What does each budget step actually buy once postage is counted?
Plan $100, $300 and $500 baskets with a weight template and see how postage changes the shape of each.
Parameters last checked · defaults are templates, not quotes.
The first question on a new agent is rarely "what should I buy" but "what does a sensible basket look like at my budget" — and postage, not the item price, is what usually breaks the plan.
The ladder applies a weight template per category to three budget steps and shows the share of each budget that postage takes, using this site’s own price snapshot for item counts.
Item counts arrive as a band rather than a number: the lower end is derived from the sample median price, the upper from the lower quartile, and the weight template is applied to the midpoint of the two counts, so it matches neither end of the range. The band widens with the price spread of the snapshot, not with anything about the basket being planned. Use it to compare steps, then check the count against live listings. A band running from one item to five is describing the catalogue, not the basket.
Postage is estimated from the template weight and charged in whole extra kilograms, so a basket packing into 2.1 kg is priced like 3 kg, and the chargeable weight can exceed the template once a carton and packing material are counted. Two checks are worth making. Confirm every step still appears in the table — a budget below $20 or above $5,000 is dropped without a message — and re-run with the postage rate you can see, since the defaults are templates marked not verified rather than measured.
Budget ladder planner
Budgets to compare
Item counts use this site’s 218-listing snapshot: median $36.18, lower quartile $22.53. Weight templates are planning figures, not measurements · not verified.
What each step buys
| Budget | Items | Weight template | Postage | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | 1–3 items | 1,200 g | $29.00 | 29% |
| $300 | 5–9 items | 4,200 g | $62.00 | 21% |
| $500 | 9–15 items | 7,200 g | $95.00 | 19% |
Postage sits at a workable share of this budget; the spare room is best spent on a lighter second item.
Postage sits at a workable share of this budget; the spare room is best spent on a lighter second item.
Postage sits at a workable share of this budget; the spare room is best spent on a lighter second item.
Each extra $200 adds roughly 3.6 median-priced items, while postage climbs in 600 g steps.
How to read the result
- Item counts come from the sampled price distribution on this site: the median basket is built from median prices, the optimistic one from the lower quartile.
- Weight templates are planning figures per category, not measurements of any particular listing.
- Postage share above roughly a third of the budget is the point where adding one more light item stops changing the total much.
- Treat the three rungs as a shape, not a shopping list.
- Weight templates and the default postage rate are planning figures rather than measurements, and a budget outside twenty to five thousand dollars is dropped from the ladder without an error.
Formula, source and caveat
items ≈ (budget × 0.66) ÷ median item price
- Source
- This site’s 218-listing snapshot.
- Caveat
- The 0.66 split reserves a third of the budget for postage and fees.
postage = first-kilogram price + continuation × extra kilograms
- Source
- Editable line parameters.
- Caveat
- Chargeable weight can exceed the template weight once packing is counted.
Questions this tool raises
- Why reserve a third of the budget for postage?
- Because postage is charged on weight and volume, and it is the line item that most often surprises first-time buyers.
- Should I spend the whole budget at once?
- A first order is also a test of the route. A smaller basket keeps the cost of being wrong low.
- Does the template account for shoeboxes?
- The shoes figure assumes a boxed pair. Asking the warehouse to drop the box lowers both weight and volume.