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Shapeways Price Change (Increase)


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Must admit, everything I have tested has gone upby a bit, not down.

In this world expect prices to go up at some time.I was more concerned about the problems that happened last time, but SW now  take account of 'add on' vale, when base value goes up(or down).

If a product is worth it then it will still sell.Not everyone is a skilled modeller, who can build a finescale working model out of an old cerial packet! At least with SW you don't have to manufacture first before selling, so designs can just sit there waiting.

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The biggest hurdle is not price, but knowledge. How many actaullay know what models are being prduced. I am only dippng my toes with one advert in RM,and am finding a lot of people are just not aware of 3D printed models. We need to spread the word, not keep it to a small numberof informed people. Everyone bneeds to get thei e-shop link onto UK Model Shops website for a start(it is FREE to put add details). Nothing will happen if we sit back and expect people to just find us. Maybe we think that Google will direct every one, but it is not that simple.

A few years ago, a well known 3D print designer put some new designs on SW , bigger scale versions of a narrow gauge wagon he already had done , was a bit bothered the price might be a bit high, but thought it worth a try, and sold one within hours.

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I've been in Railway Modeller twice regarding SCC stuff but currently as far as normal advertising goes I can't currently afford it.

I'm not in full time work currently so it seems way too much of a gamble at the moment. Might look at UK Model Shops. Biggest issue for me is the pricing as indeed it has been since inception.

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I gave in and brought Anycubic Photon DLP!

 

I've been wanting to be able to drop prices for a long time so HOPEFULLY this will be the answer to at least some of the range. If not then I can print my own designs for myself cheaper than buying them from my own shop.

 

Odd!

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After the initial tweaks it looked like I d have to stop doing any cars and group smaller items but overall my range would be viable. Unfortunately, I went to check again today and everything had further increased to the point where I'm concerned about what I should do next... Given how I've had some pretty reasonable sales over the past two years it seems a shame that it looks likely to be coming to an end.

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The discussion on the SW forum reveals that they have definitely boosted their prices, again, after the 22nd-October change. Rises of 30% are reported.

 

My own finding, with recent models, is that the pricing model has changed. I.e. they haven't just stuck 30% on everything. One new model came out at about the same price as its pre-22nd-October equivalent, which was unexpected. Another new model is nearly twice the pre-22nd-October equivalent. Both are FDP prints.

 

Further, the orientation no longer makes a difference to the price, nor does the size of the longest axis matter much. Earlier this year, models that were flat in z were cheapest. In October, they changed it so that tall-in-z but small-in-x-y was cheapest. Last week, it had changed so that there was no difference in price for orientation at all.

 

I think that they actually broke their pricing engine in the last round of changes (at the time of the 30% hike) and it no longer does what they intended. Therefore, expect yet another round of unannounced price-changes with a side-order of weird.

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Agreed, it does seem like there is something fundamentally broken about the pricing model. I'm only a small retailer but it looks to me like a lot of their retailers are going to stop - n gauge bodyshells have increased by over a third, cars etc in small scale are now also totally unviable killing off the likes of RailNscale.

 

None of my range was amongst most popular in anything apart from the Emu category but I was still pulling in thousands of dollars worth of sales every year (unfortunately not profit I hasten to add, that looks to remain elusive!). If this effect is magnified across the shops there's a big chunk of sales that are about to disappear. If I have any concerns it is about the longterm viability of shapeways given the shambolic nature of the business now.

Edited by m0rris
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Have only noticed avery small icrease in some of my prices, nothing to worry about. I am far more concerned at the damage too much negative talk can do.Compared to 4-5 years ago it is a lot lot better. Even updating designs used to be a nightmare, in effect having to upload a new item, then add all the info again to it.

The ability ( in theory) to have items temporarily rejected, fixed and put back as if nothing has happened is far more customer friendly, the equivalent of putting an out of stock item on back order.

One other thing that might not have helped is talk of 'prices will come down', which might happen with digital cameras, phones and computers, but any service/manufuring business will be spending money improving(yes) their service. Noone else has come close to what Shapeways off, they are learnng as they go on, and prices will not get less until there are fast ready to print machines in shops on the High Street. 3D printing is still a relatively slow process, and I think we are years of the, press a button and haveing a fully detailed model delivered within minutes. Only then will costs start to go down.

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Agreed, it does seem like there is something fundamentally broken about the pricing model. I'm only a small retailer but it looks to me like a lot of their retailers are going to stop - n gauge bodyshells have increased by over a third, cars etc in small scale are now also totally unviable killing off the likes of RailNscale.

 

None of my range was amongst most popular in anything apart from the Emu category but I was still pulling in thousands of dollars worth of sales every year (unfortunately not profit I hasten to add, that looks to remain elusive!). If this effect is magnified across the shops there's a big chunk of sales that are about to disappear. If I have any concerns it is about the longterm viability of shapeways given the shambolic nature of the business now.

I’ve stopped using SW for my masters (N scale) because of price increases, slowness in getting items to Australia and now that my Photon does as good a job.  The only thing I use them for is the production run buts that is looking expensive as well. With the current attitude of SW to its customers and the progress in resin printing, it will see a paradigm shift to in house printing at home and they would have shot the goose that laid the golden egg

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Agreed, it does seem like there is something fundamentally broken about the pricing model. I'm only a small retailer but it looks to me like a lot of their retailers are going to stop - n gauge bodyshells have increased by over a third, cars etc in small scale are now also totally unviable killing off the likes of RailNscale.

 

RailNscale have announced that DMToys will be printing, stocking and distributing certain of their 1:160 scale products. It is not clear yet whether this is a reaction to the Shapeways price hike.

