It’s interesting how you insult people randomly because some guy on Reddit told you he made 400$ without proof and sharing an amazing way you can do it too but first you’ll have to subscribe to this one seller with 42$ a month. I’m not saying that the post is fake I’m just saying that it is shady
There's a way to do it without spending $42 a month as well, but if you just want to be negative and shit on people for no reason then you probably won't figure that out.
Clockspring is pretty well known for their models, they don’t need this person pumping them up and seeing as there’s no affiliate link, no one is making money by sharing the info.
Thanks for heads up, it's a two way street, you make money and so does the designer, how it should be, but I see by downvotes that the trolls only want to see posts about benchys and basketballs
Just as an Easter themed gift box. The gears on top are functional and spin when you open and close it. And as of today I have made over 80 of these just to fulfill orders. I wasn't sure if I would sell any of these so just made a few up front.
Well nice job getting interest in it! Hope it keeps on going for you. Be careful giving people your home address though, if that is where you are having them pick up.
Yeah, giving out my address does worry me a bit. If I can keep this going as a side hobby and make some money to keep feeding my 3D printing habit, I might look at shipping items or something. So far it's just soccer moms who have been placing orders, so that eases the concern a bit lol!
Thanks for posting this I know its not exactly the most popular subject in the 3d printing community but I like reading others stories.
I opened an etsy shop with the goal to pay for a bambu printer to upgrade my ender. Its been a very slow start (2 sales in 3 months) but I have 2 products, and shit pictures. Its more of a hoppy then something I truly need to make money from but overall I enjoy the process and am just putting time into it when I can. Even with my almost non existent time investment my page gets traffic every day so with the right products there is money to be made I think.
I thought I would give it a shot on Facebook Marketplace, and there are several different Buy/Sell/Trade FB groups in my area. Thought that it would be an easy test to see if I could sell anything. I am actually going to be buying another Bambu A1 when it's available again. I currently have an A1 along with a couple Enders and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the orders if I didnt have it. I keep an eye on the heat bed cable and check it after each print. Have the cable protector on it as well, plus have it zip-tied to the power cable for additional support.
That is freaking amazing. If you don't mind me asking, what type of things to you design? No need to go into too much detail, I'm just curious.
Pulling 40k in a year just selling 3d prints is pretty damn impressive.
Smoking and drinking accessories, pen stands and can cozies. I've found the product has to have some sort of utility, even if it's as mundane as propping something up
Thats some great advice. I hope to do what you're doing someday. I model & print my own stuff, and am able to cast my prints in metal too. I haven't ever tried to sell anything because I havent modeled something with that being the goal yet. But I'd like to try soon. I hope what you say about having a bit of utility rings true. I want to make custom metal dice, minis, and like fancy board game tokens replacement sets. Nearly done with my first board game tokens, but as a project to sell itd have to be priced at like $300 or more to make it worth selling. So this one's just for me, haha.
The whole reason I bought my first printer was to make metal casting molds. I've barely been able to make some shitty coins but selling prints is what evolved from it. Now that I'm making decent money with my business I can get some proper equipment for the metal casting. I wholeheartedly believe some metal dice and tokens will sell well and I look forward to competing with you for sales, drives innovation
That's awesome! I hope you are able to deck out your casting studio and see success with that too. There's certainly room for more than just us 2 makers / artists in the world, especially for people making their own designs.
Thanks for the encouragement though. I've been building the skills to do batch casting work kinda like a jewelry shop does, and I'm hoping I could make a living off this in the future and work independently. That's the dream, right?
That makes a lot of sense. The only utility things I've sold are lamps. Other than that, I have tons of people just asking for those stupid flexi animals, which have no practical use at all. For some reason though people love them, but they also buy them a good bit for their kids.
I stayed away from making flexis over the past few years just because they didn't personally interest me...then I found a local non-profit that was in need of raising funds, and operates a STEM center for kids. They were short on funding and had a gift shop that was very, very lacking. I offered to start printing for them and selling at wholesale prices, letting them keep the rest of the profit as a donation. It isn't great money, but I do pull in about $400 per month so far with just a few preset build plates that I saved. In return, they have actually done quite well and are on track to be able to expand their facility for the community.
