Your First Sale
You made 12 candles. Etsy, the post office and your supplies all cost real money. Set a price, play the month, and see what you actually keep.
Sunday night, November 1
- You're 16 and you live in New Jersey. Two weeks ago you poured your first 12 soy candles into 8 oz glass jars, with an adult in the kitchen, because hot wax burns. Soy candles need one to two weeks to cure before they smell their best, so tonight they're finally ready to sell.
- You'll sell them on Etsy through your parent's account. Etsy lets 13 to 17 year olds sell only with a parent or guardian's permission and direct supervision.
- Your parent: I asked an AI what we should charge. I'm sending you its whole answer.
- Your parent: It says about $28 with free shipping, and you'd keep about $10 a candle. Sounds good to me.
- Noa, who lives next door and has sold candles online for six years: Before you list anything, check those numbers against your receipts and the real label prices. The AI only saw the totals your parent typed in.
- Noa: Then tell me what you'd keep on one candle shipped across the country. If you can answer that, you're ready to list.
What the AI said
This is a real answer from Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, to the question your parent asked. It was told not to look anything up. We asked the same question six times, on three Claude models; this is the answer with the best shipping estimate. The only change is that dashes are shown as hyphens.
Short answer: Aim for the buyer to pay about $28 total for one candle, shipping included. At that price your teen keeps about $10 per sale. Shipping is the biggest cost. If the buyer pays under about $24 total, there's very little profit left.
What you keep from a $28 sale
| Buyer pays (item + shipping) | $28.00 |
| Etsy listing fee | −$0.20 |
| Transaction fee (6.5% of item + shipping) | −$1.82 |
| Payment processing (3% + $0.25) | −$1.09 |
| Shipping label (estimate, see below) | −$9.00 |
| Materials | −$4.79 |
| Box + bubble wrap | −$0.66 |
| You keep | ≈ $10.44 |
|---|
Etsy's fees work out to about 9.5% of what the buyer pays, plus 45¢. Processing is also charged on the sales tax, which adds a few cents. Etsy collects and pays NJ sales tax (and other states') for you.
| Buyer pays total | You keep (with a $9 label) |
|---|---|
| $20 | $3.20 |
| $24 | $6.82 |
| $28 | $10.44 |
| $32 | $14.06 |
Shipping is the number to pin down. An 8 oz glass jar candle in a box usually weighs a little over a pound. Etsy's discounted USPS Ground Advantage labels for that weight cost roughly $7-$13, depending on distance. Weigh a fully packed candle on a kitchen scale and enter it in Etsy's shipping calculator. Every dollar the label costs comes straight out of the profit.
Should you offer free shipping?
Yes, with the shipping cost built into the price:
- The fees are the same either way. Etsy takes its 6.5% on shipping charges too, so "$28, free shipping" earns exactly what "$21 + $7 shipping" does.
- Etsy ranks free shipping higher. US shops that ship free on orders of $35 or more get priority in US search, and many buyers filter for free shipping.
- Bigger orders pay better. Two candles in one box cost much less to ship than two boxes. A 2-pack listing at about $48 with free shipping keeps about $20, because the shipping savings nearly cover the discount.
Suggested setup: list at $26-$28 with free shipping. If that looks high next to similar shops (8 oz soy candles on Etsy often run about $18-$26), list at $21-$22 plus about $7 shipping, with free shipping on orders over $35.
Other costs to watch
- Offsite Ads: if a sale comes from an Etsy ad on Google, Instagram and so on, Etsy takes 15% ($4.20 on a $28 order). Shops under $10k a year can opt out in Shop Manager → Marketing. I'd opt out at first.
- Setup fee: a new shop pays a one-time setup fee of about $15.
- Breakage and heat: set a little aside to replace the occasional broken jar. Soy wax can also melt in hot delivery trucks in summer.
- Check current fees: Etsy changes them now and then, so confirm on its Fees & Payments page before you launch.
Since the shop is on your account
- This is the right setup. Etsy requires an adult to be involved when a teen sells. Legally, though, you are the seller: you're responsible for taxes, customer problems and liability.
- List your teen as a shop member in the shop's About section. Etsy's handmade rules ask you to say who makes the items, and buyers like a teen-maker story.
