Most underpriced prints have the same cause: the seller looked at the filament cost and stopped there. Filament is often one of the smaller lines. Labour, fees and shipping usually take more.
A UK seller's breakdown shows how much this matters. A PETG card case priced by gut feel at GBP 4.99 left about GBP 0.33 per sale. At GBP 7.99 with free UK delivery, the same item left roughly GBP 3.
This guide builds a price from the ground up, using one real product. To run the same sums on your own print, use the profit calculator.
The formula
Profit per sale is the sale price, minus your cost per item, minus channel fees, minus any shipping you pay.
Profit per print hour is that profit divided by print time. Use it to compare products, because your printer is the limited resource. A $2 profit on a 20 minute part beats a $5 profit on a 6 hour part.
The calculator marks anything under $2 per print hour as a warning. That guide comes from one farm owner, so treat it as a starting point and not a rule.
Worked example: a shop vac adapter
This is a worked example with fixed numbers, so it will not match the live score. Take a shop vac dust adapter. These sell for $12.95 to $29.95 with medium competition. The midpoint figures are a $21.45 price, 90 g of filament and 3.75 hours of printing.
| Line | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Material | 90 g plus 8% waste, $20 per kg, 5% failures | $2.05 |
| Machine | Power, printer wear and upkeep, about $0.18 per hour | $0.68 |
| Labour | 11 minutes of setup, finishing and packing at $15 an hour | $2.75 |
| Packaging | Box and filler | $0.80 |
| Cost per item | Lines are rounded | $6.27 |
| Etsy transaction fee | 6.5% of the price | $1.39 |
| Payment processing | 3% plus $0.25 | $0.89 |
| Listing fee | $0.20 per listing | $0.20 |
| Fees | $2.49 | |
| Profit per sale | $21.45 minus $6.27 minus $2.49 | $12.69 |
| Profit per print hour | $12.69 divided by 3.75 | $3.38 |
Note that the material is under a third of the cost per item. Labour alone is bigger. The $12.69 is also after you have paid yourself $2.75 for your time, so it is real margin at that wage, before tax and before any shipping you cover.
Fee sources: Etsy's fee schedule gives the listing and transaction fees, and its sell page shows US payment processing. Rates vary by country, so check yours.
What moves the number
The base case looks healthy. Now change one thing at a time.
| Change | Profit per sale | Profit per print hour |
|---|---|---|
| Base case at $21.45 | $12.69 | $3.38 |
| PLA rises to $28 per kg | $11.87 | $3.17 |
| Sale arrives through Etsy Offsite Ads at 15% | $9.47 | $2.53 |
| You absorb $5.76 packaging and shipping | $6.93 | $1.85 |
| 30 extra minutes of customer questions | $5.19 | $1.38 |
| Price at the $12.95 low end | $5.00 | $1.33 |
Three lessons come out of this.
Filament matters less than you think. A reported jump in PLA from about $18 to about $28 per kg cost this item only $0.82. That article cites no data source for its headline figure, but the point stands, even if heavy prints feel it more.
Shipping matters more than you think. The $5.76 comes from one guide's estimate for packaging and shipping per order, and it can exceed the filament in the part. If you offer free shipping at that cost, the break-even price for this adapter is about $13.79, so the $12.95 low end would lose money. If the buyer pays shipping on Etsy, the 6.5% fee still applies to it.
Fiddly work eats profit. Labour follows how fiddly a part is, not how many ship, according to the same guide. Photos, listings and customer emails come on top. Offsite Ads can also apply without warning: Etsy charges 15% of an attributed order, or 12% for shops past $10,000 in the prior 365 days, capped at $100 per order.
Compare channel fees
The same $21.45 sale costs a different amount on each platform. These are US figures from each company's public pages, and they change.
| Channel | Fee rule | Fee on $21.45 |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | 6.5%, 3% plus $0.25, and $0.20 listing | $2.49 |
| eBay | 13.6% plus $0.40 for orders over $10 | $3.32 |
| Amazon Handmade | 15%, minimum $0.30 | $3.22 |
| TikTok Shop | 6% or 8% referral, unsettled | $1.29 to $1.72 |
The TikTok figure is low confidence. One 2026 report says the rate moved to 8% while public documents lagged, so check Seller Center before relying on it.
Setting the final price
Costs give you a floor, not a price. Work through these in order.
- Find the floor. Add every cost line, including shipping if you absorb it, then allow for fees.
- Check the market. Look at comparable listings, especially for items of the same size and finish. Your floor may be above what buyers pay.
- Test a markup. The UK seller above suggests starting points of 100%, 120 to 150%, or 200% and up, and used 130% on a small PETG item. Those are one maker's figures, so test them against your own costs.
- Spread design time. Ten hours of design at $15 an hour is $150. Across 100 sales that is $1.50 each, and across 10 it is $15. Be honest about how many you will sell.
- Check the hourly figure. If it looks weak, try fitting more on a plate, or reducing print time.
- Rethink weak products. If the market will not support a healthy margin, change the product. Racing other sellers to the bottom rarely ends well, and the avoid list shows where that leads.
Small habits that protect margin
- Track filament cost every month, and keep prices that survive a rise.
- Count packaging per order. The UK seller counts about GBP 0.15 to 0.30.
- Choose boxes carefully. One shipping guide says box size usually drives cost more than weight for small prints.
- Include failures. That seller's general example is a 10% failure rate, while the calculator starts at 5%. Use your own rate once you have one.
- Review prices twice a year, since fees and postage change.
None of this guarantees sales. It only makes sure that each sale you do get is worth having. Start by entering your best seller in the calculator.
Estimates are ours unless a source is linked. This guide was drafted with AI and reviewed before publishing.
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