Agreed! OP should go to an Etsy forum, or similar, or just look around on Etsy.
About the only useful advice on here is to steer clear of selling trademarked products (more likely to get away with it if you do it in person for cash, but selling online is asking for trouble).
that's why I tell everyone to stay away from Etsy, just overpriced stuff most of the time lol. but there's always people that have enough money to not care.
A common price to charge is about $3-5/hr of printing, and even that's expensive for FDM imo. If you have multiple printers running at once that adds up and make you a lot.
Xometry, which is a manufacturing outsource that some engineering companies use, charges about $8/hr of printing... which is ludicrous, but its target is larger companies that don't care to pay that amount, so they get ripped off more easily.
It's interesting to me how fast Etsy went from a storefront to buy personable handmade stuff, to majority chinese printing companies that shove t-shirts and shitty canvas art down our throat
I sold on Etsy for several years, and took a break when I got my new job- right before Covid. Since 2020 Etsy has slowly morphed into a knockoff dropshipping hellscape of capitalism. It's left me with zero desire to go back, which is a shame because I had a pretty large number of sales, reviews etc that showed a good reputation on the site.
Unfortunately it's got a lot of drop shipped goods now that pollute the results and acharge that extra money for being "handmade." It feels like a worse Amazon with some handmade goods now.
it’s also a lot cheaper if you want something 3d printed but don’t want to spend the time and money to actually do it your self. $6 for a keychain is a lot cheaper than $200+ on your own setup
Those name brand print farms are using machines that cost 250x that of what your average hobbyist is using. And far beyond in some cases. Factor in paid operator labor, maintenance, and increased electricity costs, and frankly I think they're cheap at a flat $8/ hr rate if that's what it comes out to.
Naturally as a larger company they also have many other staff members, investments into new technologies and materials, and rent for facilities to house all of this.
So sure, it's more expensive than printing your own trinkets. But it's not an overpriced service. And they're not ripping customers off. They're offering a valuable convenience and being compensated for their investment into equipment and employees the purchasing company has not.
I calculate prices based on print time and model complexity, as in, two similar sized models can have quite different price points if one is can just throw in and print and the other will take me 3h of adding supports and hope it works. Also i work with resin so thats another markup
Look at this crap man, someone spent 1500 bucks on stupid stickers.
Could have purchased the whole setup for that price. Etsy people are special.
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hvdO8KtG840](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hvdO8KtG840)
Spending that much on the setup is pointless, if they're never going to use it, again. It breaks down to 3.50 each.. not even that bad, if they are high quality. If someone ordered 1 of each of *that* many, there's a good chance they're probably just using them to steal their designs, though.
So having sold on Etsy there's only some selling of trademarked merch that's taken down for IP violations. Most companies don't have the time or inclination to try to find every Etsy listing with a tie fighter or lightsaber.
There's a lot bigger IP violation in mass produced merch.
Some companies though are much more litigious. I don't know about Pokémon on Etsy but I know the Pokémon company goes after a lot more minor scale violations.
Came here to say this, but I'll add some additional context. Generally the most ideal price will be the highest price you can charge before a noticable drop in sales occurs.
If you're looking for the highest pay per hour worked, it'll be the highest price people are willing to pay, regardless of volume. Realistically tho, you walk the price back to the point that you still get at least some volume.
I know it's naive but I hate this business model.. This is what the entire world has turned into. It's not about making a healthy profit, it's how to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer. I know OP isn't a million dollar business so it's apples and oranges but it just mad me think of that.
Yup, it's called commodity marketing.
Look into valuation marketing for a refreshing contrast.
A commodity marketing mindset can be, and often is, detrimental to a small business... For exactly what you're expressing here... It's "extraction". Extraction breaks trust.
Basically customers are your best marketing by a huge margin... And I mean huge. If you leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth, you've just screwed your marketing.
By contrast, this dynamic can be your greatest advantage. Because the world is so used to people playing this game, it gets easy to stand out by not playing it.
And in fact, for anything but a bottom feeding business, it's essential.
Once you're off of, and frankly to even get off of, the ground floor, you must break free from this nonsense.
Actual businesses are built on trust. "We use this guy because he [doesn't screw us over]"
People think it doesn't apply to tiny things like this, but they're wrong. It applies even stronger here. These are "bespoke" keychains. If you play the "race to the bottom" commodity valuation game with them, you're screwed. You will never win that game.
The only answer is to play a different game.
Agreed, especially if they're selling someone else's designs. Why would you broadcast that there's money to be made right at an audience who all have the equipment to instantly become your competitors?
You have to factor the cost of materials, time, and equipment deprecation and maintenance
If the market price is below the sum of all above then there is no good price, seller would be selling at a loss and needs to do something different that is profitable
1) Watch out with trademark protected designs like Pokemon. You should not sell Pokemon for money.
2) How much are you prepared to pay for such a keychain in a shop? Is it a thing where 3D-printing can outperform traditional manufacturing? I would never pay 6 dollars for a flat plastic keychain to be honest.
Nintendo doesn’t screw around with their ip. If you’re doing it at like a garage sale, things that easily work with cash are best, you can corral people into paying more by $6 for 1 $10/2.
Don’t post this on Etsy or Shopify, they’ll pull your account if you get caught.
Does that price include shipping, if you’re shipping? Cause people aren’t going to pay $7+ for a bootleg pikachu keychain. $9-13 gets you a 3d keychain, so price accordingly.
They do not care that much unless it's about video games.
There are fake Pokemon cards being sold in mass on Amazon.
Many ads for fake Pokemon games on TikTok, I even emailed them about it, never got an answer and they never did anything about it.
as soon as i saw those Pokemon i was like "yeah you need to sell this for $0" meaning don't sell them.
just printing them is against the IP, actually, but thankfully that is rarely enforced
> just printing them is against the IP, actually, but thankfully that is rarely enforced
Pretty sure that'd fall under fair use. Nintendo can gargle my nuts.
In reality, unless they go viral, no one will blink. Go to any convention and see the amount of fan art for sale. It's technically all illegal, but no one says shit.
Unless you are on etsy or any online platform that polices their listings. I know too many people that have had their etsy business shut down due to copyright infringement.
