I used to sell FBA. I calculated that if the price is below about $8.50, then I will make no money - it'll all be eaten up by Amazon fees (some fees are fixed - not a percentage). If I sell at $10, I get about $1.25. Above that it's somewhat linear (e.g. sell at $20 and you pocket about $10, etc).

In my case, this wasn't a problem. I chose to get into the market specifically to sell FBA. As such, I knew cheap items were not viable for FBA, so I didn't sell cheap items on it.

Also explains why it's impossible to find virtually anything with Prime under $9ish. I order almost entirely off Aliexpress these days because I'm rarely in a hurry for anything and it's typically less than half the Amazon price for the same junk.

FYI Amazon has a program called small and light that is designed for this < $10 items if they are small.

The minimum commission fee of $1 still takes a large byte out of that though. (Commission fees being in addition to FBA fees)

That minimum commission fee is the reason you don't see anything on Amazon for below $6 (unless there's some weird accounting going on for the seller). Above $6, the fee turns into a percentage and is easier to manage.

That fee is also the reason you'll often see packs of 3 or some item when you only want 1... it's just not profitable to sell the 1 at a reasonable price anymore.

As an aside, the SNL program doesn't get all the same benefits as FBA. In some cases you don't get the Prime badge, and in other cases you're an "Add-on Item" to get free shipping for the buyer.

$.80-$1.00 per order, plus $.75 per unit, plus $.11 per ounce. You can end up paying two dollars just to put one tiny item in a box. And that's separate from the commission, as mentioned by Alupis.