KokoroFlow · Shopping calculator
Return or Keep Calculator
Returning something isn't free. Between return shipping, restocking fees, and the trip to the drop-off point, a "full refund" often isn't full. This works out what you'd actually recover — and compares it to reselling or just keeping it.
Compare your options
| Option | Net value to you |
|---|
A worked example
You bought a jacket online for $89.99. It doesn't fit. The retailer offers a full refund but deducts $8.50 for return shipping. Driving to the drop-off point and packing it up takes about 35 minutes, and you value your time at $25/hour.
- Return: $89.99 − $8.50 shipping − $14.58 time = $66.91
- Resell at a realistic $45, minus $9 in platform fees and shipping, minus the same time cost = $21.42
- Keep: you'd wear it occasionally, so it's genuinely worth about $30 to you
Returning wins clearly here — the shipping fee and half an hour of hassle still leave you far ahead of the other two. But flip one number: if the refund were only 70% (a common "opened item" policy), returning drops to $40.42, and the gap narrows sharply. At a 50% refund, keeping the jacket would win.
Limitations
- "Value to you" is a judgement, not a measurement. It's the number most people get wrong, usually by overestimating how much they'll use something they already regret buying.
- Resale prices are optimistic until proven. Check completed listings, not asking prices, and remember items often sit unsold for weeks.
- Return windows and policies vary. This assumes the return is actually accepted. Confirm the deadline, the condition requirements, and whether the refund goes to store credit rather than cash.
- Store credit isn't cash. If the refund is credit you're unlikely to spend, discount it — treat $50 of credit at a store you rarely use as considerably less than $50.
- It ignores storage and clutter. Keeping something you don't want has a real, if unmeasured, cost.
- This is a budgeting estimate, not financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't the price I paid show up in the comparison?
Because it's already spent no matter what you choose next — it's the same in all three options, so it can't change which one wins. Including it tends to push people toward returning out of a feeling that they "have to get their money back," even when keeping the item is genuinely worth more.
What hourly rate should I use for my time?
If the return would eat into paid work, use your actual rate. If it's coming out of free time, use what you'd genuinely pay to avoid the errand — for many people that's somewhere between $10 and $30 an hour. Setting it to $0 is fine if the trip is on a route you're taking anyway.
The retailer says "free returns." Do I still need this?
Free return shipping removes one cost, not all of them. Restocking fees, refunds issued as store credit, and your own time still apply — set shipping to $0 and the rest of the comparison still holds.
What if I'd have to buy a replacement anyway?
Then the honest "value to you" of keeping it goes up, because keeping it saves you that future purchase. Enter what the replacement would have cost you.