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Get you Shapeways orders in, prices are going up again...


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From an email just received:

 



Dear Shapeways Partner,

We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy during these unprecedented times. As all of us are experiencing many changes and shifts in the market and the business climate, these have affected our suppliers as well as our internal operations, and we are adapting quickly so we can continue to improve how we serve the needs of your business. 

We are writing this email to let you know of a few pricing changes that will come into effect starting Wednesday, April 15, 2020 unless otherwise indicated. These changes will only affect new orders.
 

Upcoming changes:

6% Processing fee. Starting April 15, there will be a 6% processing fee applied to the base model price for all future orders.

Actions required: Please check your product pricing for your e-commerce (Etsy or Shopify) integration. Once this change is live, new orders will automatically include a 6% processing fee, and you may wish to adjust your product pricing to include this change. Please see these resources for pricing updates on Etsy and Shopify.

We are simplifying our shipping options, which may change the pricing in specific regions.

Actions required: Please check your shipping charges for your Shapeways API or e-commerce (Etsy or Shopify) integration. Once this change is live, the new shipping price will be charged automatically to your saved credit card for orders shipped, and you may want to update your customer-facing shipping prices accordingly. If you are an e-commerce integration user, please see these resources for shipping price updates on Etsy and Shopify.

Updated shipping price grid for affected regions:

Destination & Shipping Method (Current)

Price Increase

Effective April 15, 2020

United States - Value Shipping

N/A

This shipping method will be removed

United States - Two Day

$2

Renamed to Expedited Two Day shipping

United States - One Day

$2

Renamed to Express One Day shipping

United Kingdom - Value Shipping

$3

Renamed to Expedited shipping

Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands - Value Shipping

$2

Renamed to Standard shipping

Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands - Standard Shipping

$2

Renamed to Expedited shipping

Australia, New Zealand - Express (brokerage fees not included)

$20

Renamed to Expedited shipping

Versatile Plastic prices are changing for all colors and finishes EXCEPT White Natural. Dyed parts are increasing by $1.50; processed and premium (polished) parts are increasing by $1; dyed and polished are increasing by $2.50. White Natural remains unchanged.

Actions required: your models printed in Versatile Plastic will automatically have pricing updated when the change is live.
For Shapeways marketplace owners, your markup will remain the same but the total price for affected models will change. No actions are necessary but we recommend that you review your markup and update as needed. For bulk updates, please use the Pricing CSV Wizard, also found on the bottom of your Shapeways shop settings page.
For e-commerce integration users, this update will change the base model price of your product. Because your customer-facing price can't be automatically updated, your markup will decrease as a result. We suggest you review and update your product pricing accordingly. Please see these resources for pricing updates on Etsy and Shopify.

Prices have dropped by up to 50% for HP Multi Jet Fusion PA12 and Multi Jet Fusion PA12 Glass Beads. Models with an axis size up to 15cm/5.9 inches have been reduced, while the per-part minimum fees are now $7.50 for MJF PA12 and $11 for MJF PA12GB. Black and Dark Gray finishes have an additional $2.50 fee applied.

Actions required: No actions are necessary, but we encourage you to explore printing with these materials for potential cost savings. These changes have been made since March 31, 2020.
 

Need help?
We are here to help if you have any questions regarding these changes. Please reach out to us at service@shapeways.com.

 

Kind regards,

The Shapeways Team

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beat me to it.

Some will grumble as prices go up, but Shapeways are still operating when some of our manufacturers have stopped manufacturing. SW have had to introduce some new physical security, and suspect some of their costs have gone up,not helped by some not ordering as much as they have in the past, but I have had an increase in interest, afte a couple of months after Christmas when people try to repay credit cards etc.

Some are now using 3D printing to show what it can do to help , and it will probably become even more used as a means of manufacture once things return to relative normality.

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Shapeways have diverted some capacity to printing medical supplies, but I think this does not include the machines that do the detail plastics. They've just completed a FUD order of mine ahead of schedule.

