I totally know what you mean. I've had the same problem. How I work mine out is like this:
I work out how much it cost to make each doll so for example if I use 2 sheets of felt for my Party Baby dolls I add $2 which is $1 per sheet. If I use half a sheet per doll I add $0.50 etc. Does that make sense??
For stuffing I work out how many dolls I get per bag of stuffing so in my case I get 4 dolls from a 200g bag which costs me $6.50 so I divide $6.50 by 4 which equals 1.62 so I round that up to $1.65 and add that to the list so for example my list might look like this for a specific style of doll (I'll use my Party Baby doll for this example and these aren't my actual prices either)
Fabric - arms, legs & face - $2.50 divided by 5 = $0.50
Fabric - body, skirt - $5.00 divided by 5 = $1.00
Fabric - socks - $5.00 divided by 30 = $0.16 (round up) $0.20
Felt - hair - $1.00 divided by 0 = $1.00
Felt - shoes - $1.00 divided by 4 = $0.25
Flowers - hair - $5.00 divided by 100 = $0.05
Stuffing - whole doll - $6.50 divided by 4 = $1.62 (round up) $1.65
Etsy listing fee = $0.20
then I round up where necessary. Then I add it all together:
materials total: $4.85 (round up) $4.90
then I work out how much I want for profit for example I'll use $20
materials total + profit = $24.90
then I use the free Etsy fee calculator found here:
https://craftybase.com/etsy/fee-calculator and adjust the sale price until I get an estimated profit of $20.00 (or your chosen profit amount) and I use that amount as my sale profit. For example:
sales price: $28.00
Etsy fee: $1.15
PayPal fee: $1.08
Make costs: $4.90
Estimated profit: $20.81
If the sales amount is not an even amount i.e; $27.73 I round it up to the nearest half or whole dollar and list it at that.
I do the same thing for shipping. For me it's not about being lowest price it's about being fair to myself and the customer. I read this before I even got started and it's stuck with me ever since: 'There will always be someone who's prices are lower than your but their material and finished quality may be lower too. Be fair to yourself and you'll find it easier to make a profit and have fun at the same time'
I hope this was helpful, I know it was long but if someone had of told me about this ages ago it would have been so helpful. In the beginning I was going by what was fair and not including the costs but I quickly realised that if I want to turn this into a full time business than I need to be fair to myself and not always try to please others. Good luck! Your shop is great!!
