How to price handmade items: a worked example

Price a handmade item at what it costs you to make, with your own time counted as a cost, plus the fees of the place you sell and a profit on top. For a soy candle that costs $11.70 to make, that comes to $15 if you sell it yourself, $18 on Etsy, $19 at a craft fair that takes cards, and $15 to a shop that buys wholesale and puts it on the shelf at $30. The rest of this page shows each step, so you can swap in your own numbers.

The sum in one line

Price = (what it costs you to make + any fixed fee) ÷ (1 − fee share − profit share)

Fees and profit are shares of the price you charge, not of your costs. That is why the sum divides by "one minus the shares" instead of multiplying your costs by 1.2. A 20% markup on cost is not 20% profit once a fee comes out of the price.

Worked example: a batch of six soy candles

The numbers below are made up to show the method, apart from the hourly pay, which is sourced. Replace every one with yours.

Step 1: materials, $25.50 for the batch

Cost only what this batch uses, not the whole pack.

Each line is paid × used ÷ pack holds. Wax: 24 × 3 ÷ 10 = $7.20. For six candles, materials are $25.50 ÷ 6 = $4.25 each.

Step 2: packaging, $0.80 each

A box or bag, a ribbon, a sticker. Made up for the example. Count what you really use.

Step 3: your time, $6.65 each

Time the whole job from start to finish: making, cooling, labelling, packing, and the clean-up that belongs to the batch. The example uses 1 hour 30 minutes for six candles.

For an hourly rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the May 2025 median pay for craft and fine artists as $26.58 an hour (Occupational Outlook Handbook, read 2026-10-03). Treat it as a starting point for your own pay, not as a rule.

1.5 hours × $26.58 = $39.87 for the batch, and $39.87 ÷ 6 = $6.65 each ($6.645 before rounding).

Step 4: what it costs you to make one

$4.25 + $0.80 + $6.645 = $11.70 (from $11.695). This is the least you can charge and not be paid less than your own hourly rate: before any fee, you cover materials, packaging and your time, and make no profit.

Step 5: add the fees and the profit, place by place

The example uses a profit of 20% of the price. The 20% is a placeholder so there is a number to start from, not a market figure. Choose your own.

Selling yourself, in person for cash or through your own site with no fee: 11.695 ÷ (1 − 0.20) = 11.695 ÷ 0.80 = 14.62, rounded up to $15.

At a craft fair, taking cards: a card fee of 2.6% + $0.15 (Square's published rate for a card present, https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees, read 2026-10-03) and a booth fee shared across the items you expect to sell. With a $50 booth and 20 sales, that is $2.50 for each item. (The booth and the 20 sales are made up.) (11.695 + 2.50 + 0.15) ÷ (1 − 0.026 − 0.20) = 14.345 ÷ 0.774 = 18.53, rounded up to $19.

On Etsy: the fees in the example are a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee for a US seller, so 9.5% of the price plus $0.45 for each sale. (11.695 + 0.45) ÷ (1 − 0.095 − 0.20) = 12.145 ÷ 0.705 = 17.23, rounded up to $18.

Check the Etsy answer. At $18 the fees come to 18 × 0.095 + 0.45 = $2.16. That leaves 18 − 4.25 − 0.80 − 6.645 − 2.16 = $4.145 of profit after paying yourself, which is 23% of the price because of the rounding up.

Wholesale: a shop buys from you at a lower price and sells at a higher one. A common rule of thumb, which Craftybase calls keystone pricing (https://craftybase.com/blog/pricing-handmade-products-wholesale, read 2026-10-03), is that the shelf price is double what the shop pays you. Wholesale has no Etsy or card fee, so what you charge a shop is the same sum as selling yourself, $15, and the shelf price is $30. Keep your own selling price from sitting far below that shelf price, or a shop that stocks you will be dearer than you. It is a habit of the trade, not a law, and shops differ.

Do you earn your pay at your current price?

Say you charge $12 now. On Etsy the fees are 12 × 0.095 + 0.45 = $1.59. After them, the materials and the packaging, $12 − $1.59 − $4.25 − $0.80 = $5.36 is left for the quarter of an hour each candle takes (1.5 hours for six), which is $21.44 an hour. That is under the $26.58 in Step 3, and $1.29 under what the candle needs to pay you in full ($6.645 of time). The price is not wrong because a sum says so. But if the work feels unpaid, this is the check that shows it.

Etsy's fees: check them on Etsy

Fees change. Check Etsy's fee page for today's figures. Etsy's transaction fee is charged on what you charge for shipping and gift wrapping as well as the item price; the sums above cover the item price only. Etsy's Offsite Ads fee, which applies only to sales that come through its ads, is not in the example.

What these numbers do not cover

• Shipping and postage. Work those out separately. Add them to the price shown to the buyer, and remember Etsy takes its fees on shipping you charge.
• Taxes. Sales tax and income tax are not in the sums.
• Your hourly pay and profit. $26.58 and 20% are starting points. The market may pay more or less for what you make.
• Made-up numbers. The material prices, the packaging, the booth fee, the 20 sales and the 1 hour 30 minutes are invented to show the method. Only the hourly pay and the fee rates have sources.
• Rounding. Prices round up to the next whole dollar. Pick the rounding that suits your customers.

Sources

Read on 2026-10-03, except the Etsy figures (see above).

• Median pay for craft and fine artists, May 2025, $26.58 an hour: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/craft-and-fine-artists.htm
• Card fee, 2.6% + $0.15 card present: Square, https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees
• Etsy fees. Fees change. Check Etsy's fee page for today's figures. Sources: https://checkoutpage.com/blog/etsy-fees and https://app.craftybase.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-etsy-fees
• Wholesale at half of retail: Craftybase, https://craftybase.com/blog/pricing-handmade-products-wholesale