Is it worth opening an Etsy shop for hand-polished stones (fees and upkeep)?

Hi! For hand-wrapped/hand-polished stones, Etsy can absolutely be “worth it” if your pricing leaves you enough margin after fees + shipping supplies + your labor, because Etsy already has a huge audience actively searching for crystals, wire-wrapped jewelry, and polished stones. The ongoing upkeep is very manageable once your listings and shipping are set up—but expect a bigger upfront push for photos, listing setup, and dialing in your Etsy SEO.

On the fee side (US), the “usual” baseline you’ll want to plan for on each order is:

• $0.20 listing fee per listing (each listing lasts 4 months, then renews if set to auto-renew)
• 6.5% transaction fee on the order total (including what you charge for shipping/gift wrap)
• Etsy Payments processing fee (US): 3% + $0.25 per order

So, ignoring any ads, a quick way to sanity-check is: plan for ~9.5% + $0.25 + the $0.20 listing fee coming out of the order total, then back out your packaging/shipping costs and your materials/time. (If your average item is low-priced, that flat per-order fee matters more.)

One more fee that can surprise people: Offsite Ads. Etsy may advertise your listings on places like Google/social, and if the sale is attributed to that ad click, there’s an additional 15% fee (or 12% once you’ve hit a certain sales threshold). If you’re under that threshold, you can choose to opt out—so it’s something you can control early on.

How much ongoing work is it, really?

Most of the work is front-loaded. After you’re running, it’s mostly “small daily tasks” plus occasional tune-ups.

Upfront setup (first 1–2 weeks, depending on how many products you launch):

• Photos/video: biggest time sink (but it’s what sells stones). Plan on consistent lighting and close-ups that show sparkle, polish quality, and wire details.
• Listing writing + Etsy SEO: titles, tags, attributes, and clear descriptions (including stone type, size, finish, and what’s included).
• Shipping settings: shipping profiles, processing time, package sizes/weights, and packaging workflow.

Ongoing weekly rhythm (typical small shop):

• Customer messages: usually light if your descriptions are clear (but custom requests can add time).
• Shipping: packing, label printing, drop-offs/pickups; this is the most “real” recurring workload.
• Inventory + listing updates: renewing/adding new stones, marking sold one-of-a-kind items, updating photos if needed.
• Light SEO maintenance: small tweaks to titles/tags on underperforming Etsy listings, and adding new listings regularly helps.

As a very rough guide, many sellers find that once they’re set up, upkeep can be a few hours per week for a low-volume shop, and then it scales mainly with order volume + how custom your work is.

If you tell me your typical price range (like $15–$40 vs $60–$150), average package weight, and whether each piece is one-of-a-kind, I can help you sanity-check whether the fee structure will feel “worth it” for your specific stones and margins.