"Price fixing is an agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given level by controlling supply and demand.
The intent of price fixing may be to push the price of a product as high as possible, generally leading to profits for all sellers but may also have the goal to fix, peg, discount, or stabilize prices. The defining characteristic of price fixing is any agreement regarding price, whether expressed or implied."
We use these calculations to find a price range for FDM printing based on PLA/ABS/PETG:
These are rough numbers and ranges the actual figures are considered proprietary.
Electric:
200W-750W Low end and High end
$.15 per KWH cost (Includes lighting and cooling overhead)
$.03 to $.1125 operating cost per hour
Filament:
Wholesale $16 per spool, Retail $25 per spool
Waste 10%
PLA 1.25g/cm3 $.022 to $.034 per cm3 (petg and abs are a little different due to density)
Printer depreciation:
Take the total cost of the printer, divide it by 24 hours, then 30 days then 3 months (or 2160) which is the cost to acquire a new printer every 90 days. For printers over $2,160 we use 180 days or 6 months.
$0.27-$1.04 per hour
3D Hubs fee
Student Discount*
Average failure rate is under 10% of time and materials.
Based on that my last large “Draft Mode” print which is meant for rapid prototypes at a low cost not for production quality or display/presentation prints came in at $.10 per cm3 for a little over $225. The actual print cost including support removal was $168.01 based on the high estimates. Those prices include buying a new $5,000+ printer in 3-6 months (probably a markforged or resin based machine)
I am genuinely unaware of a system you described, “minimum prices set across all industries.”, off the top of my head other than Venezuela. Not meant to be aggressive/offensive.
My calculations above show a real world operational cost for my hub operation. I believe I’m overpriced even at $.10 per cm3 as the calculations show I can make a profit in equipment and dollars at prices as low as $.05 per cm3.
The calculations from my other post below which I will expand upon here show that the CURRENT BASE PRICE already implemented by 3D Hubs is currently to high and may stifle future free market competition allowing another platform to encroach upon 3D hubs service.
Filament:
Recycled water bottles and other household plastics.
$0.00 per cm3
*It is important to note that the cost of filament could run into negative territory. If someone sets up a recycling center or sets up shop at a recycling center they could theoretically charge a small fee to recycle plastics which would yield them a negative cost per cm3 of filament.
Electric:
Solar or hydro power utilized for a home or another business.
$0.00 per hour (cost is written off for another entity)
Printer Depreciation:
Using modular design and true reprap philosophies the depreciation of a home made printer can easily reach less than 1% per month. Upgrades and new printers could be purchased for very little ($65-$100 using direct from china electronics and 3D printed parts)
Hourly or per CM3 cost of around $.005
3D Hubs Service Fee
Student Discount: Not offered to keep prices lower.
Labor and Profit: If this is a part time or ancillary business venture the printer would operate in an existing shop and simply bring in extra revenue. Very slim margins would be needed.
This scenario, which is not far fetched, would result in a per cm3 cost below THE CURRENT 3D HUBS FORCED BASE PRICE of $.01 per cm3 and $1 per order.
I would be willing to invest some money into a hub who wishes to operate this way and offer sub $.01 per cm3 prints.
We actually print a ton of the Cube Gears off thingiverse for office workers to put on their desks. Every time we give one away we hear back that all visitors walk in, pick up the cube and start twisting it and asking questions. I ran into an issue a while back where I had dozens of spools of 10-100g of filament that I didn’t want to throw away and couldn’t use for orders so I just started printing pokemon and other little trinkets to give away.
It’s the same type of evangelism we did with bitcoin in 2010-2012 and continue today. We used to give out 10BTC ($30 at the time $6,000 now) silver physical bitcoins to promote awareness. Although I don’t think anyone will be selling a cube for 200X what they cost in a few years the goal of spreading awareness still applies.