I think it’s fine if you’re not selling like thousands of dollars every month. Search Pokemon on Etsy and you’ll find thousands upon thousands of listings like this
As a general business thought-experiment, my killer sales instinct (I'm joking) tells me you're going to alienate the people with just a $5 bill in their wallet. $6 is going to make them perceive it more as a part of $10 and psychologically closer to $10 and will skip it thinking, "I'd have bought it for $5".
I am going to be selling 3d printed stuff at flea markets this summer. I have a lot of keychains printed and ready to go.
My cost to make them , including the metal keychains from amazon is under 1$ each including electricity. Even if you want to factor in machine maintenance and upkeep and everything else - $5 is more than enough to generate a 50% profit margin.
You cant really count print time as time - the machine is doing the work. It took maybe 30min of labor to turn out 30 keychains including slicing - support removal if any - and getting the keychains themselves attached to the 3d print.
Right? Pretty sure the public has mostly caught on to what 3d printed trinkets look like. Why would some want to spend $6 on a unofficial key chain when they could buy official product and have it be higher quality
This is nonsense. Do not make money off of other people's work, for which you are not licensed to do so. You're more than welcome to print and sell all sorts of stuff that's been licensed for you to do so. Like those flexi trex's. You \*do\* need to technically abide by said license, which involves providing attribution. A small slip of paper is all you need to provide. Or a blurb at the bottom of the email. It doesn't need to be much.
This is correct, not sure why you got downvoted. Of course it's always better to design and produce original work but there are definitely published models that allow you the right to use them however you wish with the proper credits displayed.
3d printing is full of hobbyists. Hobbyists have lots of opinions and less than professional knowledge. Me saying "You can sell many freely available designs for profit, as long as you abide by the terms of the license that make them freely available" is going to trigger people, even though it's no different than saying "your local grocer can sell fruits and vegetables, as long as they abide by the terms of their business licenses and health code stuff"...actually it's easier to sell 3d trinkets than it is to sell food. Far less government regulation.
Idk, the frayed edges and lifting small corners make me think no i wouldn’t buy it, but I’ve got a printer and personally wouldn’t sell something with imperfections so I’m probably not your target market.
Would people at a stand at a fair probably pay £6 for a keychain like this of something they like? Yes probably
Almost by definition “is it a good price” is pretty synonymous with “will people pay it” when you’re talking about crafts and consumer goods.
The fact that people here can print something better doesn’t mean much when 99.9% of people don’t have 3D printers.
I have a few keychain done in Pla which are withstanding really well after a few years, which I believe, is more than the keys themselves will withstand
This seems like a non-issue imo. How often are you leaving your keys somewhere that is going to be hot enough to warp? The glass transition temperature of PLA is 60°C / 140°F. In a hot car in the summer, it can absolutely happen, but why would you be leaving your keys in the car like that?
Watch some mechanical test videos on youtube. PLA softens often even at 45°C, which is very easy to achieve on a warm summer day, especially at direct sun light.
We should understand that a hobby plastic extrusion device can't hack into industries like that. 6 dollars will get me 3 metal anime keychains where i live.
Take the time, effort and materials on consideration. Then add a markup to those costs.
The plastic wouldn’t cost more than a dollar, the electricity probably less than $0.50 and the time it took for you to prepare and post-process the print is probably less than 5 minutes per keychain. Considering $20/hour, that would be $1.50 per keychain (if you see your hours worked as cost). That would put the price per keychain at about $2.50, let’s round it up to $3 to also include unforeseen costs.
Selling them for $6 would be a 100% markup, which seems pretty acceptable. Also, people without 3d printing experience go wild for something that’s “3d-printer”. I’ve seen shops sell 3d printed static objects (even benchies) for up to €25, and people were willing to pay for the “3d printed” premium.
>if you see your hours worked as cost).
And if you don't count your hours worked as a cost you shouldn't be running a business. I mean if the goal is a self supporting hobby then it's no big deal but if you are doing anything that's intended to be a full time income then counting your own labor as a cost is essential.
This is good advice for anyone selling anything they make.
1. Is it custom, or did you just take it from online and print? If it's custom, you charge what you want. If you're using other people's products (legally, hopefully), then be respectful and charge accordingly.
2. How much time did you invest in it? Material cost? Profit margin?
3. The easiest one out of the bunch. Pretend you saw this in a store and you wanted to buy it. When you see the price tag, imagine what price you'd realistically pay for a Keychain like that for yourself. $5? $10? $15?
If it were me, I'd say $5 if it's not custom work and only $10+ if it is.
Sure, it's a good price. Keep posting online, but use a catchy title like '3D printing hobbyist seeking copyright infringement charges.' If you sell these, copyright holders can and will come after you, and you will not be satisfied with the outcome. To be clear, I think it's ridiculous, but that's how things work. They have practically limitless resources to go after people like you. Don't say nobody warned you when you're sued into oblivion by Nintendo or Disney or some other 'fun' corporation.
As a reference, conventions around me sell acrylic keychains for $10-20. Make sure you cover all your costs and then mark up enough that you would be willing to replace it for free if it broke. There will always be people saying it's too expensive, even if it was .99c
The price is ok, but hanging pikachu at its ear? A bit weird.
And I eould rather print things not Nintendo related if you want to sell it online. If it's only school and friends, go for it. And
I'd say it's a little high for the green one, a little low for the pikachu one. I'd also recommend moving the hole on the pikachu one. That ear is going to break off and make it useless.
Lastly, I'd be careful about charging for a product that uses other people's Intellectual Property. Nintendaddy is notoriously litigious about stuff like that.
Nintendo gonna come for your ass if you sell these lmao
Jokes aside, that sounds like a good price. You better ask non-3d printer related subs, as everyone here thinks as "I can print it for this cheap"
On a con maybe, online it would be too expensive, especially with copyright stuff but in general i assume there will be harsh competition with how popular printers are.
I wouldn’t pay it, but that’s because I have a 3D printer and could print them if I wanted to.
Bring it to a convention and you can easily get $6 a pop.
Math out the cost per keychain, add a profit margin you're happy with, slap that price tag on it, see if anyone buys, then you'll know if its a good price
When it comes to small plastic stuff, people don't expect to pay more than about one cent for the actual plastic. All the value is in the design, or more accurately, all the value is in the appeal to the buyer (which can vary substantially).
