Worked verdict · Handmade physical
The typical beginner version — priced at $26, costing $10 a sale — judged on the same five lines the checker scores for you, with the fee math printed. Not a feeling: a verdict, with its reasoning where you can argue with it.
Fee policy checked: October 21, 2026
Verdict for the typical version: NARROW FIRST
Margin: healthy. Framing: halfway. A candle is a gift-shaped product priced like a commodity; the shops that escape the commodity math sell the moment (the wedding table, the new home, the memorial) instead of the wax.
Candles sell on Etsy every day — and ship badly, break, and melt. The shops that last sell an occasion or a place, not a scent list. Page one for broad candle phrases is a mix of gift-ready brands and white-label jars.
Total specificity: 5 of 10 for the typical framing. Score the same idea with one buyer named and one moment attached and watch the total — and the verdict — move. That movement is the entire strategy of this site.
| Fee line (US seller) | On a $26 sale |
|---|---|
| Listing fee (per listing, lasts 4 months) | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee (6.5% of price + shipping charged) | $1.69 |
| Payment processing (3% + $0.25) | $1.03 |
| Etsy keeps, ordinary sale | $2.92 — you keep 88.77% of the price |
| If the sale is credited to Offsite Ads (+15%, shops under $10k/yr) | $6.82 — you keep 73.77% |
After the typical $10 cost: $13.08 kept per ordinary sale, $9.18 kept on a sale credited to Offsite Ads. Break-even at this cost is $11.55; priced to survive an ad-credited sale, $13.84.
Shipping physics: a $26 candle with a $10 cost has no room for breakage replacements and summer melt claims. Price the failure rate in, or sell locally first.
The Etsy Entry Kit turns a verdict into a launch: the narrowing playbook that takes a DON'T or a NARROW to a specific-enough idea, the listing-launch checklist, the fee-proof pricing worksheet, the first-10-listings plan, and the beginner mistakes fleet in checklist form.
Included in the $39 Etsy Entry Kit
The verdict above judges the typical framing. Yours has your buyer, your moment, your price. Ten minutes:
For people who have not opened an Etsy shop yet. Nothing you answer leaves your browser, and there is no email box at the end. The verdict is a visible rubric plus published fee math — this site holds no live Etsy data, and it will never hand you a made-up crowding number.
Still deciding whether Etsy is the right door at all? FirstDoorCheck compares every door with the same verdict honesty. Leaning Amazon instead? BeforeYouStock checks its approval gates before you spend on inventory.