ADB Marketing | 21 Oct 2018 11:06 a.m. PST |
Do remember that today is the last day to order from Shapeways and get the current shipping rates and production times. As of October 22, shipping may go up, depending on your location. Time to produce will also increase unless you pay for expedited production. We did release all ships we had on hand so as to avoid the price increases on Monday. shapeways.com/shops/amarillo-design-bureau-inc?sort=newest will show the new ships first. There are 64 of them, so you'll need to go to the second page to see them all. |
Thresher01 | 21 Oct 2018 4:55 p.m. PST |
Hmmm, so an increase in costs, AND worse service? Is this a government organization/utility now, or are they just acting like one? |
The Beast Rampant | 21 Oct 2018 5:05 p.m. PST |
Are they going to update their search engine, which is so irritatingly archaic I don't even bother with the site? |
miniMo | 21 Oct 2018 6:32 p.m. PST |
Like TMP, I always do my Shapeways searching via Google. |
Thresher01 | 21 Oct 2018 11:38 p.m. PST |
I agree TBR, and suspect the answer is "of course not". |
The Beast Rampant | 22 Oct 2018 6:51 a.m. PST |
The worst part is, the listing for differing scales of the same CAD are separate, horribly cluttering up the search. Why? If I want a miniature of the USS Texas, Why isn't that one listing for the one designer, where I can pick from the available scales, same as I pick the materials? |
ADB Marketing | 22 Oct 2018 1:42 p.m. PST |
The best I can offer is that I have been extremely consistent in naming our minis. If you search by 3125 scale Federation, ours tend to come up first by relevance. Same is true for 3788 Scale, Omni Scale, or 285 Scale. It isn't perfect, but it at least helps. |
ADB Marketing | 22 Oct 2018 1:43 p.m. PST |
The other alternative is to sort alphabetically. That will but them in order, but you still have to skip through until you get to the proper place. :( |
ADB Marketing | 30 Oct 2018 2:51 p.m. PST |
I added a variant of a base hull ship that we have that is grandfathered in for pricing. I am seeing a 25-30% price increase for the Fine Detail Plastic materials. :( |
Lion in the Stars | 30 Oct 2018 4:39 p.m. PST |
I am seeing a 25-30% price increase for the Fine Detail Plastic materials. :( Holy CRAP!!!! That's going to pretty well end Shapeways for bits and some models. |
ADB Marketing | 30 Oct 2018 4:45 p.m. PST |
We are strongly suggesting that if there is a mini you want in either the colored versatile plastic or the fine detail plastic, that you order it now, if it were released prior to October 22. The prices of these are scheduled to go up in 2019 -- and I wouldn't be surprised if that is at 12:01 am January 1 in the Netherlands. |
trynda1701 | 31 Oct 2018 11:17 a.m. PST |
What reasons are being given by Shapeways for both the price increase and production time increase? |
ADB Marketing | 31 Oct 2018 12:36 p.m. PST |
They say they were losing money. I can especially see it for the small items. They still require as much handling as a larger one. I have never thought they shouldn't put in the minimum prices for items. What I strongly object to is their CEO made an announcement that suggested about a 5% increase in price. That was in effect for a couple of days after the price increase hit on October 22. Then they decided that wasn't enough and, without any announcement, they increased the price of the Fine Detail Plastic by about 30% on items over their minimum size (and we really don't know what that size is). They say they need to maximize the use of the printers, so if you want your ships promptly, you pay for that. However, if they can work orders in that maximize the use of the machine, they will, so you might get it earlier. I am hearing on the forums that a few folks are swearing off Shapeways or closing down shops due to the price increases. If that happens or if enough people rebel at the higher prices, it won't be hard to be worked in ahead of schedule. Do be aware that if you want items before Christmas, you will need to consider ordering them early in November. That is about the only way you can be assured of getting them in time without paying more. |
SouthernPhantom | 04 Nov 2018 6:22 p.m. PST |
I've definitely noticed a massive slowdown in my sales, roughly corresponding to that announcement. Probably was not a good move on Shapeways' part; we'll see how it shakes out. I've been toying with the idea of optimizing many of my designs for casting, ordering a set of masters, and shifting over to producing resin models versus selling designs via Shapeways. It's really a shame; 3D printing made one-off designs far more viable. I'd need to incorporate the costs of masters, molds, and tooling in determining whether a given product is viable to produce, so special requests would have to fall by the wayside. My Shapeways shop has been a source of side income (mostly reinvested into models) that I work on purely out of love for the hobby. I routinely work 60-70-hour weeks at my "real" job, so handling moldmaking, production, orders, packing, and customer service just isn't going to happen. Not with my current work schedule. |
SITZKRIEG | 05 Nov 2018 9:44 a.m. PST |
Is this price increase really a good idea given that good quality home printing machines like the Anycubic Photon are now reasonably priced (<$500) and can print at fine detail plastic smooth levels of detail (their second highest quality level)? I've had a file uploaded and in my cart for months waiting for a free shipping sale but if the price went up 30% in the interim I may have just lost whatever savings that would have offered. |
SITZKRIEG | 05 Nov 2018 9:49 a.m. PST |
Hrm… I was wondering why an identical model that I uploaded a few days back was coming in significantly more expensive that my existing one despite only being a change in the angle of printing but this would explain why. According to the letter from the CEO, existing models won't go up in price until 2019 (very last paragraph linked below). link |
ADB Marketing | 06 Nov 2018 12:15 p.m. PST |
By "existing" they mean public and for sale by the end of October 21. It is one reason we released so many items on the 20th. |
ADB Marketing | 14 Nov 2018 7:30 a.m. PST |
Shapeways has announced the the Fine Detail Plastics prices are not going up as much as they had originally done. On November 11, I saw the increase drop from about 80% to about 20%. I would also suggest that no one use the expedited shipping. I am hearing that without using that, my customers are getting ships printed within 7-10 days. Your mileage may vary. |
Lfseeney | 18 Nov 2018 11:43 a.m. PST |
ATM My home printer can out do Shapeways, but so many folks do not sell the stls. So I do without. |
SITZKRIEG | 18 Nov 2018 7:32 p.m. PST |
@ADB: FWIW, the cost of that same file that I mentioned earlier went up 10% since I posted it and I haven't changed anything about it. Maybe they had a staggered rollout for existing files as it took a while for them maybe to reevaluate/cost them if they were for private use only. |
ADB Marketing | 19 Nov 2018 9:36 a.m. PST |
@SITZKRIEG Shapeways had a stealth price change sometime between Monday and Friday. Many of ours went down, a few went up. I have been politely unhappy on their forums regarding the stealth change which I found totally by accident. |
ADB Marketing | 24 Nov 2018 4:58 p.m. PST |
Just a heads up. Shapeways is going to have a one-day sale on Cyber Monday. 15% off each item, $250 USD limit per order, limit of four orders. The sale will start at 12:00 am EST on Monday -- the code will be on the site. ADB will be releasing ships on Sunday so that you can get the best deals on them. |
SITZKRIEG | 24 Nov 2018 11:43 p.m. PST |
I have a sneaking suspicion that the stealth price increase was because of the ongoing/upcoming sale. I've seen plenty of other companies do something similar and this recent move smells rotten. |