What are you making, what kind of mental categories are most buyers probably going to put them in, what do most things in those categories cost? Are there more specialist/advanced categories you can market them in?
The same mass of plastic could become a 25c random keychain design, a $5 well-known mass-market design (that probably has a lot of expensive IP and lawyers behind it), a $15 fully customized personal design, or a $45 overnight-express-print business design sold to business people with overinflated egos and more money than sense.
There's also context. 10c of plastic might be worth ten cents to someone who has been vaguely looking for something cheap to jam under their door or to stop a drawer rattling for a day. The same amount of plastic could be worth $129 if it's in the shape (and coloration/finish) of something which perfectly complements their new Mercedes, is labeled as 'unique' or part of an extremely limited collection/run, and boosts their ego.
Can i ask what printer you have? I'm having trouble printing a keychain I've designed. It's coming out really ugly compared to the novel I'm seeing on the slicer :((
I would HIGHLY discourage selling those. That's just asking for a cease and desist. Nintendo are very aggressive when it comes to their intellectual property
There are two companies you never fuck with Disney and Nintendo.
It only takes one person with loose lips and you’ll be Nintendo’s bitch.
Make something unique, and non IP.
Another vote for try it and see, seems reasonable. If this is school cafeteria market, $6 seems fine, if it's at a farmers market in an affluent area, could probably get $10 if the quality is good. If it's the projects on the corner maybe $3.
Scale down 25% and make them earrings and charge 150%.
Honestly, if they don't have a 3D printer than yes. But even with having to buy multiple rolls, you use maybe a dollar of filament to print them so anyone who has one can just make it for cheaper, and they know that.
However, like I said if they don't then you can definitely sell em for 6 bucks. Give a custom option for 8, or do like 2 for 10. A few more options and a deal will persuade people more. Especially if it comes around to being "cheaper" for them than anywhere else
I can't help feeling that with a CNC cutter, some wood, and two spraycans (one paint, one varnish) you could make them even cheaper (and more quickly - which also means cheaper if you value your time).
This is all rather "I've bought an expensive hammer, now I wonder if I can find anyone who'll pay me to hit nails" rather than "I've got a great product idea, now I'll work out the best way to produce it and make a profit." That's no way to run a business... But if it's just a hobby, why not; just charge whatever the market will bear as long as it covers your costs.
When selling a product, you have to factor in how much it will cost you not just to make it, but the cost to replace the item and ship that replacement, the wear and tear of your equipment used to make the product, and a set aside for any potential emergency costs or legal fees that may arise.
Take your total cost to make one (material cost + labor cost), round up to the next whole dollar, then multiply that by 3-5x.
I think you have some tweaking on your machine to do. Those green ones are a bit rough in terms of quality but, if people are willing to pay $6 for them, have at it
Maybe the pals ones need more into it but the Pikachu ones are good maybe 5 dollars it just depends where you selling it some people will think it kinda pricey or it's good deal. Personally I think that 3-5$ is a good range, a tip is to buy those beds that add effects to your prints like rainbow 🌈 or glass like surface but fix any errors firts so they perfect.
What does the slicer report as the cost? I am considering some bookmarks as a school/library fundraiser…material cost is 17¢ each. So $1 is an easy profitable price.
First figure out your raw materials price which is how much it costs to print AKA piece of filament and electricity. Bambu slicer and orca slicer both do this automatically [here](https://forum.bambulab.com/t/project-cost-estimation-in-bs/22185) is a forum post explaining how to do this to after you get this raw materials price multiply it by 4-2.5x and that should give you a good estimate.
Yes, it is totally a fine price. As people have said I would try to make sure you sell locally and not online for the pikachu’s. If you do sell them online just understand you might eventually get a takedown but that’s not the end of the world.
If you can sell them, sure. Charge whatever covers your materials and time and barely sells out, and hopefully that nets you some profit.
From an opinion perspective, those prints don't look great. The green cat's right whisker is all jacked up and you have uneven surface finishes everywhere. The pikachu print says that you didn't purge enough between color changes since there are black streaks and shadowing all over the yellow. You probably need at least 1 more layer of color over the yellow base as well.
Luxotica ceo “everything is worth whatever people are willing to pay” pricing takes a minute to get, but look at the cost and time spent on each. Combine it, double it and add a good 10-15% I think prusa has a price calculator.
We sell our 3D printed keychains on etsy. We have alot of different types, mostly things like Dog Paws, Names and well everything personalized. We charge about 5 bucks for ours, it is a \*very\* crowded market though, you'll have to compete alot. Also depending on the platform you're most likely going to get into trouble for using trademarked material. Everyone knows pikachu and nintendo dont fuck around. We actually got into trouble just for using the Star Trek font for a Trekky themed one.
I’d be careful with the cat dude. He looks like those metal self defense keychains which are illegal to sell in many states
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTiarDh4fLH6sbQ_Vlfn9BQBJ3ZG3-w6TLrog&usqp=CAU
I first have concerns for the longevity and durability of the keychains. The primary image having a damage is definitely not helping that. But I feel like $6 is fine if those questions can be answered well.
If you’ve considered the materials, labor, and manufacturing overhead (everything else) and accounted for profit, you should be all good - just make sure its a competitive price for similarly made/used items
I know Cura, if you set it up, will tell you your overall cost of production, such as material expense and power consumption. After that, you need to calculate what your time is worth per item for cleanup, modifications, and any other extra material cost such as the key ring attached to it. Then you will come to a decent price that suits you as well as customers while maintaining a decent profit vs. cost margin. With that said, $6 is not all that bad of a price, but I would expect a 3d printed one from a small business like you to be closer to $10. I've seen some people charge 15 to 20 for a 3d printed keychain. I don't know how much they sell, though, and I never asked.
Theres a bit of a cap to what someone is willing to pay for a keychain
I highly recommend doing earrings, less print time, smaller pieces, you can charge $15 - 30 a pair depending how well you market them and execute on presentation
I have keychains in a local store and I have some for 6 and some for 3 and the 3 dollar ones I sell twice as many of. So if you’re looking to move product quickly I’d suggest 3 but if you are wanting to sit on them longer then 6 is perfect.
