3D Printing is Loosing a Legend!
Shapeways is filing bankrupcy and going out of business!
Shapeways is filing bankrupcy and going out of business!
We are loosing a powerhouse online brand in the 3D printing industry.
They were attempting to do something amazing — bring to the 3D print world what Print-on-Demand clothing providers have done for clothing design/sales.
Obviously something was not working.
I have to wonder…. was it ……the PRICING?
Last time I checked, it cost around $35+ to print a Christmas-ornament-sized semi fill plastic object, and that was the cheapest material, PLA.
For my cigar molds, they wanted $400+ to print one of them.
Even if I ordered bulk (which defeats the print on demand business idea), the pricing would have far exceeded my retail pricing determined by my market niche’s average pricing.
I charge my customers $69 for what Shapeways was wanting to charge almost $400 for, using the same materials (PLA), and same printing method.
There is no planet on which Shapeway’s price scale works for my business.
And I’ve tried coming up with niche manufacturing use cases that could use Shapeways for fulfillment. I have yet to find anything where Shapeway’s price scale paired with realistic retail expectations.
People who want Print-On-Demand services — want to use them for businesses.
Anything that cannot work with a business due to pricing mis-match, is just prototyping, or small scale novelty manufacturing.
I made a video where I discus how I handled my fulfillment as a 3D printing niche company. So far, it’s the only thing I have found that is workable, and it’s just a product of approaching someone small scale and making a deal.
For years, I was making a good 70–80% on all sales, because the true cost of running my print lab was so insanely low that I can charge $69 for something that costs about $7 of plastic, and 14 hours of print time (overnight).
One 1kg spool of plastic produces 3 of my cigar molds, and the spools I use cost $21 each.
Running 10–11 machines, with at least 6–8 of them fired up and making products any given day, and myself running it, I could pull off pricing that no large scale 3D print service could ever touch.
I accepted a few projects on the side by visiting Maker spaces in Seattle and finding people who wanted better pricing for print time. Even Maker spaces charge too much, and it’s probably their overhead and staff.
I realized I probably couldn’t scale this into having large overhead and still have quite the same pricing, but it got me thinking — 3D printing is one of the most automated and easy to run home businesses for an individual or a couple, especially if you plan your workday so that prints run overnight for you and find a product whose pricing pairs with time/cost/effort.
If you can hit on the right product idea and find a way to build your audience, it’s actually very fun.
I started working full time at it for the first year or so, but over the course of about 2 years I turned it into a part-time home business with full time income.
If Shapeways or other 3D printing businesses had found a way to scale into pricing that is REALISTIC for niche manufacturing product offers, maybe they would be better off, but I have no idea what the reality of making that happen is, on paper. Maybe it’s not possible?
There may be an opportunity here for someone with the means and resources to build.
Shapeways pricing was based on average 3D print service pricing.
It’s not based on what works for niche manufacturing in small business — which is the essence of the Print-on-Demand audience.
Thank you for reading!
Until next time….
Onward and Upward Everybody!
-Chris
Automated Income Lifesyle w/ Chris Morton YouTube
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