Listing Fee
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
- Checks in every memo8
- Automatic on day one3 of 8
- Read by handad spend and processor payouts
- Tracked ecom salesEUR 200M+ZenoX ad-management figures, not Kairos deal volume - Kairos hasn't closed a deal yet.
Listing Fee is a charge a marketplace collects simply to publish a business for sale, independent of whether it ever sells. Flippa's packages run 29 to 699 dollars by price tier and package, and Acquire.com charges 25 to 100 dollars a month by asking-price band. Kairos charges no listing fee at all: publishing a Shopify store and checking its numbers cost the seller nothing.
The Risk It Shifts
A listing fee changes who loses money when a sale never happens. On a pure success-fee venue, the marketplace earns nothing on an unsold listing, exactly like the seller. On a venue that also charges to list, the seller has already paid before knowing whether a buyer ever shows up, and a mid-tier package plus months of silence adds up to a real cost for nothing sold. That is not proof the model is dishonest. It is a trade-off worth naming before a seller picks a venue, because the incentive it creates is different from a venue that is only paid alongside the seller.
Not to Be Confused With
- Success Fee
- a success fee is charged only at close; a listing fee is charged up front no matter what happens after.