How to Read eBay Sold Comps (90-Day Filter, Terapeak & Sell-Through)

“Check solds” is the most repeated advice in reselling, and the most often done badly. This page is the method: what a sold listing actually is, how to read the 90-day public filter, when to open Product Research (Terapeak) in Seller Hub, how sell-through fits, and why the listed price is a lie. It is a standalone expansion of the short sold-comp and STR cards on the education hub — not a copy of that page.

What a sold comp is — and what it is not

A sold comp is a completed eBay transaction for a matching item: the buyer paid, eBay recorded a sale. That includes Buy It Now, Best Offer accepted, and auctions that received a winning bid. It does not include:

• Active listings (asks).
• Ended listings that did not sell.
• A “sold” that is actually a parts/not-working unit when you are pricing a tested, complete item — or the reverse.
• Bundles, lots, or “+ shipping as a second item” quirks unless you unpack them.

Read each row like a receipt. Title, sold price, shipping the buyer paid, condition, sold date, and whether it was auction or BIN. A $40 sold with $18 shipping is not the same deal as $40 with free shipping. eBay’s final value fee is also calculated on a base that can include shipping and tax — price the item, then sanity-check take-home on the fee calculator.

How to pull solds on public eBay search (the 90-day view)

1. Search the exact identifier buyers use: model number, capacity, size, “unlocked,” “OEM.” “iPhone 13 128GB unlocked” beats “iPhone.”
2. Open filters. Turn on Sold Items (sometimes labeled Completed). Sort by recently sold or by price to see the cluster.
3. Throw out obvious mismatches: wrong generation, cracked screen vs your mint unit, missing charger when yours includes one, “for parts.”
4. Write three numbers: low (cleaned), median, high. Price off the median of comparable condition, not the high.
5. Count how many sold in the window. Five solds in 90 days is a thin market. Forty solds is a liquid SKU. Thin markets need wider ranges and more patience, not a fake-precise $247.

The public sold filter is roughly 90 days. That is plenty for phones, sneakers, and kitchen electrics. It is not enough for seasonal décor, wedding dresses, or anything that only moves in Q4. For those, you need a longer window.

Terapeak / Product Research — the longer, free window

eBay folded Terapeak into Product Research inside Seller Hub and the eBay seller app. For eligible sellers it is free. Eligibility is set by eBay (typically you need a sale or a recent listing — check the tool; do not assume a brand-new account sees three years of data on day one).

What Product Research adds over the 90-day sold filter:

• Lookback up to about three years of eBay solds — the reason you open it for Christmas, Halloween, and “this only sells in wedding season.”
• Average sold price and sold range for a query, not just a handful of recent rows.
• Sell-through (and on mobile, eBay has been surfacing STR next to the research views).
• Shipping and seller-count context so you can see if you are walking into a 200-seller pile-up.

Sourcing Insights is a different, store-subscriber tool. Do not conflate it with Product Research. You do not need a third-party Terapeak clone to do this job; you need a seller account and the habit of opening the research panel before you buy or list a slow category.

Sell-through rate: the number that tells you if comps are even usable

Sell-through rate (STR) = items sold in the last 90 days ÷ items listed (sold + unsold) in that window. A category with 40 solds and 200 actives is not “$80 comps.” It is a 17% STR graveyard where most listings never sell at the listed price.

Rules of thumb used by working eBay sellers (and summarized on our education hub):

• ~40–45% STR over 90 days is a healthy general-merchandise store. That is a target, not a law.
• Under ~20% is usually an inventory problem — wrong stuff, or right stuff priced like the leftover asks — not “I need more promoted listings.”
• Long-tail collectibles will not print 40%. Judge those on comparable auction results and how long you can afford to hold, not on STR. The education hub’s “STR doesn’t apply to long-tail” card is the exception; this page is the rule.

When you read sold comps, glance at active count. If solds say $100 and 50 nearly identical listings sit at $80, the current clearing price is closer to $80. List in the middle, leave Best Offer on, and let the offer close the gap — same logic as the education hub’s “check active AND sold” card, spelled out as a research step.

Why listed price lies

Active listings lie in three predictable ways:

1. Anchoring. Sellers copy the highest ask they see. The shelf drifts up while solds stay put. You source at the ask and cannot retail above solds.
2. Stale inventory. A 200-day listing at $149 is not a $149 market. It is unsold product. eBay still shows it next to last week’s $89 sold.
3. Promoted and strikethrough games. A “was $80, now $64” listing may never have sold at $80. Treat marketing chrome as chrome.

Buyers sorting by lowest price also see $13.97 before $14.00. That micro-price habit (education hub) is a sort trick, not a substitute for comps. Get the median right first; then pick .97 if you are in a crowded BIN race.

A clean research sequence (before you buy or list)

1. Identify the item (model, storage, size, colorway, authenticity marks). Wrong ID = garbage comps.
2. 90-day solds: median of matching condition. Note shipping.
3. Active count at or below that median. If the shelf is jammed, your STR will suffer at the same price.
4. If the item is seasonal or the 90-day set is thin, open Product Research and look at the same query over a year or more.
5. Subtract fees and label cost. A $50 eBay sold is not $50 in your pocket — run the take-home math.
6. Only then set BIN + offer, or auction with a floor you can live with.

Title craft still matters after the number is right: 80 characters, model numbers, item specifics filled. If a listing is already live and slow, paste the URL into the eBay listing optimizer and fix the score before you cut price again.

When a photo is faster than the filters

The 90-day filter and Product Research assume you already know the SKU. On a thrift aisle you often do not. That is the job a photo scan is for: identify the item, then show sold-comp context and platform fees without typing the query on your phone with a cart in the other hand. It does not replace Seller Hub for seasonal research. It replaces the “I’ll Google this in the parking lot and forget” step.

Frequently asked questions

Keep going