How to Price Stickers and Prints
A sticker costs pennies in paper, which makes it tempting to price low. The real costs hide in ink, laminate, cutting and overheads. Here is how to price stickers and prints properly.
What goes into the cost of one sticker
- Sticker paper per sheet, divided by how many stickers fit on it.
- Ink per page: cartridge price divided by the pages it prints.
- Laminate or overlay, if you use it.
- Backing cards, sleeves and envelopes.
- Your time: designing, printing, cutting and packing.
- Overheads: cutting machine blades and mats, design software and fees. For cheap items this is often the largest cost.
Worked example: a die-cut sticker (20 per sheet)
Paper, ink, laminate and a backing card come to $0.15 a sticker. Cutting and packing add $0.17, and overheads add $0.60, the biggest single cost. Each sticker costs $0.91. The lowest price for a 35% margin online is $2.46; at $3.50 you keep $1.80 (51.5%).
Sticker pricing mistakes
- Costing only the paper.
- Forgetting that small orders still pay a fixed listing and payment fee each.
- Spreading overheads over too few items: sell more per order with packs and bundles.
- Ignoring postage. Stickers are light, but stamps and envelopes still cost money.
The spreadsheet for sticker and print shops
The Sticker & Print Shop Cost & Pricing Calculator costs ink per page, has a stickers-per-sheet helper and builds a full price list (Excel and Google Sheets).
Work out your own price
Try your numbers in the free handmade pricing calculator, one product at a time. The general method is on How to Price Handmade Products.
Example figures use $20 an hour for your time, $120 a month of overheads spread over 200 items, the 2 × 2 wholesale/retail rule, and Etsy-style fees of about 9.5% + $0.45. Your supplier prices will differ.