eBay 3D Printing Income Guide

How do you work out income from eBay print sales?

Take the price a buyer pays, then subtract what eBay charges, the postage you pay, packaging, material, power and an allowance for failed prints. What remains is profit before your own time.

Do this for one item at a time, not for the shop as a whole. A table with one row per product and one column per cost is enough. Update it whenever a cost changes, and you will always know which listings are worth your printer hours. Add a column for how long each item takes to pack, because packing time is easy to ignore and it is real work.

Which costs do new eBay sellers forget?

Most beginners forget small things: the label, the mailer, the tape, the spools used for test prints and the time spent answering messages. Over many orders these small costs make a real difference.

A short checklist for each order:

• Filament used, including supports
• Power and wear on your machine
• Packaging and labels
• Postage you cover
• Listing and selling charges from the platform
• A small share for prints that fail

Is auction or fixed price better for prints?

Fixed price suits items you can print again at the same cost. Auctions can suit unusual pieces, but the end price is uncertain, so know your lowest acceptable price before you start.

Search completed listings for similar printed items to see what buyers actually paid, rather than what sellers asked. Use that range to test your own price. Photos with a clear size reference, such as a hand or a coin, also reduce questions and cancelled orders, which saves you time as well as money.

How do you estimate a weekly figure?

Multiply the profit per item by the number of orders you can really make in a week, given your printer hours, packing time and trips to post. Be careful: a printer that runs all day still needs you to remove, clean and pack each item.

Use the STL bundle to find models you may print and sell as physical goods, and remember that the files themselves are not part of the sale. Read the eBay income ideas page for more directions.

eBay income questions

Do I need a spreadsheet?

A notebook works, but a spreadsheet saves time once you have several products. Keep columns for cost items, selling price and profit, and add a notes column for what worked. The sheet will show which items to reprint and which to drop.

Should I also sell on my own store?

Some sellers use eBay to find buyers and a shop of their own for repeat customers. Each channel has its own costs, so compare them in the same table. See the Shopify income page for how a separate store changes the picture.