Expectations

If you are reading this page it is probably because you've thought about selling keycaps as a side hustle. So, can you make money selling keycaps?

TLDR Yes its definitely possible but expect a lot of time and effort to get to the point of making a profit. If you're here making keycaps just to make money this definitely isn't a quick or easy way of doing so. If you're making keycaps because you love the art, the process the community and you can cover the costs of your hobby or even make a bit of extra money then that's a huge bonus but shouldn't be the goal.

It's very easy to look at some higher profile artisan makers and quickly realize they are making a fairly sizable sum of money selling keycaps. Tie that with the costs of raw supplies and this quickly looks like it could be a very profitable small business idea.

What's often not seen is the amount of time taken to get an artisan cap to the point that it is saleable. Many artisans will make many iterations, make 10-100's of trial caps, possibly the same amount of molds to get a cap to a point where it is sale ready. This obviously takes a fair amount of supplies but more importantly it takes a lot of time.

It is not uncommon to see new members in the community spending $2-5k in the hobby and 6-12 months of experimenting before selling any caps at all.

Many artisans will sell enough caps to cover the costs of more supplies and tools which if you can reach that level that's a huge bonus to an already very fulfilling hobby.

What is your time worth?

By far the biggest commodity used in making artisan keycaps will be your time. $50 of resin can easily make 100 keycaps, but making 100 keycaps can take many days if not weeks. When pricing your keycaps think about how much time you have put into making them and what you think your time is worth.

Artisan pricing

Artisans vary wildly in price, anywhere from $5 - over $1000, so why the huge variance in price? There are two key factors in play. The first which is slightly more tangible is keycap quality / detail, simple keycaps such as keycap blanks will tend to sell for cheaper than a multiple colored keycap required many separate resin casts with lots of fine details.

The second and arguably much greater variance is the rarity of the cap and the prominence of the maker themselves. Many makers who have been making caps for several years in great volume have followings of buyers who will happily outbid others to win a one of a kind cap.

So as a New maker where should you price your caps?

The vast majority of keycap makers price their caps in the $30-60 range, with newer, lesser known artisans, as well as simple keycap designs at the lower end, and more complicated and slightly better known artisans at the upper end. If you're ever unsure ask in the bizness channel on the Zbutt discord server or PM one of the mods who will be more than happy to help out with pricing.

How to sell your caps

Raffle

Placeholder Google forms raffle setup and RNG winner selection

First come first serve

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Fulfillment

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PayPal Invoicing

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/invoicing-templates

Batch Invoicing

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Batch Shipping

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Handling disputes

Shipping issues

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Customs

You may get requests to list a lower amount than the actual invoice on the customs forms, but it is recommended that you list the actual amount. Marking down might work, but if it is caught then the customs agency will decide what they think the item is worth and that amount may be way off. Depending on local laws, marking the wrong amount on customs may also have legal ramifications for you to consider in addition to just whether or not it works out well for the customer on the other end.

HS Code 8471.60.2000 is "keyboards" though it is possible there may be other HS codes that keycaps would also fit under.

You may also consider putting an invoice in a document window on the outside of the box/package to speed up processing through customs as well.