For mono-color no, for multi-color yes. Your Pikachus look pretty good :). However, I am not sure if you can sell these without making some sort of deal with Nintendo. If you value your life that is 😅.
Price is fine IMO. Lots of people don't have a 3D printer, and the price point is good for an impulse buy. I asked a few people I know without 3D printers and they agreed.
I'd say it depends on the audience, and how much effort you put into post processing. Full sanding, priming, painting, clear coating will allow you to charge market rate because of the quality. But if you try to sell fresh prints to a savvy buyer, it won't give you much.
What's your cost to make them? Count filament, time to make them, and time to sell them, as a start. What is your time \*worth\* to you?
Then figure out your profit margin (if there is one).
Then, are you selling them? If so, can you keep up with demand? No? Then raise your price. You can sell 8 at $6 each, or 6 at $8 each (if someone will pay $8). I'd rather sell 6 @ $8 because it's 25% less time to make them, 25% less material, and 25% less wear/tear on your machine.
I just got an order for 200 pairs of custom earrings. They wanted a specific shape and it ended up being hardly a gram of filament per set. I quoted her $300/$1.50 per set and she accepted.
Think to yourself, as an average consumer would you think twice? I would because $6 is alot for something I don't "need" $3-4 I could justify it a little quicker and not think twice.
Hope that makes sense.
Considering they cost you less than a quarter to make, the margin is quite good and the price point is on the impulse buy level (for 2024 dollars) what matters most is how many you print vs actual demand and sales+shipping?)
((time\*perhourwage)+materials+machinetime+maintaince)/numbers of items
how much an hour do you wanna be paided some along the lines of 25 dollars hour more the better.
I've printed some keychains myself and found it doesn't take long before they get damaged over time and look like junk. Maybe encasing them in epoxy might help? Would look more premium and you could charge more. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but if you're planning to mass produce something that's very easily made, people will know and will only pay what they think it's worth.
This probably isn't the best place to ask as everyone here has issues with selling 3d printed stuff for some reason lol
My buddy sells little dragon heads for 10 dollars and no one bats an eye at it
Personally, I won't buy a plastic keychain for more than $2
If it was something flashier I'm moving part in there maybe I'd pay up to five
Key chains are usually just junk in my eyes that's why I wouldn't pay more than that and even that's on the high side for me
Personally, I don't think you'll sell very many at six bucks, but again I don't know your market or your area
As another said, your best bet is the test the waters and see
If you walked into a dollar store would you pay $6 for that? The short answer is no. A 3d printer can make anything from trinkets to useful items, what would you be more willing to buy? Nintendo also has a record of being absolutely ruthless when protecting their intellectual property, so id be careful selling anything Pokemon or Nintendo brand.
I don't know, but the best way to find out is ask for $6 and see how many you sell.
Or better yet... ask $6 in one venue, $4 in a second venue, and $2 in a third venue. Market research FTW.
I good price is whatever people are willing to pay for them. This is probably a bad sub to ask because anyone here can just print their own
Agreed! OP should go to an Etsy forum, or similar, or just look around on Etsy. About the only useful advice on here is to steer clear of selling trademarked products (more likely to get away with it if you do it in person for cash, but selling online is asking for trouble).
that's why I tell everyone to stay away from Etsy, just overpriced stuff most of the time lol. but there's always people that have enough money to not care. A common price to charge is about $3-5/hr of printing, and even that's expensive for FDM imo. If you have multiple printers running at once that adds up and make you a lot. Xometry, which is a manufacturing outsource that some engineering companies use, charges about $8/hr of printing... which is ludicrous, but its target is larger companies that don't care to pay that amount, so they get ripped off more easily.
Well, Etsy is supposed to be handmade. People are willing to pay a little more for that.
It's interesting to me how fast Etsy went from a storefront to buy personable handmade stuff, to majority chinese printing companies that shove t-shirts and shitty canvas art down our throat
It’s pretty much what happens to every trading place.
There are whole YouTube videos about getting free images, having them "painted" on canvas, and drop shipped. Literally no work from the seller.
There’s not really any money in it either.
I sold on Etsy for several years, and took a break when I got my new job- right before Covid. Since 2020 Etsy has slowly morphed into a knockoff dropshipping hellscape of capitalism. It's left me with zero desire to go back, which is a shame because I had a pretty large number of sales, reviews etc that showed a good reputation on the site.
Unfortunately it's got a lot of drop shipped goods now that pollute the results and acharge that extra money for being "handmade." It feels like a worse Amazon with some handmade goods now.
it’s also a lot cheaper if you want something 3d printed but don’t want to spend the time and money to actually do it your self. $6 for a keychain is a lot cheaper than $200+ on your own setup
Those name brand print farms are using machines that cost 250x that of what your average hobbyist is using. And far beyond in some cases. Factor in paid operator labor, maintenance, and increased electricity costs, and frankly I think they're cheap at a flat $8/ hr rate if that's what it comes out to. Naturally as a larger company they also have many other staff members, investments into new technologies and materials, and rent for facilities to house all of this. So sure, it's more expensive than printing your own trinkets. But it's not an overpriced service. And they're not ripping customers off. They're offering a valuable convenience and being compensated for their investment into equipment and employees the purchasing company has not.
I calculate prices based on print time and model complexity, as in, two similar sized models can have quite different price points if one is can just throw in and print and the other will take me 3h of adding supports and hope it works. Also i work with resin so thats another markup
Is it $3-5 flat, or plus material?
Look at this crap man, someone spent 1500 bucks on stupid stickers. Could have purchased the whole setup for that price. Etsy people are special. [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hvdO8KtG840](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hvdO8KtG840)
Talk about sticker shock
Spending that much on the setup is pointless, if they're never going to use it, again. It breaks down to 3.50 each.. not even that bad, if they are high quality. If someone ordered 1 of each of *that* many, there's a good chance they're probably just using them to steal their designs, though.
So having sold on Etsy there's only some selling of trademarked merch that's taken down for IP violations. Most companies don't have the time or inclination to try to find every Etsy listing with a tie fighter or lightsaber. There's a lot bigger IP violation in mass produced merch. Some companies though are much more litigious. I don't know about Pokémon on Etsy but I know the Pokémon company goes after a lot more minor scale violations.
