20 Real Examples of Making Money with 3D Printing
Reading Time: 12 minutes 1. Kevin Kevin
Kevin ended up making $540 in sales from an event in 6 hours. It was his first time working with a new organizer and the location had about 18 vendors so he wasn’t expecting much.
In the first hour he made $120, second hour he made $295, 4th hour he made $410, and finally in 6 hours he made $540.
He had a nice variety of 3D prints such as Lego Style characters – Wolverine, Deadpool, Spiderman, Venom, and many more.
On top of that he had some cool Star wars characters in the same style, some dragons, some model planes and other colorful models.
He sells the 3D prints based on print times. For example, he sells the Lego Spiderman and Venom models for $40, and $70 for Thor.
He 3D prints these by color and assembles them like actual Legos. This means there’s zero waste with the AMS multicolor system.
He prints them on multiple plates sorted by color then snaps them together.
Kevin did mention that Lego sent a Cease & Desist for the online models on the Thangs website, so he had to stop selling them files or get banned from Thangs.
The designer went by BigBricks but now changed to Kit Kiln and makes different models.
Another user said to look at Walter on Patreon.
His number 1 seller was the Lego Ironman for $60 and Lego Captain America for $55.
2. Jason Allwardt
Jason made about $9,000 across 4 days at Halloween Con called Transworld. He only came to help sell airbrushes and accessories and in return, he could sell a few of his models in the booth. Since it was a Halloween con he brought his custom Death Whistles and Hat Horns.
He sold all the whistles he brought (about 250 of them) and there were orders for 175 more. He also sold 65 out of the 100 horns he had brought. He sold each whistle for about $25 each or 5 units for $100 and the horn for $15 each or 2 units for $25. This happened to be his second Halloween cone event.
Jason also mentioned that his actors use the Death whistles in the haunted house that he runs to scare people without having to use their voices after a long weekend of screaming.
He said that the files are available for sale on Cults3D.
The model is available for sale at $15 and listed for commercial use on Cults3D. However its STL files cannot be resold or modified, and it cannot be shared without attribution.
3. Rudy Philips
Rudy had his first $500 sale at his community garage sale. This was his third show as he had earlier had $250 and $320 from his previous garage sales.
His best seller was the Cinderwing Keychain which sold for $15, while his other prints like the octopus wine holder sold for $25. He also came with other models like full-size dragons, Teds, Halloween models, Lion skulls, and sugar skulls which he got from Hex3D Patreon.
Rudy mentioned that he also had his 3D printer powered so that he could demonstrate how the prints came about. He printed little robots which took about 40 minutes to print. This caught the attention of kids and other customers and had them talking.
He also gave out tiny Halloween skulls and keychains to kids, then parents would also have a look and eventually buy. The garage sale lasted about 5 hours.
4. Robert Himes
Robert made $300 in total sales by having a stand at a mall. It was his first time making sales. He was at the from 11-5 pm and was able to make some money even though didn’t have a lot of customers.
Some of his prints included the Zen gardens which he got from the MysticMesh3D Patreon.
His best sellers were the DND minis, the classic crystal dragon, and zou3d mini animals which are all available for about $25 each. These models had a nice choice of colors that would grab one’s attention in an instant.
He also had the Display Stand Tree for sale which he claimed that his wife found the STL file, but the original model didn’t have a commercial license. He promised to take it down immediately.
While at the mall, he got a deal from another vendor for keychains and signs worth over $500.
5. Kevin Kevin
Kevin had a craft show and made his prints available for sale. Within 15 minutes he had already made the $60 he had paid for the booth. He eventually made about $400 in total just under 5 hours.
He had some keychains, stickers, and earrings which were available for $5 each or $8 for 2 units.
He also had little butterflies that were already printed but needed to be assembled. It came with instructions on how to do that.
The articulated dragon stand, full-sized Stich model, and the skulls were all on sale for $15.
6. Ryan Thornton
Ryan made about $250-300 in sales from his models. His booth was basically a reptile expo but he had other models on display like the Flappy Jack, Racoon, and Large Skull which were priced at $10.
The best seller was the normal-sized Cinderwings Crystal Dragon which sold for $20 per unit.
Even with the variety of models present, they were able to sell at least one unit of each model, except the Donut Keychain, Turtle, and Skull. He also had some butterfly prints which he sold for $3 that could be used for walls and window decorations.
Ryan said he was able to trade the Katana ($40) for a $75 spider that his girlfriend wanted.
While they did make a decent amount, Ryan mentioned that they would have made even more as they were in a smaller room of the expo, so they couldn’t get as many customers. The space for their booth cost them $35.
7. Mandi Herman
Mandi was able to take advantage of their neighborhood garage sale. He and his wife set up in his driveway and made over $700 for the day’s job with no event cost.
