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WTF wallet attack !!

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nrml:
A roll of average quality ABS filament costs between £10 to £20 depending on where you buy it from.  The size and thickness of the parts are not big by any description so filament consumption and print times will be minimal compared to the average print. The parts are not very complex and the fit not absolutely critical. Besides, it is a direct copy of the OEM design so cost of design is not a significant factor. Even a completely non technical noob like me can draw that up in one of the freebie design programs from measurements in not too much time.

I would very conservatively estimate that you could get more than 50 sets out of a reel of filament even after practice prints (100 - 200 would probably be more likely). This would more than cover the cost of a kit printer, filament and postage even before the reel is finished. At the end of the day, things are worth what people are prepared to pay for them. Some might feel that it is a reasonable cost but for me, it is way overpriced. I am one of those who would rather buy something rather than make it if I felt it was close to a reasonable price because I quite often can't be bothered to make the effort, but not in this case.

I cut mine out of a 4mm nitrile rubber sheet with a stanley knife. The rubber sheet (125mm X 125mm) cost me £1.86 including postage and I have enough left to make another 4 complete sets of wipers should I need it in future. It took me about 10-15 min to make and fit them. My 3D printer is packed away at the moment, so printing it was not an option. Also, I felt rubber would work better than ABS. The original wipers were made of a hard rubber

I don't know about Colchesters, but Harrison M250s definitely come with tail-stock way wipers.

Joules:
nrml, cost of filament has nothing to do with cost of final item, it is minimal.  However the time and effort invested in proper CAD and software then the 3D printer can be huge.  Driving one accurately is not just press a button and leave it.   I show a lot of prints I do for myself, however if you paid my rate they are expensive items. I am sure others who have seen my work would testify it isn't like the normal stuff you see coming off a cheap printer.  3D printing shouldn't be confused with injection moulding.  Speaking of which price up a mould for producing, say a few hundred items, 3D printing wins hands down.  No moulds, no associated costs.

I think the cost is reasonable it you don't begrudge them some profit.

awemawson:
If you do a proper cost analysis on making almost anything it get quite scary - don't forget it is a completely different game being in business rather than enjoying a hobby. For the business scenario (which is where the fellow on ebay is) you have to consider:

a/Premises - ok it may be his back bedroom but it comes at a cost.

b/Equipment - he may have bought it as a hobby, but now it's a business so capital cost is relevant

c/Materials - as NRML says fairly minimal in this case

d/Selling Costs - ebay fees, paypal fees, postage.

e/Time - someone has to order the filament, set the machine going, keep an eye on it, unload parts, pack them, handle the eBay and Paypal transactions and take them to the Post Office.

I very much doubt he is even making minimum wage doing this, and that is the case in an awful lot of small / one man band businesses where the proprietor works long into the evening making product and doing paperwork, rarely truly taking his time into consideration. Almost certainly he'd make more stacking shelves in Tesco's  :med:

Joules:
YES    :(

AdeV:

--- Quote from: awemawson on August 29, 2016, 05:48:07 AM ---d/Selling Costs - ebay fees, paypal fees, postage.

--- End quote ---

In my experience, this is the part that everyone fails to take into account.

For starters, every item sold at £15 = £1.50 to eBay (=£13.50 left).

I've no idea what the material costs or the running costs of the printer are, or what (if any) fettling and other work is required; but even if you were to say it was 15 minutes per set of 4 pieces, at £10/hr (which is way undervalued IMO) that's £2.50 in time, so £11.00 left. Let's guess at £1 for material and electricity costs, so £10 left. We'll assume he's got the printer set up in his kitchen, so will waive any property costs.

Postage is built into the price, and judging purely by the pictures, I don't think he's going to get that into an envelope; so the small parcel rate will be charged. That's £2.85; let's allow him 15p for packing materials (£3) and assume he lives within easy walking distance of a post box (15 min round trip @ £10/hr is a rather convenient £2.50), so £5.50 on P&P

That leaves just £4.50 "profit", of which HMRC is going to stiff you for around 20% of that in tax. I'm assuming the guy isn't VAT registered (if he is, take £2.50 off the price before we even get started), so another 90p gone, so the final profit (excluding anything I might have forgotten, and excluding any consideration for the time it took to program the printer, feed it the filament, etc.) is just £3.60 per set.

Obviously, economies of scale could increase that profit (I'm assuming he has to make the trip to the post box for every item sold; of course, if he sold 100 of them, then the cost of getting to the post box reduces to 2.5p per unit instead of £2.50), but since he's only sold 2... I reckon he's probably going in too cheap at £3.60 profit.


Costs are a bitch, and outside of running a business, almost no-one seems to understand them. Yet they rack up pretty sharpish, especially on low volume stuff.

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