Choosing Your Undercut Amount on eBay: A Penny, a Percent, or Neither

When a One-Cent Undercut Is All You Need

For most commodity-style listings where buyers sort by price and grab the cheapest acceptable option, being the lowest by a single cent captures the same sale as being lowest by five dollars — at five dollars more margin. If the lowest comparable competitor is at $100.00, listing at $99.99 makes you the cheapest result without throwing away profit. The penny undercut is the default for a reason: it wins the price-sort position at the smallest possible cost. You only need a bigger gap when something about the listing makes a one-cent difference invisible or unconvincing to the buyer.

• Best for price-sorted, commodity-style listings with clear comparables
• Captures the same buyers as a larger cut, at higher margin
• $100.00 lowest comp → list at $99.99 and you're the cheapest result
• The default undercut for most inventory

When a Percentage Undercut Actually Earns Its Keep

A larger, percentage-based undercut makes sense when a penny won't change behavior. That happens when buyers weigh more than price — seller feedback, photos, shipping speed — or when you are deliberately trying to move aging stock faster than the market. Worked example: the lowest comp is $100, and you carry more feedback risk as a newer seller. A 3% undercut to $97 may be what it takes to overcome a buyer's hesitation. The question is always whether the extra $2.99 of discount buys enough additional conversion to be worth it — and that answer changes by category, condition, and how badly you need the cash.

• Use when buyers weigh feedback, photos, or shipping over raw price
• Use to deliberately accelerate aging or seasonal stock
• $100 comp → 3% cut = $97; ask if the extra $3 buys enough conversion
• A bigger undercut is a tool, not a default — spend it on purpose

The Floor Is What Makes Any Undercut Safe

Whatever undercut amount you choose, it only stays profitable if it can never cross your floor. Say your floor on an item is $92 (cost + shipping + fees + minimum margin). A penny undercut from a $100 comp lands at $99.99 — fine. But if a competitor misprices at $90, a blind "always undercut" rule would chase them to $89.99 and lose you money. With a hard floor, Undercut undercuts only down to $92 and then stops, holding there until a buyer who needs the item shows up. The undercut amount decides how you compete; the floor decides how far you're willing to go. You need both.

• Floor = cost + shipping + eBay fee + minimum margin
• A blind undercut rule chases mispriced competitors into a loss
• Undercut clamps every move to the floor, then holds
• Set the undercut for strategy, the floor for safety

Letting AI Tune the Undercut Per Listing

The honest answer to "how much should I undercut?" is that it varies by listing, and hand-tuning every listing across a large inventory is impractical. On Pro and Scale, you set an aggressiveness on each listing and Undercut's AI applies it — controlling how hard that listing pushes toward its floor as it undercuts the lowest comparable competitor. Set conservative on items you'd rather hold near market and aggressive on items you want to move. You set the floor and the aggressiveness; the AI handles the moment-to-moment undercut within them. That turns a question you'd otherwise answer manually, thousands of times, into a setting you choose once per listing.