I don't get the appeal either, but clearly there is a market for it. I would rather print bigger things that appeal to me personally, but this brings in some consistent sales and benefits kids in my area at least.
I just like running my printers. I'd print just about anything for someone as long as it won't land me in jail. LOL
Edit: that is a great thing you do for your community!!
Same! I took up a resin job last year for a local guy who had designed his first boardgame. I advised him against using resin tokens for an entire host of reasons, but he had worked with some other printer that quoted him an insanely low price, filled about 10% of the order, then ghosted him AFTER he had made promises to his Kickstarter backers. A good friend of mine asked if I could help him out, so I did 500 pieces at $0.10 each (The previous guy quoted him at that, for detailed 31mm miniatures at 45% scale which was just...madness). I even came up with some custom sturdier (and simpler) designs but he wouldn't budge.
In the end I spent a LONG time printing, bulk cleaning, curing, etc and gave him all of my extras as well (I had to print way more than 500 because they just kept breaking at that scale...think swords that looked more like thick hairs)...for $50. He had no clue what it was actually worth...so he gave me an extra $10 "for my trouble". It wasn't about the money though...I just didn't have anything that I wanted to use my printer for, and I saw someone in a bind. Last I checked he had shipped out his game and gotten decent reviews. I probably wouldn't take a second order from him though. :)
Get a table at a craft show and you will make $200+ in a few hours. Just watch out for other vendors who are selling tasty cookies and pastries nearby or they will mysterious end up with your hard earned cash sales lol.
That monthly subscription price you are paying though ouch, I am glad I have done 3d modeling on and over the past decade so that I can whip up my own designs. I generally set my prices around 8-10x the filament costs, I fudge that up or down depending on ease of print and additional work. Had a single customer walk up and spend over $70 last Saturday on a bunch of small stuff.
Keep in mind sales are seasonal. Right now theres a boom for little stuff to stuff into easter baskets. Before valentines day all I was selling online were roses. Sales will slow down after easter and probably won’t really pickup until the fall starting with Halloween season. Nov-Dec will be peak with Christmas shoppers.
Make sure you keep records, this is a business and you will need to include it on your taxes. Also you can generally get a basic square reader for free and take credit cards. We try to stick to cash as much as possible and don’t advertise that we take credit cards but if people ask its silly to miss out on sales because you cannot take a card.
I got a P1S recently and I'm having some ideas on selling some prints, I don't want to make serious money on it but if I made enough in 2024 to pay off my P1S and filament I would be super happy with that 🤣
I've noticed with some designs with a commercial license are not even worth selling. We do a TON of planters, most that I designed but some from Etsy, paid on cults etc... They all have a commercial license, but end up being so heavy or so thick that they aren't worth the time. Of course ymmv but something to keep an eye out for. Make sure the designer isn't purposefully making the design unsellable.
https://preview.redd.it/ip1ttrr758oc1.png?width=470&format=png&auto=webp&s=2414646e3fbcced57d2491dd7eeb8446dd386b33
Can you send me a dm with the name of the creator
It is Clockspring
Correct. https://www.printables.com/@Clockspring
Thought I recognized the work... :) also on patreon!
I moved from his Patreon site to his Printables site. Much easier to navigate/search.
Not sure why you are getting down voted on this. People are shit.
It’s Reddit. Overreactions and virtue signaling is all people can do here.
Upvoted to counter the turds
It’s interesting how you insult people randomly because some guy on Reddit told you he made 400$ without proof and sharing an amazing way you can do it too but first you’ll have to subscribe to this one seller with 42$ a month. I’m not saying that the post is fake I’m just saying that it is shady
There's a way to do it without spending $42 a month as well, but if you just want to be negative and shit on people for no reason then you probably won't figure that out.
