The craft-fair leftover pile, and the fees I almost ignored

Last Saturday I sold ceramic mugs at a neighborhood craft fair. By 4pm I still had a box of the speckled ones nobody picked. My first instinct was to list them on Etsy that night at the same price and hope for the best.

Then a friend who sells stickers asked a boring question: had I actually checked what Etsy would take after listing fees, transaction fees, and the processing cut? I hadn't. I was about to price them like a cash table sale.

We sat on the curb with the leftover box and ran a few scenarios:

• Same sticker price as the fair, after fees, barely covered the glaze cost.
• A modest bump covered shipping materials without looking greedy.
• Bundling two mugs cut the fee hit more than raising one price.
• Free shipping looked friendly until you added the box and tape.

I used a free Etsy fee calculator in the browser so I could compare sale price versus take-home before uploading photos. It took longer to wipe clay dust off my phone than to get the numbers.

Three of the speckled mugs sold that week. The price was a little higher than the fair, and I didn't feel silly about it because I'd done the math first.

Written by the Selling Fees Calculator Team