 

DMToys link:- https://www.en.dm-toys.de/liste/hersteller/RAILNSCALE.html

 

Announcement in French from the French Forum du N:- http://le-forum-du-n.forumotions.net/t30706-railnscale-made-by-dm-toys

Edited by mikeharvey22
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RailNscale have announced that DMToys will be printing, stocking and distributing certain of their 1:160 scale products. It is not clear yet whether this is a reaction to the Shapeways price hike.

 

DMToys link:- https://www.en.dm-toys.de/liste/hersteller/RAILNSCALE.html

 

Announcement in French from the French Forum du N:- http://le-forum-du-n.forumotions.net/t30706-railnscale-made-by-dm-toys

 

Thats the worst possible news, I don't need any more reasons to go on the DM Toys site. Its lethal to my card! The minimum pricing was always likely to smash their business model as n gauge cars fall inside of it, if DM toys have the capability it makes a lot of sense for RailNScale to link up with DM toys doing the manufacturing/distribution element. Unless they printed at a loss, I can't imagine that'll be a good move for shapeway's custom, especially since it was such a good flagship range. Perhaps, much like Kernow commissioning models it'll be the first of many!

 

I see shapeways have announced that they are "resetting" their price hikes since October on fine detail plastic. Hopefully this is the end of this omnishambles and we can look forwards to some positive developments on their side!

Edited by m0rris
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When good quality photo printing was first possible on a home printer, everyone thought that was the end of photo printing shops, but when people reailsed the hassle of printing, runnng out of ink, etc, they started to go back to using photo shops. Not as many of those photo printing shops as there used to be, but many are now only online.

With 3D printing it is still early days and companies like SW are learning as they go along. Any business has to be sustainable,and there are probably a lot of new entrants who think they can do it cheaper, but in the end can't. What is required is more operations in more locations(Australia?).

 

I wonder how many will actually do all their 3D printing at home. It is not a quick process.

 

All products have a value, trouble is some always think they should be cheaper. I checked out the Railnscale items, and contacted them to ask if they could resize up to British TT (ie 1/100) and they said they could not. That is not something I think right for 3D designers to say. It was not as though it was much bgger than the 1/120 ones they already did, and 1/100 has advantage of also being one of the wargaming scales, so the market is possibly bigger.

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Naah, doing it at home takes a bit of effort but it isn't as bad as you make out. I don't think anyway. Gloving and masking up for 15 minutes or so isn't the end of the world.

 

My Class 28 loco bodies in FUD were hovering around £75-78 for months. Recient price issues made some of them go to £83, now I check and some have gone to £94.

 

They really know have to drive sales....away.

It's a great motivator for doing things yourself isn't it? In progress.

Edited by Knuckles
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Naah, doing it at home takes a bit of effort but it isn't as bad as you make out. I don't think anyway. Gloving and masking up for 15 minutes or so isn't the end of the world.

 

My Class 28 loco bodies in FUD were hovering around £75-78 for months. Recient price issues made some of them go to £83, now I check and some have gone to £94.

 

They really know have to drive sales....away.

It's a great motivator for doing things yourself isn't it? In progress.

See post #43.

All par for the course at this point. Best of luck doing it yourself.  

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My intent isn't to do it all myself, it wouldn't be possible with all the different sizes of things anyway but I do want to supplement Shapeways with my own efforts to get the prices good instead of outlandishly tripe.  I don't see any other way of moving forward, the purchase of the Photon is to me the only current option of responding, I've never been happy with the pricing from day one yet their recent changes are a brilliant way to kill things fully good and proper.

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Anyone considering doing any sort of manufacture themselves, should look seriously at their  legal responsibilites. Not only are you responsible  for distribution, but when things go wrong you end up paying, not the customer. There is also the question of insurance, just in case, and that is not just public liability but also might end up paying a lot to sell abroad. It has been mentioned on this forum concerning one manufacturer who would not sell to customers in USA. Also remember, not everyone is honest and some might claim not to receive goods they have received. It all adds to the cost , and stress caused. I prefer to stick with the designing, and leave the stressful part to others.

And that is not considering costs such as machinery, including repairs/replacement. 3D printers are not cheap. And then there is time you might want off or are sick.

Maybe I have been lucky, but over past year I have found business is up, not down(I think mainly due to more advertising). Fingers crossed and it will continue.

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but when things go wrong you end up paying, not the customer.

Bone obvious.

 

 

 

Also remember, not everyone is honest and some might claim not to receive goods they have received.

​90% of the time for anything high value I send out it gets tracked delivery with appropriate insurance costs x2, one to pay the customer back and one to pay myself back.  Job done.

 

 

 

It all adds to the cost , and stress caused. I prefer to stick with the designing, and leave the stressful part to others.

​I'd like to do that too, my main goal is a passive income but making no money causes more stress. 

Shapeways have their artillery pointed towards the floor.  Ergo, I need to take matters into my own hands, I can't see them being viable forever, hopefully they will be but either way contingency plan is in action now and not later.  

Edited by Knuckles
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90% of the time for anything high value I send out it gets tracked delivery with appropriate insurance costs x2, one to pay the customer back and one to pay myself back.  Job done.

 

Id be weary of that.  It might be considered fraud to claim an item is worth double.  While your logic is sound, I see it backfiring if someone filing a theoretical insurance claim catches onto the stated values.  

I know for ebay if you choose to insure it through their online payment portal, you cant claim it more than the final list price. How fees and shipping costs are calculated in that Im not sure.  

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