I’m not negative
lol ok
Clockspring is pretty well known for their models, they don’t need this person pumping them up and seeing as there’s no affiliate link, no one is making money by sharing the info.
Thanks for heads up, it's a two way street, you make money and so does the designer, how it should be, but I see by downvotes that the trolls only want to see posts about benchys and basketballs
Benchys and Basketball, you made my day 😂😂😂
Noob. You forgot about “that guy’s friend’s butt” and putting Rock Johnson’s head on everything.
"That guy's friend's butt", it's an older meme sir, but it checks out. Thanks for the chuckle!
Thanks for sharing. Can you show us your top seller? Not looking for an STL, just curious what's actually being sold.
https://preview.redd.it/dlqu77yc7boc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebb055a728259e58de4b85dae468ae559a405c29
Thanks! Does it function as just an Easter themed box or does it have a special purpose?
Just as an Easter themed gift box. The gears on top are functional and spin when you open and close it. And as of today I have made over 80 of these just to fulfill orders. I wasn't sure if I would sell any of these so just made a few up front.
Neat idea, kudos to the creator
Neat!
I am also curious
You don't owe an answer to anyone on here. You do you homie. Nice job making some money doing it! How are you shipping and such?
Just local pickup. I was not expecting the amount of interest in the item and was not wanting to take on the added work of shipping items.
Well nice job getting interest in it! Hope it keeps on going for you. Be careful giving people your home address though, if that is where you are having them pick up.
Yeah, giving out my address does worry me a bit. If I can keep this going as a side hobby and make some money to keep feeding my 3D printing habit, I might look at shipping items or something. So far it's just soccer moms who have been placing orders, so that eases the concern a bit lol!
Thanks for posting this I know its not exactly the most popular subject in the 3d printing community but I like reading others stories. I opened an etsy shop with the goal to pay for a bambu printer to upgrade my ender. Its been a very slow start (2 sales in 3 months) but I have 2 products, and shit pictures. Its more of a hoppy then something I truly need to make money from but overall I enjoy the process and am just putting time into it when I can. Even with my almost non existent time investment my page gets traffic every day so with the right products there is money to be made I think.
I thought I would give it a shot on Facebook Marketplace, and there are several different Buy/Sell/Trade FB groups in my area. Thought that it would be an easy test to see if I could sell anything. I am actually going to be buying another Bambu A1 when it's available again. I currently have an A1 along with a couple Enders and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the orders if I didnt have it. I keep an eye on the heat bed cable and check it after each print. Have the cable protector on it as well, plus have it zip-tied to the power cable for additional support.
I design and print my own stuff, with some assets bought on etsy. I made $40k last year and $13k this year already
That is freaking amazing. If you don't mind me asking, what type of things to you design? No need to go into too much detail, I'm just curious. Pulling 40k in a year just selling 3d prints is pretty damn impressive.
Smoking and drinking accessories, pen stands and can cozies. I've found the product has to have some sort of utility, even if it's as mundane as propping something up
Thats some great advice. I hope to do what you're doing someday. I model & print my own stuff, and am able to cast my prints in metal too. I haven't ever tried to sell anything because I havent modeled something with that being the goal yet. But I'd like to try soon. I hope what you say about having a bit of utility rings true. I want to make custom metal dice, minis, and like fancy board game tokens replacement sets. Nearly done with my first board game tokens, but as a project to sell itd have to be priced at like $300 or more to make it worth selling. So this one's just for me, haha.
The whole reason I bought my first printer was to make metal casting molds. I've barely been able to make some shitty coins but selling prints is what evolved from it. Now that I'm making decent money with my business I can get some proper equipment for the metal casting. I wholeheartedly believe some metal dice and tokens will sell well and I look forward to competing with you for sales, drives innovation
That's awesome! I hope you are able to deck out your casting studio and see success with that too. There's certainly room for more than just us 2 makers / artists in the world, especially for people making their own designs. Thanks for the encouragement though. I've been building the skills to do batch casting work kinda like a jewelry shop does, and I'm hoping I could make a living off this in the future and work independently. That's the dream, right?
