees
10%
0%
20%
Cost waterfall
What remains from the sale
24.6%
ExcellentProfit left
Costs
$6.40
Total sale: $26.00
Profit
24.6%$6.40
Packing
1.5%-$0.40
Fixed costs
10%-$2.60
Platform/payment
10%-$2.60
Purchase cost
53.8%-$14.00
Margin
=
$6.40 / $26.00
=
24.6%
Sector benchmarks
Net margin depends on the business model
Public-company and industry benchmark data varies by sector. Retail and restaurants are usually much thinner than software.
Retail
General retail net margin
2-5%
Restaurants
Food service net margin
3-7%
E-commerce
Online retail net margin
3-7%
Manufacturing
General manufacturing net margin
5-9%
Professional services
Consulting and services
8-14%
Software / SaaS
High-margin software model
12-20%
Sector ranges are net margin benchmarks from NYU Stern / Damodaran data and 2026 industry benchmark summaries.
Pokemon card seller range
Okay
7-10%
Still fragile after mistakes
Good
10%+
Sustainable if repeatable
Excellent
15-20%+
Strong after all real costs
Pricing rules
Which sell percentage to use by card value
Lower-value cards need higher percentages. Expensive cards can use lower percentages because the absolute profit per sale is larger.
140%
$1-$10
130%
$11-$25
125%
$26-$50
120%
$50-$80
110%