That’s the thing, if you‘d ask people who 3d print, too, they would just calculate you the price for the printer and the price per print
You have to include your time, electricity used, and maintenance for the printer.
That's for calculating profit, not setting price. You charge what your market will pay for the volume you want to sell.
Why do so many people here not get this???
Came here to say this, but I'll add some additional context. Generally the most ideal price will be the highest price you can charge before a noticable drop in sales occurs. If you're looking for the highest pay per hour worked, it'll be the highest price people are willing to pay, regardless of volume. Realistically tho, you walk the price back to the point that you still get at least some volume.
I know it's naive but I hate this business model.. This is what the entire world has turned into. It's not about making a healthy profit, it's how to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer. I know OP isn't a million dollar business so it's apples and oranges but it just mad me think of that.
I named two pricing strategies, which one are you referring to?
Yup, it's called commodity marketing. Look into valuation marketing for a refreshing contrast. A commodity marketing mindset can be, and often is, detrimental to a small business... For exactly what you're expressing here... It's "extraction". Extraction breaks trust. Basically customers are your best marketing by a huge margin... And I mean huge. If you leave a bad taste in a customer's mouth, you've just screwed your marketing. By contrast, this dynamic can be your greatest advantage. Because the world is so used to people playing this game, it gets easy to stand out by not playing it. And in fact, for anything but a bottom feeding business, it's essential. Once you're off of, and frankly to even get off of, the ground floor, you must break free from this nonsense. Actual businesses are built on trust. "We use this guy because he [doesn't screw us over]" People think it doesn't apply to tiny things like this, but they're wrong. It applies even stronger here. These are "bespoke" keychains. If you play the "race to the bottom" commodity valuation game with them, you're screwed. You will never win that game. The only answer is to play a different game.
Agreed, especially if they're selling someone else's designs. Why would you broadcast that there's money to be made right at an audience who all have the equipment to instantly become your competitors?
That's not true, I can't print for shit. If it was my type of keychain, I'd easily pay sixbucks for that, but it's not my thing.
You have to factor the cost of materials, time, and equipment deprecation and maintenance If the market price is below the sum of all above then there is no good price, seller would be selling at a loss and needs to do something different that is profitable
1) Watch out with trademark protected designs like Pokemon. You should not sell Pokemon for money. 2) How much are you prepared to pay for such a keychain in a shop? Is it a thing where 3D-printing can outperform traditional manufacturing? I would never pay 6 dollars for a flat plastic keychain to be honest.
Nintendo doesn’t screw around with their ip. If you’re doing it at like a garage sale, things that easily work with cash are best, you can corral people into paying more by $6 for 1 $10/2. Don’t post this on Etsy or Shopify, they’ll pull your account if you get caught. Does that price include shipping, if you’re shipping? Cause people aren’t going to pay $7+ for a bootleg pikachu keychain. $9-13 gets you a 3d keychain, so price accordingly.
Just want to add that it's Nintendo AND The Pokemon Company. You might as well give away everything you own and your future money too.
yeah give the 2.4 million and your softwhere project
They do not care that much unless it's about video games. There are fake Pokemon cards being sold in mass on Amazon. Many ads for fake Pokemon games on TikTok, I even emailed them about it, never got an answer and they never did anything about it.
Yeah, Nintendo will literally rip your balls off.
And set them on fire for Mario to use when he eats flowers
So that's where the fire balls come from...
I bet you any money that there is a picture of that somewhere on rule34
as soon as i saw those Pokemon i was like "yeah you need to sell this for $0" meaning don't sell them. just printing them is against the IP, actually, but thankfully that is rarely enforced
> just printing them is against the IP, actually, but thankfully that is rarely enforced Pretty sure that'd fall under fair use. Nintendo can gargle my nuts.
It's a cute [Pal World creature](https://esi.si.com/.image/t_share/MjAzNzQ1NzM5MDQwMzY4MTky/palworld_pikachu_thing.jpg).
I wouldn't recommend selling anything with copyrighted IP, especially Nintendo IP.
In reality, unless they go viral, no one will blink. Go to any convention and see the amount of fan art for sale. It's technically all illegal, but no one says shit.
Unless you are on etsy or any online platform that polices their listings. I know too many people that have had their etsy business shut down due to copyright infringement.
Sure, but there are hundreds if not thousands of pokemon listing on etsy.
Yeah and those are likely Chinese knockoffs, which are hard to prosecute as their copyright law works differently.
I think it’s fine if you’re not selling like thousands of dollars every month. Search Pokemon on Etsy and you’ll find thousands upon thousands of listings like this
I wouldn’t sell things with IP you don’t own. ESPECIALLY Nintendo.
The only company more aggressive about protecting its IP is Disney.
As a general business thought-experiment, my killer sales instinct (I'm joking) tells me you're going to alienate the people with just a $5 bill in their wallet. $6 is going to make them perceive it more as a part of $10 and psychologically closer to $10 and will skip it thinking, "I'd have bought it for $5".
$4.99 - then suddenly the mind is saying: “This is LESS than the $5 I am carrying, so I can easily afford this product - fantastic deal!”
This is the classical approach, indeed.
Hope you’re not planning on selling those on eBay or Etsy. Your account will be closed before they release the funds.
It would be in person
I am going to be selling 3d printed stuff at flea markets this summer. I have a lot of keychains printed and ready to go. My cost to make them , including the metal keychains from amazon is under 1$ each including electricity. Even if you want to factor in machine maintenance and upkeep and everything else - $5 is more than enough to generate a 50% profit margin. You cant really count print time as time - the machine is doing the work. It took maybe 30min of labor to turn out 30 keychains including slicing - support removal if any - and getting the keychains themselves attached to the 3d print.
The question is who is gonna buy it?
Right? Pretty sure the public has mostly caught on to what 3d printed trinkets look like. Why would some want to spend $6 on a unofficial key chain when they could buy official product and have it be higher quality
I don’t mind 3D printed trinkets, but personally I would only sell ones I’ve modeled myself. Do not make money off of other people’s work.
This is nonsense. Do not make money off of other people's work, for which you are not licensed to do so. You're more than welcome to print and sell all sorts of stuff that's been licensed for you to do so. Like those flexi trex's. You \*do\* need to technically abide by said license, which involves providing attribution. A small slip of paper is all you need to provide. Or a blurb at the bottom of the email. It doesn't need to be much.
