Self-employment method
Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers
32,447 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 32,447 people who filed under this code in 2022, 42.03% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 32,447 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 8,687 | 26.8% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 4,950 | 15.3% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 6,540 | 20.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 4,550 | 14.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 3,251 | 10.0% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 2,616 | 8.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,067 | 3.3% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 497 | 1.5% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 238 | 0.7% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $15,874 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.
32,447 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.
13.6% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
This kind of retail suits people who can build a community around the shop, because on price and range alone the category is not defensible.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 32,447 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $4,662, top quarter over $47,637: 10.2x, or $3,581 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers earns under $4,662 — $45,358 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this without a plan for online competition, because your customers are pricing against it whether you are or not.
Of the 32,447 people who filed as Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers in 2022, 42.0% grossed under $10,000 for the year — 13,637 people who did not clear a part-time wage in revenue, let alone in profit.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
From $4,662 to $47,637 is 10.2x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $15,874 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
The middle half of this field earns between $4,662 and $47,637. That is $42,975 of range, with $15,874 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $4,662 and $47,637 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $15,874. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $31,763; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $42,975.
The top quarter of Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers begins $31,763 above the $15,874 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $11,212 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers takes $7.63 in revenue — $2.24 at the bottom quarter and $22.90 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 8,687 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 4,950. $10,000 to $24,999, 6,540. Over $100,000, 4,418 — and 1,802 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $15,874 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $15,874 wage and should never be read as one.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $15,874 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else