Imbrium
Jennifer
$10 would be totally reasonable if it covers your costs as far as time/materials... maybe even $15 for larger and/or more time intensive bunnies.
some comments on shipping and other business-type stuff, since you're planning to sell the bunnies...
~ as long as you keep things to 13 oz or less, shipping prices via first class mail are super cheap (maxes out at $3.77 for 13 oz on the USPS calculator)
~ if you use PayPal to collect money for the sales, do NOT go through the post office directly to ship. first of all, USPS site doesn't allow you to purchase first class postage online, which not only means a trip to the post office, it means no 15% or whatever discount for paying online. buy your shipping labels through the PayPal site! you can pay for first class postage online via PayPal even though you can't on the USPS site, meaning you get the discount for buying online (so it comes out cheaper than the USPS shipping calculator) AND you can print the label from home. going through PayPal instead of the post office, a 13 oz first class mail package is $3.38 instead of $3.77.
~ if you try to "schedule a pickup" to avoid having to drop the package off at the post office, USPS won't schedule pick-ups for first class packages unless you're also having at least one priority or express mail package picked up at the same time. *however*, there is a loophole! a scheduled package pick-up means you can leave stuff on the front porch or ask them to ring the doorbell to be handed the packages, etc. and is great for larger packages and/or multiple packages that won't fit in your mailbox... BUT, if the package(s) you're sending fit in your mailbox, you can just put them in there and raise the flag as long as they've got a pre-paid shipping label (which, as I said, you can get through paypal). I sent two first-class packages yesterday without a trip to the post office by sticking them in the mailbox.
~ boxes add weight and, if they aren't priority mail boxes (which you can get for free), will cost you 50c or more each which is another expense. padded envelopes are also stupidly expensive. Dollar Tree (and probably other places) sell 6 large non-padded envelopes for $1 (or about 18c each after tax). I'm guessing your bunnies will fit into one of those. when sending something 13 oz or less, I *always* put it in one of those envelopes if at all possible, "padding" it myself if needed (because a 1' square sheet of bubble wrap + an unpadded envelope comes out cheaper than just buying a padded envelope
).I've never had an issue (damage, tearing, etc.) mailing stuff in non-padded envelops (for items that might break, I'll use bubble-wrap to pad it, but I don't use bubble-wrap if only shipping fabric/sewn items). you can get quite a bit into those envelopes - I sent a yard of fleece to someone last week, so the envelope was like 5'' thick or something. since you would be stuffing the envelopes pretty full, I do recommend using mailing tape to reinforce the corners and, if you're worried, maybe the seams.
~ you can set up a basic PayPal business account for free (if you already have a personal account, you can opt to change the existing account to a business one). when collecting payments through PayPal + making shipping labels directly from your PayPal account, PayPal auto-inserts the person's shipping address onto the label, so you never have to worry about a typo or mistake when copying the address. the shipping labels are auto-purchased with funds from your PayPal balance (ie the money someone just paid you) and when you print the shipping label, they're automatically sent an email from PayPal with the tracking info for their order.
you can maintain a balance in your PayPal account with your income and use it for online purchases, or you can transfer the money to your bank account free of charge.
~ with PayPal, you can send an invoice to someone using their email address which has the details (item cost, shipping cost, etc.) and a link they can use to pay the invoice... they don't HAVE to have PayPal to pay it, they can also use a credit or debit card without needing a PayPal account. the invoice doesn't cost anything to send, however PayPal does take a cut of 30c + 2.9% when the customer pays.
using the invoice system, you could do sales and shipping through paypal without needing to set up a website or go through a selling/auction site of any type (for example, if you wanted to arrange sales by talking to people via PM on RO).
~ if you do want to set up a website, I recommend Weebly - it's very easy to use! if you want a domain that doesn't tack on ".weebly" (or /, I don't remember) at the end, you've gotta purchase a domain... however, if you're ok with them adding "weebly" into the domain name, you can use a free one and you can still pick whatever domain name you want. while you CAN upgrade to weebly Pro for a price, there's honestly **** near no incentive to use the paid version - there's *very* little that you can't do with the free version.
TLDR: you can get a PayPal business account (which can be upgraded, but there's really no incentive to at all for a small online business to upgrade) and - if you want one - a nice website (as basic or as complex as you want) that's easy to make for NO cost at all. you can collect payments via PayPal (where people can pay by debit card, credit card, bank account or paypal balance) through your website and/or by sending invoices for a cost of 30c + 2.9% per transaction. by using PayPal to make shipping labels, you can get cheaper first class shipping rates (and the cheaper "online prices" if you use priority mail) and you can just stick packages in your mailbox to mail them without ever leaving home.
if you want priority mail to be an option, you can order official "priority mail" boxes in whatever size(s) you want in quantities of 10 or 25 off the USPS website and have them delivered to your home (both the boxes and the delivery are 100% free).
(if you have any questions at all about setting up/using a PayPal business account, sending invoices, shipping packages, making a website using Weebly and/or any other small business stuff, feel free to PM me - I've had to learn all of that in order to get my online store up and running.)