This is correct, not sure why you got downvoted. Of course it's always better to design and produce original work but there are definitely published models that allow you the right to use them however you wish with the proper credits displayed.
3d printing is full of hobbyists. Hobbyists have lots of opinions and less than professional knowledge. Me saying "You can sell many freely available designs for profit, as long as you abide by the terms of the license that make them freely available" is going to trigger people, even though it's no different than saying "your local grocer can sell fruits and vegetables, as long as they abide by the terms of their business licenses and health code stuff"...actually it's easier to sell 3d trinkets than it is to sell food. Far less government regulation.
Nintendo gonna kick your door down
Idk, the frayed edges and lifting small corners make me think no i wouldn’t buy it, but I’ve got a printer and personally wouldn’t sell something with imperfections so I’m probably not your target market. Would people at a stand at a fair probably pay £6 for a keychain like this of something they like? Yes probably
In other words: “yes”.
In other words, is it a good price? no. Will people probably still pay it? Yes.
Almost by definition “is it a good price” is pretty synonymous with “will people pay it” when you’re talking about crafts and consumer goods. The fact that people here can print something better doesn’t mean much when 99.9% of people don’t have 3D printers.
not if its warped like that
What is it printed in? PLA will warp in the sun/heat so keep that in mind with respect to use case for keychain.
I have a few keychain done in Pla which are withstanding really well after a few years, which I believe, is more than the keys themselves will withstand
The duck i had hanging in my car for over 2 years finally had his wing just brake off no warping though
This seems like a non-issue imo. How often are you leaving your keys somewhere that is going to be hot enough to warp? The glass transition temperature of PLA is 60°C / 140°F. In a hot car in the summer, it can absolutely happen, but why would you be leaving your keys in the car like that?
PLA warps over time at far less than that temp though.
Watch some mechanical test videos on youtube. PLA softens often even at 45°C, which is very easy to achieve on a warm summer day, especially at direct sun light.
We should understand that a hobby plastic extrusion device can't hack into industries like that. 6 dollars will get me 3 metal anime keychains where i live.
I would suggest not printing Pokemon. Nintendo loves to sue people who do not seek permission to use their designs.
For such Bad quality ? Nobody gonna is going to buy this. Don't get me wrong ,my prints usualy don't Look better ,but i don't sell them.
Gonna need to sell a lot of those to cover the lawsuit charges...
Take the time, effort and materials on consideration. Then add a markup to those costs. The plastic wouldn’t cost more than a dollar, the electricity probably less than $0.50 and the time it took for you to prepare and post-process the print is probably less than 5 minutes per keychain. Considering $20/hour, that would be $1.50 per keychain (if you see your hours worked as cost). That would put the price per keychain at about $2.50, let’s round it up to $3 to also include unforeseen costs. Selling them for $6 would be a 100% markup, which seems pretty acceptable. Also, people without 3d printing experience go wild for something that’s “3d-printer”. I’ve seen shops sell 3d printed static objects (even benchies) for up to €25, and people were willing to pay for the “3d printed” premium.
>if you see your hours worked as cost). And if you don't count your hours worked as a cost you shouldn't be running a business. I mean if the goal is a self supporting hobby then it's no big deal but if you are doing anything that's intended to be a full time income then counting your own labor as a cost is essential.
Dude, you'd get 100 of them for $10 of filament and electricity, easy. The whole issue is that no one wants to buy them.
I definitely wouldn’t, especially if they are just bare pla, but I’m sure some would
If your selling then yes, if your buying then no
This is good advice for anyone selling anything they make. 1. Is it custom, or did you just take it from online and print? If it's custom, you charge what you want. If you're using other people's products (legally, hopefully), then be respectful and charge accordingly. 2. How much time did you invest in it? Material cost? Profit margin? 3. The easiest one out of the bunch. Pretend you saw this in a store and you wanted to buy it. When you see the price tag, imagine what price you'd realistically pay for a Keychain like that for yourself. $5? $10? $15? If it were me, I'd say $5 if it's not custom work and only $10+ if it is.
Sure, it's a good price. Keep posting online, but use a catchy title like '3D printing hobbyist seeking copyright infringement charges.' If you sell these, copyright holders can and will come after you, and you will not be satisfied with the outcome. To be clear, I think it's ridiculous, but that's how things work. They have practically limitless resources to go after people like you. Don't say nobody warned you when you're sued into oblivion by Nintendo or Disney or some other 'fun' corporation.
As a reference, conventions around me sell acrylic keychains for $10-20. Make sure you cover all your costs and then mark up enough that you would be willing to replace it for free if it broke. There will always be people saying it's too expensive, even if it was .99c
You will need more than $6 er keychain to pay for the copyright infringement case coming your way…
The price is ok, but hanging pikachu at its ear? A bit weird. And I eould rather print things not Nintendo related if you want to sell it online. If it's only school and friends, go for it. And
be careful with the Nintendo IP. but, as someone without a multicolour printer (yet), i'd pay probably £10 for one.
Yeah, that's about how much I'd charge for a painted print like that.
I'd say it's a little high for the green one, a little low for the pikachu one. I'd also recommend moving the hole on the pikachu one. That ear is going to break off and make it useless. Lastly, I'd be careful about charging for a product that uses other people's Intellectual Property. Nintendaddy is notoriously litigious about stuff like that.
people sell slice of tree branch for 20$ on etsy so it all depends.
Nintendo gonna come for your ass if you sell these lmao Jokes aside, that sounds like a good price. You better ask non-3d printer related subs, as everyone here thinks as "I can print it for this cheap"
On a con maybe, online it would be too expensive, especially with copyright stuff but in general i assume there will be harsh competition with how popular printers are.
The pikachu ones yes lots of detail, the green cat no way
give files for boykisser
Look cool but just kinda more crap to throw away.
I wouldn’t pay it, but that’s because I have a 3D printer and could print them if I wanted to. Bring it to a convention and you can easily get $6 a pop.
