SHAPEWAYS PRICE HIKE ON THE 30TH

[Snowwolflair]

STOP PRESS

I have just had a new price comparison for FUD after April 29th.

In summary small up's and Big downs

[m0rris]

Same for mine, there's a couple of big ups but they are for niche rescaled items that were only done on request and smaller items such as cars. By and large, everything slightly down with only a couple of exceptions which is pleasing!

[Snowwolflair]

Same for mine, there's a couple of big ups but they are for niche rescaled items that were only done on request and smaller items such as cars. By and large, everything slightly down with only a couple of exceptions which is pleasing!

It will be interesting to see what @Atso, n-train and other producers find.

[Bob G]

So the time to order some Mk 1 Transits for my carflats is not until next month, I hope.
I've given up on Oxford Diecast, and at least the printed ones will be lighter.

Bob

[Stevie DC]

It will be interesting to see what @Atso, n-train and other producers find.

Honestly, this whole episode with Shapeways has left a bad taste in my mouth. While the new prices appear to be better (in General) than what was being offered a couple of months ago, I'm really not happy about the way they handled it and having to tell forum members prices were going up by so much at the time. Therefore, I'm sticking with my original position that I'm not developing my Shapeways range any further as I've lost confidence in their company.

[Snowwolflair]

I'm going down the path of printing on my own machine, but that won't stop me listing them on Shapeways to reach people beyond the reach of the NGF. 

I will however point to my NGF build threads where I will mention the parts can be obtained directly from myself  (Thank you @Tank).

[NTrain]

Shapeways have not done themselves any favours with all of this.

I have been putting a database together for discussions with someone else and the Shaeways prices have made it almost impossible to cope with. It almost seems that the prices are changing every time I look, and it is not by a few pennies at a time,

I just hope this latest e-mail from them will see a settling down. Yes, a lot of the prices have gone down this time, but they had gone up a lot before.

Now I have got to go through my list of items and check  all my prices yet again.

[Bob Tidbury]

I looked on the Shapeways  page on Sunday and found G W R Railcar number 18 priced at £30-25  just asked my son if he would buy it in advance of Father's Day we found it and the price has now gone up to £61-75 so that's put paid to that idea ,  that is just extortion going up that much in less than a week .
SNOWWOLFLAIR  I think your 3D printer is going to work overtime and you will be going into the 3D printing business.
Bob Tidbury
Thanks to those that have pointed out my senior moment the £61-75 is for the O gauge one the N gauge one is still only £30-25
Bob Tidbury

[woodbury22uk]

I looked on the Shapeways  page on Sunday and found G W R Railcar number 18 priced at £30-25  just asked my son if he would buy it in advance of Father's Day we found it and the price has now gone up to £61-75 so that's put paid to that idea ,  that is just extortion going up that much in less than a week .
SNOWWOLFLAIR  I think your 3D printer is going to work overtime and you will be going into the 3D printing business.
Bob Tidbury

Bob

I think you are looking at the 1/87 scale version. The N one is still £30.25.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/787TPPHSW/o-148fs-gwr-railcar-no18?optionId=66712579&li=marketplace

[acko22]

Hi All,

I am going to avoid the whats, when, where, whys side of things purely because its shapeways choice to up the costs and really not to much I personally can do about it!

But I have purchased and Anycubic resin printer so I can run off what I want as there are numerous things I want some of which aren't currently available at all. My thought been and I have already approached one guys off shapeways to ask "Would you be willing to sell me the design so I can print it off at home for personal use?".

This may be a way to get round things for some people as has been stated some of you design and some of us have printers (which is no doubt one of the issues shapeways is facing). Potentially @Tank it may be an idea on the 3D printing section to have a sub section for those who are willing to sell the designs for personal use or to offer their printing facilities for use.

Just a thought as there seems a good few of us on here that have the ability to design (not me) or have a printer that maybe could assist in getting them items that cant be found made up for them.

