A sublimation mug looks like an easy item to price. The blank is cheap, the press does the hard work, and similar mugs are all over Etsy. That is how a mug ends up paying you very little. The blank is only one line of the cost, and Etsy takes a share of the shipping as well as the price.
This guide walks through one mug from start to finish, the same way the sublimation pricing calculator does it. Follow along with your own receipts, or load the example in the calculator and watch each number appear.
The figures below are example numbers, not market prices. Blank, ink and postage costs vary by supplier and size, so use what you actually pay.
What goes into the cost of one mug
Before any math, list everything one finished mug uses. It is easy to remember the blank and forget the rest.
- The blank. The mug itself, at the price you paid per mug, including any shipping on your supply order.
- Sublimation paper and ink. One sheet of paper plus the ink for one print. More on working out the ink share below.
- Heat tape and small supplies. A few strips of tape, and protective paper if you use it.
- Packaging. The box, bubble wrap or paper fill, and any thank-you card or sticker.
- Spoiled blanks. Misprints, ghosting and chipped mugs are part of the job. Their cost belongs in the price of the mugs that do sell.
- Your time. Designing, printing, pressing, cooling, checking and packing.
- Overhead. A small share of press wear, software subscriptions and anything else the business pays for whether or not you sell a mug today.
Step 1: add up the materials
In our example, one mug uses a $4.00 blank, $0.75 of sublimation paper and ink, and $1.25 of packaging. Heat tape is so small here that it is rolled into the paper and ink line.
Materials: $4.00 + $0.75 + $1.25 = $6.00.
Working out ink per print
Ink is the hardest cost to pin down. Divide what you paid for an ink set by the approximate number of prints you get from it, then add the cost of one sheet of paper. Your printer’s page yield is a starting point, but your own count is better: note the date when you install a new set and how many prints you make before it runs low.
Step 2: put a price on your time
Say one mug takes 15 minutes of hands-on time once you count designing or adjusting the file, printing, taping, pressing and packing. At an hourly rate of $20, that is 15 / 60 x $20 = $5.00 of labor.
Leaving your time out does not make the mug cheaper to make. It just hides your wage inside the “profit”, so you cannot tell whether the item is worth your evening. Our guide to setting your maker hourly rate shows how much the rate changes the final price.
Step 3: add overhead
Spread the costs that keep the business running across the items you make. In this example, overhead is $0.50 per mug.
Cost per item: $6.00 materials + $5.00 labor + $0.50 overhead = $11.50.
Step 4: decide on shipping
This mug ships with a $6.00 shipping charge, and the postage and label cost $6.00. Charging exactly what the label costs looks like a wash, but it is not: Etsy’s percentage fees apply to the item price plus shipping, so the buyer’s $6.00 shipping payment carries $0.57 of fees.
Step 5: count Etsy’s fees
For US sellers, the calculator uses Etsy’s 6.5% transaction fee and 3% payment processing fee, both on the item price plus shipping, plus $0.25 processing and the $0.20 listing fee for each order. That makes 9.5% of the order total plus $0.45. Our guide to Etsy fees for craft sellers explains each one, and Etsy’s own fee page has the current values.
Step 6: work backward from your margin
Margin is the share of what the buyer pays that is left as profit after every cost and fee. With a 30% target margin, the price comes from this formula:
Price = (cost + your shipping cost + fixed fees) / (1 – percentage fees – margin) – shipping you charge
For the mug: ($11.50 + $6.00 + $0.45) / (1 – 0.095 – 0.30) – $6.00. That is $17.95 / 0.605 – $6.00, or about $29.669 – $6.00 = $23.669. The calculator always rounds up to the next cent, so the suggested price is $23.67.
Dividing is what makes this work. Adding fees on top of a price does not, because Etsy also takes 9.5% of every dollar you add.
Step 7: check the result
Always check a price by running it forward. At $23.67, the buyer pays $29.67 with shipping.
| Suggested | Charm | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $23.67 | $23.99 |
| Fees | $3.27 | $3.30 |
| Profit | $8.90 | $9.19 |
| Margin | 30.0% | 30.6% |
| Earnings per hour | $55.61 | $56.76 |
- Fees: 9.5% of $29.67 is $2.82, plus $0.45, so $3.27.
- Profit: $23.67 + $6.00 – $6.00 – $11.50 – $3.27 = $8.90.
- Margin: $8.90 / $29.67 = 30.0%.
- Earnings per hour: your profit plus the $5.00 labor you already paid yourself, divided by the quarter hour the mug takes: ($8.90 + $5.00) / 0.25 = $55.61.
The charm price is the smallest price ending in .99 at or above the suggested price, here $23.99. It earns $0.29 more profit per sale than $23.67.
Count the misprints
Every sublimation seller ruins a blank now and then. Rather than treating that as bad luck, build it in. If one blank in twenty is ruined, add one twentieth of a blank’s cost to each mug. With a $4.00 blank, that is $0.20 per mug.
Run the numbers again with materials at $6.20 and the cost per item becomes $11.70. The suggested price moves from $23.67 to $24.00, and the charm price to $24.99. Small, but now every mug you sell pays for the ones that went in the bin.
Compare, then adjust
The calculator tells you what you need to charge. It does not know what buyers expect to pay for your design. Search for mugs like yours and look at the prices of listings that are actually selling. If your price is far above them, look for cost you can cut, such as buying blanks in larger quantities or batching your pressing to save minutes, before you cut your margin. If it is far below them, you may have room to charge more.
You can also change the margin in the calculator and watch the price and profit move together.
Questions sellers ask
Should the price include the time a mug spends cooling?
Only the minutes you are actually working. If you press another mug or pack an order while one cools, that time belongs to the other task.
What if my blanks come in a case?
Divide the case price, including the shipping you paid on it, by the number of mugs in the case. That is your blank cost per mug.
Should a large mug cost the same as a small one?
Not necessarily. Run each size through the calculator with its own blank, ink and packaging costs. A larger mug may also cost more to ship, which changes the price.