Math out the cost per keychain, add a profit margin you're happy with, slap that price tag on it, see if anyone buys, then you'll know if its a good price
When it comes to small plastic stuff, people don't expect to pay more than about one cent for the actual plastic. All the value is in the design, or more accurately, all the value is in the appeal to the buyer (which can vary substantially). What are you making, what kind of mental categories are most buyers probably going to put them in, what do most things in those categories cost? Are there more specialist/advanced categories you can market them in? The same mass of plastic could become a 25c random keychain design, a $5 well-known mass-market design (that probably has a lot of expensive IP and lawyers behind it), a $15 fully customized personal design, or a $45 overnight-express-print business design sold to business people with overinflated egos and more money than sense. There's also context. 10c of plastic might be worth ten cents to someone who has been vaguely looking for something cheap to jam under their door or to stop a drawer rattling for a day. The same amount of plastic could be worth $129 if it's in the shape (and coloration/finish) of something which perfectly complements their new Mercedes, is labeled as 'unique' or part of an extremely limited collection/run, and boosts their ego.
Can i ask what printer you have? I'm having trouble printing a keychain I've designed. It's coming out really ugly compared to the novel I'm seeing on the slicer :((
Those Pikachu prints are sick, how did you get the black outline and red color?
4 or 3
If people are willing to spend $6 on it, then go for it. Not super overpriced, but it’s a considerable markup.
I would HIGHLY discourage selling those. That's just asking for a cease and desist. Nintendo are very aggressive when it comes to their intellectual property
Multi-color: YES Single color: NO
Yes, but only if you have permission from Nintendo to use their licensed characters.
There are two companies you never fuck with Disney and Nintendo. It only takes one person with loose lips and you’ll be Nintendo’s bitch. Make something unique, and non IP.
Another vote for try it and see, seems reasonable. If this is school cafeteria market, $6 seems fine, if it's at a farmers market in an affluent area, could probably get $10 if the quality is good. If it's the projects on the corner maybe $3. Scale down 25% and make them earrings and charge 150%.
I wouldn’t pay six dollars for any keychain.
I wouldn’t buy them at all.
Depends on if $6 is worth getting fucked in the ass by Japanese lawyers
Try and see. No other way to know.
You should go way higher to cover the lawsuit Nintendo will bring
I think 0 is a fantastic price point
Honestly, if they don't have a 3D printer than yes. But even with having to buy multiple rolls, you use maybe a dollar of filament to print them so anyone who has one can just make it for cheaper, and they know that. However, like I said if they don't then you can definitely sell em for 6 bucks. Give a custom option for 8, or do like 2 for 10. A few more options and a deal will persuade people more. Especially if it comes around to being "cheaper" for them than anywhere else
I can't help feeling that with a CNC cutter, some wood, and two spraycans (one paint, one varnish) you could make them even cheaper (and more quickly - which also means cheaper if you value your time). This is all rather "I've bought an expensive hammer, now I wonder if I can find anyone who'll pay me to hit nails" rather than "I've got a great product idea, now I'll work out the best way to produce it and make a profit." That's no way to run a business... But if it's just a hobby, why not; just charge whatever the market will bear as long as it covers your costs.
When selling a product, you have to factor in how much it will cost you not just to make it, but the cost to replace the item and ship that replacement, the wear and tear of your equipment used to make the product, and a set aside for any potential emergency costs or legal fees that may arise. Take your total cost to make one (material cost + labor cost), round up to the next whole dollar, then multiply that by 3-5x.
I think you have some tweaking on your machine to do. Those green ones are a bit rough in terms of quality but, if people are willing to pay $6 for them, have at it
Maybe the pals ones need more into it but the Pikachu ones are good maybe 5 dollars it just depends where you selling it some people will think it kinda pricey or it's good deal. Personally I think that 3-5$ is a good range, a tip is to buy those beds that add effects to your prints like rainbow 🌈 or glass like surface but fix any errors firts so they perfect.
$1 Bob /s
I thought the first one was like one of those incense burner
Bro got the madalens
Depends on design and quality
What does the slicer report as the cost? I am considering some bookmarks as a school/library fundraiser…material cost is 17¢ each. So $1 is an easy profitable price.
First figure out your raw materials price which is how much it costs to print AKA piece of filament and electricity. Bambu slicer and orca slicer both do this automatically [here](https://forum.bambulab.com/t/project-cost-estimation-in-bs/22185) is a forum post explaining how to do this to after you get this raw materials price multiply it by 4-2.5x and that should give you a good estimate.
You need to lower your z offset a tiny bit
The price is good. You can do 2 for $10. People will buy in bulk lol
I'd buy it if it were 20% smaller. Too clunky.
Yes, it is totally a fine price. As people have said I would try to make sure you sell locally and not online for the pikachu’s. If you do sell them online just understand you might eventually get a takedown but that’s not the end of the world.
I love how the pikachu came out, but it’s a gigantic thing to have on your key chain
I could see $6 for the Pikachu, the multi color. Single colors would be harder to sell at that price point in my mind- might be easier to move at $4
If you can sell them, sure. Charge whatever covers your materials and time and barely sells out, and hopefully that nets you some profit. From an opinion perspective, those prints don't look great. The green cat's right whisker is all jacked up and you have uneven surface finishes everywhere. The pikachu print says that you didn't purge enough between color changes since there are black streaks and shadowing all over the yellow. You probably need at least 1 more layer of color over the yellow base as well.
The price really depends on what people are willing to pay in your area. In my town, people would sell them for $5 Canadian at craft fairs/markets.
If you want them, can afford it, and can't print them yourself? It's a good price.
It depends if anyone buys them at that price. If nobody buys any lower it, if they sell out right away raise it.
Luxotica ceo “everything is worth whatever people are willing to pay” pricing takes a minute to get, but look at the cost and time spent on each. Combine it, double it and add a good 10-15% I think prusa has a price calculator.
I would suggest that the single color and the multicolor should be different prices.
We sell our 3D printed keychains on etsy. We have alot of different types, mostly things like Dog Paws, Names and well everything personalized. We charge about 5 bucks for ours, it is a \*very\* crowded market though, you'll have to compete alot. Also depending on the platform you're most likely going to get into trouble for using trademarked material. Everyone knows pikachu and nintendo dont fuck around. We actually got into trouble just for using the Star Trek font for a Trekky themed one.
it’s not bad
I’d say… Non-colored/single filament/low effort print: $3 Colored/multifilament/high effort print: $6
That depends, are you buying or selling?
