SCRAPD’s 5% Commission for the Founding 50: What It Actually Saves You

SCRAPD charges the first 50 makers who join - the founding 50 - a 5% commission on each sale. That is the platform’s cut for everything it does to connect your work with buyers. For comparison, Etsy’s effective take is roughly 10-11% once listing and transaction fees are counted, and Poshmark takes a flat 20% on sales over $15. On a one-of-one piece you spent hours making, that gap is the difference between a fair return and a frustrating one.

This article lays out exactly what the founding-50 offer is, how 5% compares to the platforms most makers come from, and what your real take-home looks like on a typical sale. No vague promises - just the math.

What is the founding-50 offer?

SCRAPD is opening with a deliberately small first cohort of makers. The first 50 approved storefronts get a locked-in 5% commission rate as a thank-you for building the marketplace early. It is not a limited-time discount that quietly resets - it is a founding rate tied to being part of the group that establishes what SCRAPD is.

To qualify, you go through the same review as everyone else: a real person on our Nashville team checks your storefront, and your work has to be genuinely one-of-one. There is no fast-track and no pay-to-skip. The founding 50 are simply the first 50 to pass SCRAPD’s curation.

How 5% compares to Etsy, Depop and Poshmark

Marketplace fees are rarely a single clean number, which is how the real cost gets hidden. Here is how the major platforms actually stack up for a maker selling handmade goods:

• SCRAPD (founding 50): 5% commission, plus standard payment processing.
• Etsy: roughly 10-11% effective once you combine the per-listing fee, the transaction fee, and payment processing - and that climbs further if you use Etsy’s optional ads and offsite ads.
• Depop: 0% selling commission, plus payment processing. Depop dropped its commission, which sounds great until you factor in how crowded and resale-heavy the platform has become.
• Poshmark: a flat 20% on any sale over $15 (a flat $2.95 fee under $15). That 20% is taken straight off the top of every sale.

For the full picture across the industry, see our annual roundup of marketplace selling fees in 2026. The headline: a low commission is only meaningful when the marketplace itself protects your work - a 0% commission on a platform flooded with resellers can cost you more in lost sales than a fair commission on a curated one.

A worked example: take-home on a $60 item

Let’s make this concrete. Say you sell a reworked denim jacket for $60. We will set payment processing aside for a moment, since it is broadly similar everywhere, and look only at each platform’s own cut so the comparison is clean:

• SCRAPD founding 50 - 5%: the commission is $3.00. You keep $57.00 of the $60.
• Etsy - ~10.5% effective: the platform’s take is roughly $6.30. You keep about $53.70.
• Poshmark - 20%: the commission is $12.00. You keep $48.00.

Against Poshmark, that is $9.00 more in your pocket on a single $60 sale. Against Etsy, it is roughly $3.30 more. One sale, that sounds modest. Now run it across a year.

Why low fees matter most for one-of-one makers

Fee percentages hit one-of-one makers harder than they hit volume sellers, and it is worth understanding why. A reseller moving identical mass-produced units can absorb a 20% fee by selling thousands of them at thin margins - volume covers the cut.

A maker cannot do that. Each piece you sell took real hours of hand labor. You sell fewer items at higher individual value, and you cannot manufacture your way around a fee. So every percentage point comes directly out of compensation for your time. A 15-point swing between Poshmark and SCRAPD is not abstract - it is hours of your labor, paid or unpaid. If you are still working out what to charge, our guide to pricing handmade work on SCRAPD covers how to build the fee into a number that pays you properly.

A reseller can out-volume a high fee. A maker only has their hours. Every point of commission is paid out of those hours.

What happens after the founding-50 period?

Once the first 50 storefronts are filled, new makers join at SCRAPD’s standard commission rate, which is set above 5% but designed to stay well below the effective costs of Etsy and Poshmark - keeping SCRAPD a genuinely low-fee alternative for everyone, not just the founding cohort.

The founding 50 keep their 5% as a recognition of having built the marketplace first. If you are weighing whether to apply now or later, the rate is one clear reason not to wait.

How to claim your spot

Claiming a founding-50 spot is the same process as any SCRAPD application - there is no separate track. Apply at /sell, submit a storefront with a clear bio and a few well-photographed one-of-one pieces, and pass human review. If you are among the first 50 approved, the 5% rate is yours. For a full walkthrough, read how to set up your SCRAPD storefront.