To the TPT Team,

We are reaching out as sellers who have built part of our small businesses around Teachers Pay Teachers. We understand that platforms evolve, pricing structures change, and TPT has to make decisions that support the sustainability of the marketplace. However, We are deeply concerned about the decision to replace the existing Premium Seller option with an “Exclusive” membership that requires sellers to keep eligible products exclusively on TPT.

For sellers like us, this change creates a very difficult choice.

The Basic Seller percentage is simply too low to be financially sustainable for many established sellers. At the same time, we cannot in good conscience commit our entire brands and product catalogs exclusively to one marketplace for a 77.5% payout. That leaves sellers in our positions with very few realistic options: accept a significant reduction in income, give TPT considerably more control over where we are allowed to sell our own intellectual property, or begin pulling products from TPT and investing in independent websites and other sales channels.

I do not think that outcome benefits sellers or TPT.

The strength of Teachers Pay Teachers has always come from its sellers. We create the resources, build the brands, market our products, communicate with customers, update materials, respond to changing educational needs, and continually bring new buyers to the platform. Many of us are not large companies. We are teachers, therapists, interventionists, curriculum creators, and other educators running small businesses alongside demanding professional careers. The marketplace succeeds because thousands of those small businesses continue choosing to build and sell there.

To us, this proposed change feels particularly discouraging. It shifts significantly more risk onto sellers while simultaneously limiting our ability to diversify our businesses.

Exclusivity is not a membership perk. It is a major business commitment. A seller who agrees to exclusivity is giving up the ability to sell qualifying resources through a personal website, another marketplace, or potentially other future channels. That limits our independence, reduces our ability to protect ourselves from future fee changes or platform changes, and makes our businesses increasingly dependent on decisions made by a single company.

For a commitment that significant, 77.5% does not feel proportionate to what sellers are being asked to give up.

However, an Exclusive Seller membership could be a compelling option. If TPT offered an exclusive tier at something closer to a 90% seller payout, there could be a clear value proposition. TPT would receive the benefit of exclusive inventory, while sellers would receive meaningful financial compensation for giving up other distribution opportunities.

But exclusivity should be a third option, not the replacement for Premium.

A structure such as Basic, Premium, and Exclusive would allow sellers to choose the business model that works for them. Basic could remain available for casual or newer sellers. Premium could continue serving sellers who want the benefits of a higher payout while retaining control over their distribution. Exclusive could offer the highest payout and additional tools in exchange for a genuine commitment to TPT.

A three-tier model like this would feel like a partnership. The proposed structure feels much more like sellers are being asked to surrender flexibility simply to retain anything approaching the economics they previously had.

There are several broader consequences we hope TPT will seriously consider.

Established sellers may begin removing products from the marketplace rather than accepting exclusivity. Sellers may stop launching new products on TPT and instead build independent storefronts first. Creators may become hesitant to invest years into building a TPT business if the terms governing where they can sell can change this dramatically. Customers could ultimately encounter a smaller selection of high-quality resources. And perhaps most importantly, the relationship between TPT and its seller community risks becoming adversarial when it has historically benefited from feeling collaborative.

We also worry about what this communicates to small-business owners who have helped grow TPT. Many sellers spent years developing brands and audiences under a system in which Premium membership allowed them to operate independent businesses while also selling through TPT. Changing that arrangement so substantially can feel less like the introduction of a new benefit and more like a financial pressure point: accept exclusivity or absorb a substantial reduction in revenue.

We recognize that TPT is a business and needs to generate revenue. Sellers understand that. We pay membership fees and marketplace commissions because TPT provides valuable infrastructure, visibility, payment processing, customer access, and other services.

But there is a point at which increasing TPT’s share or restricting sellers’ outside business opportunities begins to undermine the very ecosystem that makes the platform valuable.

The creators are not incidental to this business model. We are its foundation.

We strongly encourage TPT to reconsider eliminating the Premium Seller option and instead offer Exclusive Membership as an additional, genuinely optional tier. If exclusivity is valuable to TPT (and clearly it is), then compensate sellers accordingly with a substantially higher payout and allow the market to determine whether that exchange is worthwhile.

We want to continue selling on Teachers Pay Teachers. We would much rather continue growing our stores and brands alongside TPT than feel pushed toward removing resources and building entirely independent storefronts. But, we also need to protect the long-term viability and independence of the small businesses we have worked hard to build.

We hope TPT will listen closely to seller feedback before making this change permanent. Decisions that affect seller income, intellectual property distribution, and business independence this substantially deserve meaningful input from the people whose work powers the marketplace.

Thank you for taking the time to hear from your sellers. We sincerely hope TPT will reconsider this structure and find a solution that allows the company and its creators to continue growing together.