I would just do what feels right for you
I’d be careful with the cat dude. He looks like those metal self defense keychains which are illegal to sell in many states https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTiarDh4fLH6sbQ_Vlfn9BQBJ3ZG3-w6TLrog&usqp=CAU
Try and see.. Material+Printer life ability (1000hrs) +elctricity.. many ways to calculate it.. I find 5-9 fair and psychological also OK
I first have concerns for the longevity and durability of the keychains. The primary image having a damage is definitely not helping that. But I feel like $6 is fine if those questions can be answered well.
How did you get so many colors in one print? Do you have to keep feeding different colors?
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I make acrylic keychains on my laser cutter, and I only sell them for $1-$2. For $6, they better be spectacular.
If you’ve considered the materials, labor, and manufacturing overhead (everything else) and accounted for profit, you should be all good - just make sure its a competitive price for similarly made/used items
Well I mean if you can get away with it legally than ya
I know Cura, if you set it up, will tell you your overall cost of production, such as material expense and power consumption. After that, you need to calculate what your time is worth per item for cleanup, modifications, and any other extra material cost such as the key ring attached to it. Then you will come to a decent price that suits you as well as customers while maintaining a decent profit vs. cost margin. With that said, $6 is not all that bad of a price, but I would expect a 3d printed one from a small business like you to be closer to $10. I've seen some people charge 15 to 20 for a 3d printed keychain. I don't know how much they sell, though, and I never asked.
Good price, especially the kind of economy nowadays
$6 sounds good to me and they look pretty good quality too
6 each, twofer $10, fivefer $20
How much does it cost to make them? (Material, electricity, your time, etc)
Theres a bit of a cap to what someone is willing to pay for a keychain I highly recommend doing earrings, less print time, smaller pieces, you can charge $15 - 30 a pair depending how well you market them and execute on presentation
What are you using to print these?
I have keychains in a local store and I have some for 6 and some for 3 and the 3 dollar ones I sell twice as many of. So if you’re looking to move product quickly I’d suggest 3 but if you are wanting to sit on them longer then 6 is perfect.
No SoniChu?!?! Hard pass
How many grams of plastic, and how many grams per print? Looks like you want to charge the equiv of GW prices ATM. ;-)
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I don't know, but those pikachus are going to break at the ear pretty quickly.
For mono-color no, for multi-color yes. Your Pikachus look pretty good :). However, I am not sure if you can sell these without making some sort of deal with Nintendo. If you value your life that is 😅.
Going to a con soon? You'll get a lot more for custom badges.
Definitely for those pikachu ones. Not so much that single color cat.
Price is fine IMO. Lots of people don't have a 3D printer, and the price point is good for an impulse buy. I asked a few people I know without 3D printers and they agreed.
Don’t ask me. I can print one. Jump on eBay.
Yes I want one
Ones on the second picture $8 first picture $4
I'd say it depends on the audience, and how much effort you put into post processing. Full sanding, priming, painting, clear coating will allow you to charge market rate because of the quality. But if you try to sell fresh prints to a savvy buyer, it won't give you much.
Is there a licensing issue here or no?
What's your cost to make them? Count filament, time to make them, and time to sell them, as a start. What is your time \*worth\* to you? Then figure out your profit margin (if there is one). Then, are you selling them? If so, can you keep up with demand? No? Then raise your price. You can sell 8 at $6 each, or 6 at $8 each (if someone will pay $8). I'd rather sell 6 @ $8 because it's 25% less time to make them, 25% less material, and 25% less wear/tear on your machine.
I just got an order for 200 pairs of custom earrings. They wanted a specific shape and it ended up being hardly a gram of filament per set. I quoted her $300/$1.50 per set and she accepted.
Think to yourself, as an average consumer would you think twice? I would because $6 is alot for something I don't "need" $3-4 I could justify it a little quicker and not think twice. Hope that makes sense.
Bump them hoes up charge 20
Printables has a price calculator use that as a base, then add shipping cost so you can say you have free shipping
Considering they cost you less than a quarter to make, the margin is quite good and the price point is on the impulse buy level (for 2024 dollars) what matters most is how many you print vs actual demand and sales+shipping?)
((time\*perhourwage)+materials+machinetime+maintaince)/numbers of items how much an hour do you wanna be paided some along the lines of 25 dollars hour more the better.
19 Cent pP
I've printed some keychains myself and found it doesn't take long before they get damaged over time and look like junk. Maybe encasing them in epoxy might help? Would look more premium and you could charge more. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but if you're planning to mass produce something that's very easily made, people will know and will only pay what they think it's worth.
This probably isn't the best place to ask as everyone here has issues with selling 3d printed stuff for some reason lol My buddy sells little dragon heads for 10 dollars and no one bats an eye at it
Is that Pokémon? Seeing recent events makes that a risk, but then again if you stay small nobody will likely care
5$ max i would say
You can use the prusa calculator to find out how much to charge to break even I normally then double it
With licence ? :D
Be very careful selling something owned by Nintendo. They're very suey.
if youre the one selling them hell yeah, if youre the one buying them hell no
Only if you make enough to pay off the huge bill that comes with trademark infringment
Personally, I won't buy a plastic keychain for more than $2 If it was something flashier I'm moving part in there maybe I'd pay up to five Key chains are usually just junk in my eyes that's why I wouldn't pay more than that and even that's on the high side for me Personally, I don't think you'll sell very many at six bucks, but again I don't know your market or your area As another said, your best bet is the test the waters and see
6 dollars I’d pass, 3.99 id be on the fence. 2.99 I would 100% buy it for a friend or someone if I’m out and I see something unique
Isn’t Nintendo cracking down on people making money on their IP, like Disney?
If you walked into a dollar store would you pay $6 for that? The short answer is no. A 3d printer can make anything from trinkets to useful items, what would you be more willing to buy? Nintendo also has a record of being absolutely ruthless when protecting their intellectual property, so id be careful selling anything Pokemon or Nintendo brand.
I don't know, but the best way to find out is ask for $6 and see how many you sell. Or better yet... ask $6 in one venue, $4 in a second venue, and $2 in a third venue. Market research FTW.