How to price your products using competitor research (without guessing)

Pricing is the part most sellers dread, because it feels like a guess with real consequences. Too high and nothing sells. Too low and you sell plenty while slowly losing money once fees, packaging and your own time are counted.

What most people do is search for their item, look at the first few results and pick a number somewhere in the middle. The problem is that listed prices aren't selling prices. Anyone can list a used camera for $400. What matters is what buyers actually paid.

This guide shows how to find real selling prices, work out what you actually keep after fees, and land on a price you can stand behind.

Step 1: Find what similar items actually sold for

On eBay: use sold items, not active listings

eBay is the best free source of real selling prices on the internet, because it shows you what actually sold.

1. 1Search for your item on eBay.
2. 2In the filters, tick Sold items (on the eBay app it's under Filter, then Show only).
3. 3Prices in green are items that sold. These results cover roughly the last 90 days.

For a deeper look, eBay's Product research tool (formerly Terapeak) in Seller Hub's Research tab shows up to 3 years of eBay sales data. That includes average sold price, price range, average shipping cost and sell-through rate, and it shows the real price when a Best Offer was accepted, which the normal sold search doesn't (eBay Help: Product research).

Look for items that match yours on brand, model, size and condition. A "new with tags" sold price tells you very little about your used one.

On Etsy: compare carefully

Etsy doesn't offer a public "sold price" filter the way eBay does, so you're working with listed prices. Make them more useful:

• Compare like with like. Same materials, similar size, similar level of handwork. A hand-thrown mug and a print-on-demand mug aren't competitors.
• Look at shops with lots of sales and reviews. Their prices have been tested by real buyers. A brand-new shop's price hasn't.
• Check what's included. Free shipping, gift wrapping and personalisation all change what the price really means.

On Amazon: look at the whole offer

On Amazon, check the top results for your main search phrase and note the price, the number of ratings and whether shipping is free. Products with thousands of ratings at a certain price tell you where buyers are comfortable. Also check the category's referral fee in Seller Central before you settle on a price, because it varies by category.

Write your findings down

Make a quick table with platform, item, condition, price, shipping and whether it sold. Ten to fifteen good comparisons beats fifty random ones.

Step 2: Work out what you actually keep

This is where a lot of pricing goes wrong. Sellers compare their price to the competition, but never check what's left after fees and costs.

Etsy's fee structure is a good example of why this matters. In the US, Etsy charges (Etsy fees and payments policy):

• $0.20 listing fee per item, which lasts 4 months or until it sells.
• 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus the shipping you charge.
• Payment processing fee, which in the US is 3% + $0.25 per order.

Other fees can apply depending on your shop, such as offsite ads, currency conversion or regulatory fees in some countries. Processing fees also differ outside the US, so check Etsy's fee page for your country.

A worked example

This is a made-up product with made-up costs, to show the maths.

Say you sell a hand-poured candle on Etsy for $28, and you charge $5 for shipping. The buyer pays $33 (ignoring tax).

That $28 candle earns $9.41 once everything is counted. If a competitor sells for $22, matching them would cut that to about $4. That's barely worth lighting the stove.

Run this calculation for every platform you sell on. Fees differ, and a price that works on one can lose money on another.

Step 3: Decide where you sit

Now you have two numbers: what similar items sell for, and the lowest price that still pays you properly. Your price goes somewhere between, depending on how you compare.

Price toward the top of the range if:

• Your photos are clearly better than the competition's.
• Your item has something the others don't, like better materials, personalisation or faster shipping.
• You have strong reviews.

Price toward the middle if:

• Your item is very similar to plenty of others.
• You're new on that platform with few reviews.

Don't price at the bottom just to get started. It's hard to raise prices later, and it attracts buyers who are shopping on price alone. If your floor price is above what similar items sell for, the honest answer is often to change the product, the packaging or the platform, not to work for free.

Step 4: Use pricing tricks sparingly

• Charm pricing ($27.99 instead of $28) is common on Amazon and eBay. On Etsy, round numbers often feel more natural for handmade work. Test both.
• Free shipping can help, especially on Etsy, where many buyers filter for it. Build the cost into the item price, and remember the transaction fee then applies to the bigger number.
• Bundles ("set of 3") let you raise the order value without raising the per-item price buyers compare.

Step 5: Recheck regularly

Markets move. Check your sold prices and competitors every couple of months, and before busy seasons. If your items sell out the day you list them, you're probably too cheap. If nothing has sold in 60 days and your views are healthy, price may be the problem. If views are low, it's more likely your title, tags or photos.

Doing this for every product and every platform

Pricing research done properly takes time: searching sold items on eBay, scrolling Etsy and Amazon, building the table and doing the fee maths, all for every new product, and again for each platform.

YelloShelf does the research part for you. When you upload your product photos, it looks at live Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Google Shopping results for similar products and suggests a price for each platform you sell on, along with the title, description and tags. It doesn't have a free plan or trial. You buy a credit pack, starting at $10, and your first purchase comes with a money-back guarantee. We're helping you remove the manual, tedious, time-consuming work. You still read it, edit it and paste it in yourself. The final number is still yours, so run your costs through the fee maths above.

Quick checklist

• Sold prices checked, not just active listings.
• Similar items compared like for like: size, materials, condition and shipping.
• Findings written down in one table.
• Fees and costs worked out, so you know your lowest price that still pays you.
• Price placed in the range based on your photos, item and reviews, not just the cheapest.
• Free shipping costs built into the item price if you offer it.
• Prices rechecked every couple of months and before busy seasons.