List a jacket at $119 and you keep about $107.22 after Grailed's cut. Nudge the price up one dollar to $120 and you keep about $104.52 — $2.70 less, for charging more. That cliff is the sharp edge of Grailed's tiered seller commission, and if you resell streetwear without understanding exactly where it bites, your pricing and your books will both be wrong.
This guide breaks down the tiers, the separate payment processing fee, and how to record every Grailed sale so your revenue, fees, and taxes reconcile cleanly.
How Grailed's Tiered Commission Works
Grailed is free for buyers. Sellers pay a commission that depends on the sale price, with the tiers effective for sales on or after May 20, 2026:
| Sale price | Commission rate |
|---|---|
| Under $120 | 6% (minimum $1.99) |
| $120 and above | 9% |
There are no listing fees — you only pay when something sells. Grailed notes that promotional commission rates may apply to certain transactions under separate terms, so treat the table above as the standard case and check any promo terms before you rely on them.
What counts as the sale price
The sale price that determines your tier is the listing price your item sells for, plus any shipping costs charged to the buyer — unless you ship with a Grailed Label, in which case the sale price is the listing price alone.
That detail matters near the boundary. A $115 listing with $8 buyer-paid shipping (your own label) is a $123 sale price: 9% commission. The same $115 listing shipped on a Grailed Label stays under $120: 6% commission. On that one choice rides roughly $3.50 in commission, so the label decision is a pricing decision.
The $1.99 floor on cheap items
The 6% tier carries a $1.99 minimum, which only binds on low-priced sales. Six percent of $33.17 is $1.99, so anything you sell below about $33 pays a flat $1.99 — an effective rate above 6% that climbs steeply as the price falls. A $20 tee pays $1.99 in commission, which is effectively 10%. Price budget items with that floor in mind, because the "6% tier" label undersells what small sales really cost.
The Payment Processing Fee Sits on Top
The commission is only half the story. Every transaction also carries a payment processing fee, and the rate depends on how the buyer pays and whether you are onboarded with Stripe:
| Seller situation | US domestic | International |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarded with Stripe | 3.49% + $0.49 | 4.99% + $0.49 |
| In a Stripe-supported country but not onboarded | 3.49% + $0.99 | 5.49% + $0.99 |
| Not in a Stripe-eligible country | 4.99% + $0.49 (default) | 4.99% + $0.49 (default) |
For a US seller onboarded with Stripe, the all-in take on a $120-plus sale is roughly 12.5% before the fixed $0.49. If you have not completed Stripe onboarding, do it — the extra $0.50 per transaction on the fixed portion is pure leakage, and on international sales the percentage jumps a full point too.
Worked Examples: What You Actually Keep
Assume a US seller onboarded with Stripe (3.49% + $0.49 processing), no shipping complications.
An $80 tee (6% tier). Commission is $4.80. Processing is 3.49% of $80 plus $0.49, which is $3.28. You keep $80 − $4.80 − $3.28 = $71.92, or about 90% of the sale.
A $300 grail (9% tier). Commission is $27.00. Processing is 3.49% of $300 plus $0.49, which is $10.96. You keep $300 − $27.00 − $10.96 = $262.04, or about 87% of the sale.
The $119 vs. $120 cliff. At $119, commission is $7.14 and processing is $4.64, so you keep $107.22. At $120, commission jumps to $10.80 and processing is $4.68, so you keep $104.52. The $1 price increase costs you $2.70 in take-home pay.
The practical fix: never price at $120–$123. The math says you need to reach about $124 before your take-home beats what $119 earns. Either sit just under the line at $119 or jump clear of it — the dead zone in between is money you give away for nothing.
Recording Grailed Sales in Your Books
Here is the bookkeeping rule that trips up most resellers: record the gross sale as revenue and the fees as separate expenses. What lands in your bank after a Grailed payout is already net of commission and processing. If you log that deposit as your revenue, you understate both your income and your expenses — and your books will not match the gross figures on your tax forms.