- Taxes: the income is under your name. At this volume Etsy probably won't send a 1099-K, but the profit is still taxable. Keep receipts for materials, since they're deductible. If you want it counted as your teen's income (they'd need to file once net self-employment income reaches $400), ask a tax preparer how to set that up.
- Safety and liability: put a candle warning label on every jar (never leave burning unattended, trim the wick to ¼", keep away from kids and pets). Ask whether your homeowner's or renter's policy covers a home business. Candles are a fire risk, and basic product liability insurance for small makers is inexpensive.
- Selling in person: Etsy-only sales don't require you to register with NJ for sales tax. If your teen starts selling at craft fairs, you'd need to register and collect NJ's 6.625% yourself.
One last thing: none of this counts your teen's time. If a batch of 6 takes two hours, $10 per candle works out to about $30 an hour, which is a good number to show them.
Your receipts
What you spent on supplies for the first 12 candles. The prices are real, from the supplier's website on November 10, 2026. Supplier shipping and sales tax aren't included.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Soy wax, 10 lb bag | $31.97 |
| Fragrance oil, 16 oz | $30.77 |
| Glass tumbler jars, 8 oz, box of 12 | $15.57 |
| Metal lids, bag of 12 | $11.75 |
| Cotton wicks, pack of 100 | $9.72 |
| Warning labels, roll of 100 | $3.24 |
| Shipping boxes, 5 x 5 x 5 in., bundle of 25 | $10.75 |
| Bubble wrap, 175 ft roll | $20.00 |
| Total | $133.77 |
One candle uses about $4.79 of these supplies: wax $1.51, fragrance $0.87, jar $1.30, lid $0.98, wick $0.10, label $0.03. Its box and two sheets of bubble wrap add $0.66, so one candle, packed, costs about $5.45. You have wax, fragrance, wicks, labels, boxes and bubble wrap left over for the next batch. You had $180 saved from tutoring. After paying for all this, you have $46.23 left.
Packed, one candle weighs about 1.4 lb: the glass jar is about 11 oz, the candle 8 oz, the box almost 3 oz. The box is 5 x 5 x 5 inches.
What Etsy charges
Etsy's fees for US sellers, from Etsy's help pages on November 10, 2026.
| Fee | How much, and on what |
|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 to post a listing, and $0.20 again each time one sells while more are left |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of the item price plus the shipping you charge |
| Payment processing | 3% of the whole order, including shipping and sales tax, plus $0.25 |
| Offsite Ads | 15% of the order total, only on orders from a shopper who clicked an Etsy ad for your item on another site. The fee is never more than $100 per order. |
| Shipping labels | If you buy your label through Etsy, its price comes out of your Etsy earnings |
| Sales tax | Etsy adds it to the buyer's total, collects it and pays it to the state. It isn't your money, but the 3% processing fee is charged on it. |
Etsy signs every new shop up for Offsite Ads. A shop that has never made $10,000 or more in any 365 days can turn them off in its settings. New shops also pay a one-time set-up fee. Etsy shows the amount only during sign-up, so it isn't counted here. Etsy's Share & Save program gives back part of the fees on orders that come through links you share yourself, if you sign up for it; this game leaves it out.
What a label costs
USPS Ground Advantage, the Postal Service's cheapest tracked service for a package like this. By weight, a packed candle pays the price for over 1 lb up to 2 lb. But Etsy also sells cubic-priced labels, which go by the size of the box instead of its weight, for boxes up to 1 cubic foot. Your 5 x 5 x 5 inch box is 0.07 cubic feet, in the smallest size tier, so the cubic price is lower. These are the Postal Service's published commercial prices, in effect from October 4, 2026, to January 17, 2027. Etsy says only that its labels "may" come with discounted rates, and doesn't say how much.
| Zone | How far, from New Jersey | By weight, 2 lb | Cubic, your box |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nearby | $8.39 | $7.85 |
| 2 | Nearby | $8.48 | $7.91 |
| 3 | A few hundred miles | $8.66 | $8.23 |
| 4 | About as far as Columbus, Ohio | $8.91 | $8.39 |
| 5 | About as far as Chicago | $10.50 | $9.04 |
| 6 | About as far as Dallas | $12.13 | $9.76 |
| 7 | Farther west | $12.55 | $10.08 |
| 8 | Across the country, like California | $13.42 | $10.68 |
The zone depends on how far the package travels. The higher the zone, the farther it goes, and the more the label costs. In this game you always buy the cheaper one, the cubic label.
