How the Marketplace works — and what it costs

The QuoteHive Marketplace lets you buy, sell, auction, or get items quoted across tools, building materials, vehicles and trailers, home and garden, services, and surplus. Here’s how it works and what — eventually — it costs. Short version: far less than eBay or Kijiji, and free during our launch beta.

The five ways to list

• Buy now — a fixed price; buyers purchase or make an offer you can accept, decline or counter.
• Auction — buyers bid against each other with a live countdown; the high bid wins at close.
• Get it quoted — send an item or project to verified contractors for a price.
• Wanted — post what you’re looking for and let sellers come to you.
• Any listing can also be turned into a delivery & install request that goes to verified contractors.

What it costs

During our launch beta, everything is free — listing, browsing, bidding, offers and messaging. When fees turn on, they are small, transparent, and paid by the seller out of their proceeds (never added to what the buyer pays):

• Bidding fee — 25¢ per bid (flat). Keeps auctions serious without a percentage bite.
• Final-value fee on a completed sale — a small percentage of the sale price, by category:

• Tools & Equipment — 5%
• Building Materials — 4%
• Vehicles & Trailers — 2%
• Home & Garden — 5%
• Surplus & Liquidation — 3%
• Services — no sale fee (services are quoted; verified contractors pay through the normal bidding credits instead).

For comparison, eBay charges roughly 13% on most categories (and a flat fee around $150 on vehicles). QuoteHive is built to undercut that by a wide margin — a $5,000 vehicle that would cost a seller well over a hundred dollars elsewhere costs a fraction here.

How you pay and get paid

QuoteHive introduces buyers and sellers; today you arrange payment and pickup/delivery directly with the other party from the order page and your Messages. As we add in-platform payments, fees will be collected automatically at checkout — we’ll announce it clearly before anything changes.

Getting something delivered or installed? That routes to QuoteHive’s verified contractors, who bid on the work — see how bidding works.