Why gross reporting matters at tax time
If you resell for profit, you generally report on Schedule C: gross receipts in Part I, then cost of goods sold and deductible expenses (platform commissions, processing fees, shipping, supplies) subtracted to reach net profit. The 1099-K a platform sends reports gross payments — not reduced for fees, refunds, shipping, or discounts — so gross-basis books reconcile directly while net-basis books never do.
For 2026, the federal 1099-K threshold is more than $20,000 in gross payments and more than 200 transactions — both conditions must be met — after Congress restored the original threshold. Most casual sellers will not receive one, but that changes nothing about what you owe: all reselling profit is taxable whether or not a form arrives. Keep gross-basis records regardless.
A concrete ledger entry
Suppose you sell a hoodie for $100 (under-$120 tier) and the buyer pays through Grailed Payments. Commission is 6% ($6.00); processing is 3.49% of $100 plus $0.49 ($3.98); your payout is $90.02. In Beancount, one balanced transaction captures the gross sale and both fee layers:
2026-06-01 open Assets:Bank:Checking
2026-06-01 open Income:Resale:Grailed
2026-06-01 open Expenses:Fees:Marketplace
2026-06-01 open Expenses:Fees:Processing
2026-06-14 * "Grailed payout" "Stussy hoodie, $100 sale"
Assets:Bank:Checking 90.02 USD
Expenses:Fees:Marketplace 6.00 USD
Expenses:Fees:Processing 3.98 USD
Income:Resale:Grailed -100.00 USDA $150 sale in the 9% tier works the same way — commission $13.50, processing $5.73, payout $130.77:
2026-06-01 open Assets:Bank:Checking
2026-06-01 open Income:Resale:Grailed
2026-06-01 open Expenses:Fees:Marketplace
2026-06-01 open Expenses:Fees:Processing
2026-06-21 * "Grailed payout" "Arc'teryx shell, $150 sale"
Assets:Bank:Checking 130.77 USD
Expenses:Fees:Marketplace 13.50 USD
Expenses:Fees:Processing 5.73 USD
Income:Resale:Grailed -150.00 USDSplitting the two fees into separate expense accounts pays off at year end: marketplace commissions and payment processing map to different lines of inquiry on your return, and separate accounts make it trivial to answer "what did Grailed cost me this year" versus "what did payment processing cost me."
For inventory accounting, remember the other half of the entry: what you paid for the item (plus inbound shipping) is your cost of goods sold when it sells. Track purchase cost per piece — a thrifted jacket bought for $25 and sold for $100 has $75 of gross margin before fees, not $100 of profit.
Five Mistakes That Break Resellers' Books
Logging the payout as revenue. The classic error. Your bank deposit is gross minus fees; booking it as sales understates revenue and hides deductible expenses. Always split the payout into gross income plus fee expenses.
Forgetting shipping in the sale price. If you use your own label and charge the buyer shipping, that shipping counts toward the $120 tier boundary. A listing that looks safely under the line can cross it once shipping is added.
Pricing in the $120–$123 dead zone. As shown above, $120 nets less than $119. Check every listing near the boundary and move it under the line or past $123.
Ignoring the $1.99 floor. Budget-bin items under about $33 pay an effective commission above 6%. Either price them to absorb it or bundle small items into fewer, larger sales.
Skipping Stripe onboarding. The higher fixed fee for non-onboarded sellers ($0.99 vs. $0.49 domestic, plus a full extra point internationally) compounds across every sale. It is a one-time setup task that pays for itself immediately.
Your Next Listing
Before you publish your next Grailed listing, run three numbers: the tier your sale price (including buyer-paid shipping, unless you use a Grailed Label) falls into, the all-in fee percentage after processing, and the take-home at one price point above and below. That sixty-second check keeps you out of the dead zone, keeps your margin where you planned it, and gives you the gross and fee figures your books need — so that when tax season arrives, every payout already reconciles.