Etsy's rules worth knowing
- Search. Etsy says "certain US domestic listings with shipping prices higher than $6 USD appear lower in Etsy search results." Free shipping on orders of $35 or more gets "priority placement."
- Getting paid. A new seller's money is "generally eligible for deposit 14 days after a sale." Deposits go out weekly, on Mondays, unless you change it.
- Refunds. If you refund an order through Etsy, Etsy gives back its transaction fee and the processing fee on the refunded amount. The listing fee comes back only if you also cancel the order, and a label you already used doesn't come back.
- Purchase Protection. If an order arrives damaged, Etsy refunds the buyer with its own money, up to $250, if you shipped on time, used tracking (an Etsy label counts), answered the buyer within 48 hours, meet Etsy's customer service standards, and it's the first damaged order in your shop this calendar year, among other conditions. "You won't need to issue the refund yourself."
What one candle really earns
Here is the AI's own setup, a $28 candle with free shipping, worked out with the real cubic label prices for your box. The buyer's state charges 7% sales tax, so the 3% processing fee is charged on $29.96.
| Zone 1 | Zone 5 | Zone 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer pays you | $28.00 | $28.00 | $28.00 |
| Listing fee | −$0.20 | −$0.20 | −$0.20 |
| Transaction fee, 6.5% | −$1.82 | −$1.82 | −$1.82 |
| Processing, 3% + $0.25 | −$1.15 | −$1.15 | −$1.15 |
| Label | −$7.85 | −$9.04 | −$10.68 |
| The candle, packed | −$5.45 | −$5.45 | −$5.45 |
| You keep | $11.53 | $10.34 | $8.70 |
The AI's $10.44 is close for buyers up to about Chicago. For a buyer across the country you keep $8.70. If that buyer came from an Etsy ad, Etsy also takes 15% of $28, or $4.20, and you keep $4.50.
What the AI got right
- Etsy's fee rates: 6.5%, 3% plus 25 cents (charged on the sales tax too), 20 cents a listing, and 15% for Offsite Ads, with the choice to turn them off.
- That free shipping costs the same in fees, because Etsy takes its percentage on shipping either way.
- That shipping was the number to pin down, and that you should weigh a packed candle and check Etsy's shipping calculator.
- That Etsy collects the sales tax, that an adult has to be involved, and the $400 tax rule.
What it got wrong
- The label, a little. It planned on $9 for every order, from a range of $7 to $13, priced by weight. The Postal Service's published cubic price for your small box runs $7.85 nearby to $10.68 across the country. One average hides that a far order costs $2.83 more to ship than a near one. It never mentioned that box size can change the price.
- Where to turn off Offsite Ads. It said Shop Manager, then Marketing. Etsy's help page says Shop Manager, then Settings, then Offsite Ads.
What nobody here checked
- What similar candles sell for. Etsy's search pages block automated readers, so we couldn't check the AI's $18 to $26, and you shouldn't trust it either until you look yourself.
- The set-up fee. It said about $15. Etsy shows the amount only during sign-up, so we couldn't check it. Trade press reported $15 when the fee started in 2024, and some sellers later reported about $30.
- The 2-pack math. It needs the price for a bigger box, which we didn't look up.
- Whose income it is for taxes. The AI said it's under your parent's name. The IRS says money a child earns from work belongs to the child, even if a parent receives it. Who really runs the shop matters, so ask the adult who does your family's taxes.
So the math was fine, and the biggest cost was a guess: one average for every order, priced by weight. An AI working from memory doesn't know this month's postage or the size of your box. Your receipts and the price list do.
Four questions before you set any price
- What does one cost me, delivered to my farthest buyer? Supplies, packing, and the label to the far side of the country, not an average.
- What does the platform take, and on what? A percent of the price and the shipping, a fixed fee on every order, and ad fees on some orders.
- What's my time worth? Count every hour, packing and messages too, and compare it to a real wage.
- When does the money actually arrive? You pay for supplies first. Etsy holds a new seller's money for about two weeks, and a business might pay you 30 days after you deliver.
What's true outside the game
Most shops are small. In 2025, Etsy's 5.6 million active sellers sold $10.46 billion of goods on Etsy, about $1,868 each for the whole year. That's an average. Etsy doesn't publish the typical shop's number, and a few big shops can pull an average up a lot.
