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EBLIT Service Fee

A clear, complete explanation of the 2.5% service fee charged to buyers at checkout. This is the only buyer-side fee on EBLIT's product transactions (separate fees apply for shipping, optional insurance, and GPS verification on meetups; those are itemized at checkout).

The numbers

  • Amount: 2.5% of the agreed product price.
  • Minimum: $1.00 per transaction.
  • Maximum: none. The fee scales with the product price.
  • Who pays: the buyer at checkout. Added to the total before payment is submitted to Stripe.
  • Who keeps it: EBLIT. The service fee is platform revenue; it is not a pass-through to a third party (unlike shipping carrier rates or Stripe processing fees).

Worked examples:

  • Product price $20: service fee is $1.00 (the minimum — 2.5% would be $0.50, but the minimum applies).
  • Product price $40: service fee is $1.00 (2.5% of $40 is exactly $1.00).
  • Product price $200: service fee is $5.00.
  • Product price $1,000: service fee is $25.00.
  • Product price $10,000: service fee is $250.00.

What the service fee covers

The service fee covers the operating cost of providing the EBLIT marketplace:

  • Trust and safety infrastructure — fraud detection systems, security monitoring, account integrity checks, and the platform-wide accountability mechanisms (separate from the one-time $1.50 identity verification recovery fee charged at first purchase, which is itemized separately at checkout).
  • Payment holds — Stripe holds buyer payments until the transaction completes per the EBLIT meetup or shipping flow; the service fee funds the operational cost of that hold and the associated reconciliation.
  • Dispute resolution — the EBLIT trust and safety team that reviews unboxing videos, GPS records, and identity records when transactions go wrong, and issues binding determinations within the documented timeframe in our Dispute Resolution Policy.
  • Customer support — the team that responds to support tickets, processes refund requests, and helps both buyers and sellers when issues arise.
  • Platform reliability — the operational cost of running EBLIT's infrastructure: API uptime, database resilience, security monitoring, fraud detection, and incident response.
  • Compliance — GDPR data subject request fulfillment, CCPA requests, audit log retention, sub-processor due diligence, and other regulatory operational costs.

What the service fee does NOT cover

EBLIT itemizes fees deliberately so you can see what you are paying for. The service fee does not cover, and is itemized separately from:

  • Shipping carrier rates — you pay the EasyPost carrier rate for your selected service; that money flows to the carrier, not EBLIT.
  • EBLIT shipping fee ($4) — a separate flat fee that funds label generation infrastructure, tracking polls, and unboxing-evidence retention; itemized as its own line at checkout.
  • Optional shipping insurance — 1.5% of declared product value if you opt in (1.0% paid to EasyPost as the carrier insurance, 0.5% retained by EBLIT as a markup; itemized at checkout).
  • GPS verification fees — $1 on meetups (buyer and seller each pay $1) and $1 on shipping transactions (seller only). These fund GPS tracking + fraud prevention infrastructure used specifically during the transaction.
  • Stripe processing fees — 2.9% + $0.30 paid by the seller to Stripe (deducted from the seller payout, not from the buyer). Pass-through; EBLIT retains zero.
  • Identity verification recovery fee ($1.50) — one-time fee charged on a buyer's first purchase to recover the cost of running their identity check; never charged again on subsequent purchases.

When the service fee is refundable

EBLIT's refund posture for the service fee follows the industry-standard pattern used by Etsy, Mercari, and similar marketplaces:

  • Cancelled BEFORE completion: the service fee is fully refunded along with the rest of the buyer's payment. Examples: buyer cancels before the seller accepts; seller cancels for any reason; mutual no-show on a meetup; payment fails before the transaction is held; identity mismatch detected before product handoff.
  • Cancelled AFTER completion: the service fee is retained by EBLIT. By the time a transaction completes (buyer confirms receipt for shipping; both parties confirm at meetup), the marketplace services covered by the fee — identity checks, payment-hold infrastructure, dispute eligibility, and customer support — have already been rendered. A retroactive refund of the service fee after completion would be inconsistent with the operational cost the fee covers.
  • Dispute resolution: if a post-completion dispute is resolved in the buyer's favor and a refund is issued, the service fee follows the dispute resolution determination; the trust and safety team has discretion to refund or retain depending on the nature of the dispute.

For full refund policy details by transaction state, see the Refund Policy.

How EBLIT's service fee compares to industry

For context only — this section is descriptive, not a guarantee about competitor pricing, which can change without notice:

  • Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee + payment processing fees + listing fees (typically borne by seller; buyer fees vary by country).
  • Mercari: 10% selling fee + 2.9% payment processing (seller side); buyer pays a service fee on the order subtotal (varies).
  • StubHub: seller fee 15% + buyer fee 10-15% on top of the listed price.
  • Airbnb: service fee typically 14-16% on bookings (guest-side).
  • EBLIT: 2.5% buyer service fee (this page) + tiered platform fee on the seller side (6% to 2% depending on price tier).

EBLIT's combined fee structure is designed to be competitive with peer-to-peer marketplaces while funding the identity verification, GPS, and dispute infrastructure that distinguishes the platform.

No indemnification promise

The service fee funds the operational services described above. It is not a payment for any insurance product, indemnification guarantee, or warranty against the outcome of any specific transaction. Outcomes depend on the specific facts of each transaction, the evidence available (unboxing videos, GPS records, identity records, chat history), and EBLIT's Dispute Resolution Policy applied in good faith by the trust and safety team. Buyers should review the Dispute Resolution Policy and Refund Policy before transacting on EBLIT.

Changes to the service fee

EBLIT may change the service fee percentage or minimum from time to time. Any change takes effect for transactions created AFTER the change. Transactions created before the change keep the fee that was disclosed at the time the buyer paid. EBLIT will give notice of material changes through the platform and the email address on file. The current effective values are 2.5% and $1.00 minimum, sourced from backend/src/config/fees.js.

Questions

If you have questions about a specific service fee charge on one of your transactions, contact support through the platform. If your charge does not match what is documented on this page or the breakdown shown at checkout, please report it immediately.