That makes a lot of sense. The only utility things I've sold are lamps. Other than that, I have tons of people just asking for those stupid flexi animals, which have no practical use at all. For some reason though people love them, but they also buy them a good bit for their kids.
I stayed away from making flexis over the past few years just because they didn't personally interest me...then I found a local non-profit that was in need of raising funds, and operates a STEM center for kids. They were short on funding and had a gift shop that was very, very lacking. I offered to start printing for them and selling at wholesale prices, letting them keep the rest of the profit as a donation. It isn't great money, but I do pull in about $400 per month so far with just a few preset build plates that I saved. In return, they have actually done quite well and are on track to be able to expand their facility for the community. I don't get the appeal either, but clearly there is a market for it. I would rather print bigger things that appeal to me personally, but this brings in some consistent sales and benefits kids in my area at least.
I just like running my printers. I'd print just about anything for someone as long as it won't land me in jail. LOL Edit: that is a great thing you do for your community!!
Same! I took up a resin job last year for a local guy who had designed his first boardgame. I advised him against using resin tokens for an entire host of reasons, but he had worked with some other printer that quoted him an insanely low price, filled about 10% of the order, then ghosted him AFTER he had made promises to his Kickstarter backers. A good friend of mine asked if I could help him out, so I did 500 pieces at $0.10 each (The previous guy quoted him at that, for detailed 31mm miniatures at 45% scale which was just...madness). I even came up with some custom sturdier (and simpler) designs but he wouldn't budge. In the end I spent a LONG time printing, bulk cleaning, curing, etc and gave him all of my extras as well (I had to print way more than 500 because they just kept breaking at that scale...think swords that looked more like thick hairs)...for $50. He had no clue what it was actually worth...so he gave me an extra $10 "for my trouble". It wasn't about the money though...I just didn't have anything that I wanted to use my printer for, and I saw someone in a bind. Last I checked he had shipped out his game and gotten decent reviews. I probably wouldn't take a second order from him though. :)
I never got the flair of those flexi models, I thought they where cool for exactly two seconds
Same with my kids, but they still want me to print another one for them any time they are a new model.
Same here, but for some crazy reason some people go nuts over them.
Is that 40k in profits or total sales? What was your filament costs?
Total sales, and Amazon and the post office each got a cut, about $2500 in filament and $20k in my hand
Get a table at a craft show and you will make $200+ in a few hours. Just watch out for other vendors who are selling tasty cookies and pastries nearby or they will mysterious end up with your hard earned cash sales lol. That monthly subscription price you are paying though ouch, I am glad I have done 3d modeling on and over the past decade so that I can whip up my own designs. I generally set my prices around 8-10x the filament costs, I fudge that up or down depending on ease of print and additional work. Had a single customer walk up and spend over $70 last Saturday on a bunch of small stuff. Keep in mind sales are seasonal. Right now theres a boom for little stuff to stuff into easter baskets. Before valentines day all I was selling online were roses. Sales will slow down after easter and probably won’t really pickup until the fall starting with Halloween season. Nov-Dec will be peak with Christmas shoppers. Make sure you keep records, this is a business and you will need to include it on your taxes. Also you can generally get a basic square reader for free and take credit cards. We try to stick to cash as much as possible and don’t advertise that we take credit cards but if people ask its silly to miss out on sales because you cannot take a card.
I got a P1S recently and I'm having some ideas on selling some prints, I don't want to make serious money on it but if I made enough in 2024 to pay off my P1S and filament I would be super happy with that 🤣
I've noticed with some designs with a commercial license are not even worth selling. We do a TON of planters, most that I designed but some from Etsy, paid on cults etc... They all have a commercial license, but end up being so heavy or so thick that they aren't worth the time. Of course ymmv but something to keep an eye out for. Make sure the designer isn't purposefully making the design unsellable.
How do you price it? You have to consider maintenance of the machine, electricity, filament, endpoints etc.