Shipping changes what people buy. In Baymard Institute's survey of US online shoppers, leaving out people who were only browsing, the most common reason for leaving a checkout without buying was that extra costs, like shipping, tax and fees, were too high. 40% gave that reason.
Taxes start small. "Everyone, including minors, must file a tax return if they had net earnings from self-employment of at least $400," the IRS says. Net earnings from self-employment are roughly the profit from a business you run. The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%, which pays into Social Security and Medicare. Etsy sends a tax form called a 1099-K above $20,000 and 200 sales, or above a lower limit some states set, like New Jersey's $1,000. Either way, the IRS says, "Whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, you must still report any income on your tax return." If you start a real shop, sit down with the adult who does your family's taxes.
Age rules. Etsy lets 13 to 17 year olds sell through a parent or guardian's account, with their permission and direct supervision. eBay, TikTok Shop and Shopify require sellers to be 18.
Now do it for real
About 30 minutes. Free. You don't sell or buy anything.
- Pick one thing you could make or sell: candles, stickers, baked goods, prints, anything.
- Pack one the way you'd ship it and weigh it on a kitchen scale.
- Find the label price for that weight to the nearest zone and the farthest one, in the Postal Service's price list, called Notice 123, at pe.usps.com.
- Open the real fee page of the place you'd sell and write out one order, line by line, for both zones.
- Write down the lowest price where the far order still pays you at least minimum wage for your time.
Keep the page. If you ever pitch an idea to someone who might invest in it, or hire you, you'll be one of the few people in the room who has done the math.
Sources
- Etsy Help Center, read November 10, 2026: fees and taxes, payment processing, Offsite Ads, sales tax, USPS labels, opening a shop, minors, deposits, shipping and search, Purchase Protection and refunds. Etsy's own fee policy page blocks automated readers, so these help pages are what we read.
- USPS Notice 123, prices from October 4, 2026: page 15 for commercial Ground Advantage by weight, page 16 for cubic; and the USPS releases on the April and October temporary increases, which end January 17, 2027. The January 2026 increase is in the Federal Register.
- Supplies, read November 10, 2026: CandleScience wax, fragrance, jars, lids, wicks, warning labels and its soy wax guide (6% fragrance, curing); Uline boxes and bubble wrap. The jar's weight is from Cal Candle Supply, a similar 8 oz jar, because CandleScience doesn't list one. These are reference prices, not a suggestion of where to buy.
- Etsy, Inc., 2025 annual report (Form 10-K): Etsy marketplace sales and active sellers; we divided one by the other.
- Baymard Institute, cart abandonment statistics, updated October 28, 2026.
- IRS: Tax Tip 2022-88 on young entrepreneurs (the $400 rule), the IRS page on self-employment tax (the 15.3% rate) Understanding your Form 1099-K, and Publication 17 (a child's earnings are the child's, "even if" a parent "may actually have received them"). Etsy's 1099-K page lists the state limits. This lesson explains the rules; it isn't tax advice.
- New Jersey Department of Labor, October 1, 2025 release: $15.92 an hour for most workers from January 1, 2026.
- Seller ages: eBay, TikTok Shop and Shopify.
- The AI runs: six runs of Claude on November 10, 2026, through Claude Code, two each on Haiku, Sonnet and Opus models, as Claude Code's built-in Explore subagent. Each was told to answer as a chat assistant would, from what it already knew, without searching or using any tool, and none did. The answer in the game is the first Opus run. Anthropic makes Claude. The question, exactly as sent: "My 16-year-old makes soy candles in 8 oz glass jars and wants to sell them on Etsy using my account. Materials come to about $4.79 per candle, and the box and bubble wrap are another 66 cents. We live in New Jersey. What should we charge, should we offer free shipping, and how much will we actually keep from each sale after Etsy's fees and shipping?"
Last checked . Noa, the shoppers and Grindstone Coffee are made up, and so is how many people shop and what each will pay. In the game, people searching Etsy don't find a listing that charges more than $6 shipping; Etsy says only that such listings appear lower. Every fee, label price and supply price is real, as of that date. The label prices change on January 17, 2027, when the temporary increases end, and Etsy can change its fees at any time. The hours each job takes are our estimates. Torah Tech wrote this lesson with the help of Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. Any mistakes are ours.