Top 5 Tips for Making Money With 3D Printing in 2024

Here are my Top 5 Tips for making more money selling 3D Prints in 2024!

A big thank you to Fedex Office for sponsoring this video

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Hendricks Design @LoftedGoods

ForgeCore @ForgeCoreCo
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00:00 Top 5 Tips for Selling 3D Prints in 2024
01:14 #1 Where are you selling?
03:32 Sponsor Spot
04:51 #2 Standing Out from the Crowd
06:49 #3 Don’t Forget the Shipping Costs!
08:53 #4 How to Price Your Products
10:57 #5 Ultimate Selling 3D Print Goal
12:58 Wrapping it Up

Thanks for watching!

#3DPrinting #smallbusiness #makemoneyonline

[UncleJessy]

Thanks again to Fedex Office for sponsoring this video... the banner I had them make 3 Years ago (not in this video) is one I still use for my Makerfaire Booths!

[Eugenelim]

"When everyone is looking for gold, it's a good time to be in the pick and shovel business."
Selling prints (aka gold) is the sucker's move unless you had first mover's advantage, large amounts of equipment etc. Shovels and picks in the 3d space would be things like selling 3d designs, or equipment for 3d printers like Uncle Jessy's ResinLapse cable.

Cover all your bases and do all 3!

[MarkWheadon]

Just one comment, because your videos are not normally misleading. You really need to differentiate between turnover and profit. Those numbers you are showing at the beginning aren't income, they're turnover. And the two figures tend be very different!

[AnthonyMartocello]

I complete agree about the thermal printer. I waited way too long to pick one up.
On the other hand, I tried posting a set of models on Printables under a non-commerical license and selling them on Etsy... never again. Not only do people ignore the non-commerical license, I actually got threats from multiple people selling my designs on Etsy to take down my shop or they'd report me for stealing their IP. It was just a very negative experience.

[stringztoo]

See, I made the mistake of deciding that the corner of the market that I wanted to carve out was resin printed and painted 16" statues of movie and comic book characters. Print time is about 12-18 hours per order but it's the painting time takes all my personal time. Most of these shops out there that have huge sales numbers merely pop off the supports and pack it for shipping. Once I clean my prints I have another 3-5 hours per order to go before it sees a shipping box. If only I didn't enjoy the entire painting process so

[AkaBigWurm]

Printing 'fad' flexi or the current meta and selling on Etsy seems like soul crushing race to the bottom.

[neebick]

Tried selling a bit on Etsy but the fees were killing any motivation. Keep the prints simple might be a good suggestion as well. My model was made of 4 interconnecting parts that needed to be printed separately. This increased my production time.

Also be prepared to take criticism from people that don’t understand the limitations of 3d printing. I was using a Bambu Lab printer at a very fine setting and I still had customers complaining that it didn’t look as nice as they had hoped. It hurt a little but I know it wasn’t personal.

[hjktznv]

Tip #1 Make a video about how to make money 3d printing

[graham]

I make jack. I spend an insane amount of time cleaning and sanding my resin prints so they are pristine when they go out. My competitors win though because they sell lower and don't spend time cleaning up. I ordered from multiple other sellers who sell the same stuff before i started selling in order to test the quality. Models were rough and covered with support blobs and holes, packed with minimal padding and thrown in a envelope. I'd be embarrassed to send stuff like that out But these listings say they have sold loads with great feedback. I don't understand it..

[shinaikouka]

For selling on eBay, one thing that I use for in-box packaging is plastic bags. It sounds crazy, but they do actually provide pretty good cushioning, and it's a way to put them to use outside of a being used as a small trash can bag. I also tend to save boxes that are shipped to me as I'm not a fan of recycling boxes and then needing them. You do need to be a bit careful to not go too crazy with hoarding and some Amazon boxes rely upon the paper tape to close gaps inherent in the box. (I always hate it when I run into one of those!)

[AMOSTADDICTEDMINECRAFT]

You forget to price in your packaging materials, your actual time investment on getting them ready and working to pack everything up and take supports off and sanding. You are pretty much working for free. Then you have printer costs, design costs. What happens if a printer breaks? You just not taking into account everything. I guess people will learn themselves when they find they have invested loads of money on all the small bits and end up with working for penny’s. Price higher people, deliver quality

[RoseKindred]

Thank you. Several good tips.
I am glad YT actually notified me (they haven't lately) but several others I watch have had negative things to say (mainly too saturated so don't waste time and do something else) so a positive video is uplifting.

[Bardghost_Isu]

Danm, Perfect timing, I put some stuff up the other day, figuring I have spare room on the build plate and can always throw some stuff on for people who want it, got a sale last night, thought my conversion rate was me doing bad, but seeing that 1% on yours during the intro makes me feel a bit more comfortable in that its probably just the way it goes.

[rafalg]

It should be mentioned that if you look up someone else's rates for commision printing you should also take note of the printers they're using. In my local area it's common to provide rates per hour of printing, but obviously if your "competition" prints on Prusa 3 and you use similar or lower rate per hour you may end up undercutting yourself if you have a much faster printer. Sure you can print a higher volume and if you have buyers for that then fine, but if you print single items or very low volume make sure not to blindly copy someone's rates, but adjust them for your printer's speed otherwise you may get very small profits.

[therick]

Great advice regarding camera gear. Lighting is by far the MOST important part of product (and really, all) photography

[Recoco]

On the 4th time stamp you have the prints spinning, I was wondering if that was a item display spinner or some other thing. Thanks!

[lombvax]

grateful for where i work when it comes to shipping materials, free boxes and so much free kraft paper

[JetBlackXtreme]

It's a good thing machines like the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra and Bambu Lab P1S is a thing. You can use the time lapses as part of making the videos.

[KungFuChess]

Have to be carful of the rights associated with printed items if you dont design the items yourself. They will ban the store.

[jbmiller]

Thanks for the video UJ! I have my first local booth next month and was ordering tables and a canopy this morning, so this video couldn't have come at a better time. Making myself a banner on FedEx office as I type this!