 

Has anybody here tried the PA12 material?

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Given the rise in popularity and reduction in price of home pricing I'm amazed they can get away with their escalating prices. I put an N gauge wagon on there for comparison (as the ease appealed for anyone who wanted them) and it was over £100!

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28 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Given the rise in popularity and reduction in price of home pricing I'm amazed they can get away with their escalating prices. I put an N gauge wagon on there for comparison (as the ease appealed for anyone who wanted them) and it was over £100!

I think your model must be unusual (can you give a reference?). I have products about as large as an N-gauge wagon and they are nothing near that price. Did your model have many unsprued parts, perhaps?

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45 minutes ago, Guy Rixon said:

I think your model must be unusual (can you give a reference?). I have products about as large as an N-gauge wagon and they are nothing near that price. Did your model have many unsprued parts, perhaps?

None whatsoever, a 127mm long bogie wagon body. I've just checked again and it's £54 in Fine Detail Plastic (£70 in Smoothest), which is definitely cheaper than last time I checked, but still not a compelling prospect when that doesn't include bogies etc.


These, FWIW, and I'll stop the hijack!

 

48931045918_8e55d9934b_z.jpgUntitled by njee20, on Flickr

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4 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

I think your model must be unusual (can you give a reference?). I have products about as large as an N-gauge wagon and they are nothing near that price. Did your model have many unsprued parts, perhaps?

I agree, N gauge items don't usually come out that expensive.

Also home printing might be on the rise but most people do not have a 3D printer and there are a number of problems some are having , and then there is maintenance  etc. If more people start doing their own printing I think you might find price of materials goes up. I have found that price of ink cartidges for my 2D printer(?) have gone up recently with more people working from home.

  • Agree 1
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Well obviously most people don’t, but a growing number do, which is what I said. Most people aren’t buying 3D printed items anyway.

 

Cost of supplies has gone up to reflect this growing popularity already - a litre of Anycubic resin has gone from £30 to £40 in the last 8 months, that on a macro level rather than micro fluctuations like that of standard printer ink presently. Still far cheaper than Shapeways for my use case though. 

 

I get that for someone like you Simon they make sense - you’re producing loads of different models and it opens up a wide audience. I want a reasonable number of a limited number of designs. If I want 20 wagons, at £55 a throw (plus bogies, coupler arms etc, never even bothered uploading those), then I can literally buy two printers and all the supplies I need to print them at home! I suspect spruing multiple bodies together would lower the unit cost, but I’m disinclined to try. 

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I am still puzzled by high price for this N gauge wagon. Just checked one of my coaches which is about same size and it is a lot cheaper. Sprues and multiparts do add cost but not really that much.  In fact it is sometimes cheaper to do several separate designs rather than putting the into one sprued . I have done experiments with this to see what is best method.

I always try to make my designs as open as possible, not that that saves space(more important for bigger scales), but it might be one factor why my designs are cheaper. 

One advantage of just doing design, and also doing a lot of different designs in different scales is that it shows me what is best method, and how price can be affected by something quite simple. My N gauge designs are often not much different to ones done for OO scale, just beefing up some thin parts such as buffers and window frames. Everything else seems to fit minimum dimension criteria.

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  • 1 month later...

I went on to Shapeways site today to order a couple of oo gauge toilets and basins and a GER bench , came to thirty pounds , went to checkout to find that shipping was another tenner , I cancelled it as I’m not paying a quarter of my invoice in shipping 

 

I’ll have to look for alternatives

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On 12/04/2020 at 15:15, rue_d_etropal said:

I am still puzzled by high price for this N gauge wagon. Just checked one of my coaches which is about same size and it is a lot cheaper.

Just thought that the design is solid. I hollow it prior to printing in Chitubox, but suspect that’s why; as the STL I uploaded to Shapeways would have been solid. 

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