[Snowwolflair]

Hi All,

I am going to avoid the whats, when, where, whys side of things purely because its shapeways choice to up the costs and really not to much I personally can do about it!

But I have purchased and Anycubic resin printer so I can run off what I want as there are numerous things I want some of which aren't currently available at all. My thought been and I have already approached one guys off shapeways to ask "Would you be willing to sell me the design so I can print it off at home for personal use?".

This may be a way to get round things for some people as has been stated some of you design and some of us have printers (which is no doubt one of the issues shapeways is facing). Potentially @Tank it may be an idea on the 3D printing section to have a sub section for those who are willing to sell the designs for personal use or to offer their printing facilities for use.

Just a thought as there seems a good few of us on here that have the ability to design (not me) or have a printer that maybe could assist in getting them items that cant be found made up for them.

Very good idea.

[Bob Tidbury]

Yes Thank you for pointing out my senior moment all sorted now .
I will modify  the original post to avoid any problems .
Bob Tidbury

[Mr Sprue]

For what its worth I've always considered Chris Ward's 3D printing was far better quality than Shapeways.

Haven't spoken to him for a while, the last time I did he was retiring and selling his business. However it now transpires that Chris has sold to Tim @ Chase 3D Ltd.

So on behalf of NGF I took the liberty of contacting Tim and this is the reply I got back:


Good morning Dave,

Many thanks for your e-mail; it's good to hear from you.

Thanks too for offering to give the business a mention on the N-gauge forum.
That would be very welcome, although N-gauge is possibly one of my
less-supported sectors up to now.

Customers who can produce their own STLs are ideal for me right now as I
don't have time to do any design work myself and it is difficult to find
anyone who will undertake such work both at an affordable price and to a
consistent standard. Sadly, Tony Massey, who has done a lot of design work
for my customers over the past three years, passed away early this year and
that has been a tremendous loss.

Pricing is indeed a tricky matter. I still use a modified version of Chris's
pricing based on three bands of material volume and applying reducing levels
of markups in proportion to the amount of material used and the printing
time. While this works well for some items, it sometimes comes in a bit high
(and from my point of view, sometimes too low!) so it is I think near
impossible to come up with a one size that fits all solution. At the same
time, customer expectations differ widely, so on the same day I can have
customers say that a quote is very reasonable (when I thought it a bit
high), or react as if I was caught picking their pocket when I have actually
given them a very low figure. In some cases I never hear again from a
previously loyal customer after sending out what was a perfectly fair quote.
I do now have three years of production data automatically logged on the
printer, so if I get a quiet time I can perhaps do some analysis and work
out an alternative pricing approach. Whatever I do, I am sure it will never
please everyone!

Given its size, N-gauge at least should be one of the less controversial
scales from a pricing point of view.

I get the impression that a lot of us with small businesses in this field
can be working in isolation, even when we are part of a larger production
chain, so it is always useful to make contact with other manufacturers and
find out how our services can complement each other.

Kind regards,

Tim Evans

Chase 3D Ltd.
Unit 1.15 Cannock Chase Enterprise Centre,
Walkers Rise, Rugeley Road, Hednesford, Staffs., WS12 0QU.
E-mail: chase3d.ltd@virginmedia.com
Tel: 07806 818465

Hope that this can be of any help to members here who do not wish to purchase a 3D printer!

[thebrighton]

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a print from Shapeways and their basic shipping was £5.63 which has been consistent for a while now. I just went to place a new order and their basic shipping is now £9.64.... When the shipping is nearly as much as the cost of the print I'll either have to start looking elsewhere or just wait until there's enough of interest to put in a bigger order to make the postage more palatable.
I'll have a route around by 'to build' pile for something else.

[Snowwolflair]

Its something to do with restricted shipping services during Covid 19 and DHL withdrawing their economy shipping option to contract customers.  Hopefully it wont be permanent.