Their best seller was the Highland cows and every other model in their sub 6-dollar bins. The tiny collection from ZOU3D was also a huge hit, especially the tiny frog.
Some of the prints on sale include the giant shark skeleton which sold for $129.99 at 420% scale.
He also had dragons on sale, which were priced between $6.00-129.99. He sold the 4-foot-long dragons for $99.00 and the 5-footers for $129. The 5-foot dragon took 3 days to complete on his Creality CR-M4.
The fish (Top Bin) models were available for sale for $8, the mini turtle for $2 and regular for $4, and the dolphins were sold for $5.
Mandi mentioned that they also had their 3D printer on display to help spark interest in the 3D printing process and potentially attract potential customers.
He also said that he only sells models that the majority of other sellers don’t have, whether it’s the model, color, or size. This would help prevent competition in your local area.
8. Aaron James Feltner
Aaron made $400 in profit from his first sale on 3D prints. He had quite a number of models available for sale in different sizes and unique colors. Most of his models were sold out at the end of the day – collapsing dagger, while others like the octopus and dragons sold very well.
The octopus and the baby Groot models were on sale for $5, while collapsing daggers cost $20.
Aside from the toys, he also had this Nintendo card holder on sale for $20 which was a functional model that can be used to keep your cards in one place.
Aaron said he only has one printer but he would be getting another. He had an Ender and an Flsun which he sold to get the Bambu. He’s been printing on it nonstop for about 3weeks up until this event and only had 2 failures while printing 24/7.
9. Justin Morris
Justin attended the Sheradeah Comic Con with his wife and two kids and sold some of his prints at the event. It was a 4.5-hour drive to the event center and spent two nights at the hotel while at the event.
They made a total of $1450 in total sales from the prints they sold. His best sellers were the dragons and the collapsible dagger.
He also had the lightsaber model on sale for $25. He did come with other models like the Deadpool Busts, Baby Groot, and Dragon Eggs, Flexi Factor Piggy.
Justin said he charges $3 per print hour or $1 per print hour plus $0.20 per gram. He said he was a little disappointed that he didn’t hit the $2,000 mark, but when he considered that two other stands were selling 3D prints, he felt it was a decent return.
During the event, they had some expenditure. They paid $200 for their hotel, $300 for gas, and $200 for the event fee. From the total sales, they had a net profit of about $750.
10. Kyeong Chung
Kyeong has made about $10,000 from sales on Amazon in the last 30 days from his best-seller alone. He said that the last 30 days have been very demanding but sales have been constantly growing.
He didn’t mention the exact item but prints are functional designs that can be used in day-to-day activities. Each print costs about $28.99, and he prints on his two X1C 3D printers running non-stop.
He recommends selling your prints on Amazon instead of eBay, Etsy, or any other e-commerce platform. Because it is less expensive and less demanding.
He said both Amazon and Etsy take about 30% on each sale but on Amazon, you only send your inventory to them while they do shipping and account for other costs including taxes.
11. Kevin Auskings
Kevin made about 24 times his booth fee at the event where he sold his prints. It was a 2-day event lasting 5 hours daily. He paid $100 for his booth space at the event. On the first day, he had a total of $1,420 in sales and on the second day, he made $1,010 in total sales.
He said he had lots of $5 models on sale like the Pokemon badges, Simpson characters, dragons, hand poses, rabbits, etc. His best sellers were the dragons and the dice towers but he said they didn’t sell any in his previous show.
The dragons and the octopuses were on sale for $20. He didn’t mention the price of the dice towers.
Kevin mentioned that one way to get good sales at these events is to have a large variety of everything because what will sell at one event may not sell at another.
12. Kyle Combs
Kyle had 21 events within 4 months and recorded a total of $6,119, at an average of $275 per show. His best sellers included roses which he got online (commercial license) together with vases which he designed by himself. So far, he has sold 139 roses, including 39 which he sold on the week of Mother’s Day.
He also sold 11 Cinderwing keychains and 46 full-size Crystal Dragons. The dragons were at 50-60% scale.
His prints were very unique as they were mostly dual-color prints or rainbow-patterned prints. He only had a few models in solid colors. He also painted the eyes of some of the models to give extra detail to their appearance.
He said he determined the price of each model by using a flat rate of $0.22 per gram. Most of his models were in the $5-$30 range with only a few between $40-$60.
13. Jason Fogler
Jason goes to local shows on the weekends and the returns often vary. Some days he makes $700 in total sales while on other occasions he makes about $25. He described it as hit or miss.
Like most vendors, the best seller is the Cinderwing Dragon. Some of his other models available for sale include the Crystal Rose, sea dragons which he sold for $30 each.
Jason mentioned that people preferred getting the cheaper models, especially those who had kids.
Also, he said that most of the shows he went to didn’t require an entry fee. The ones that he had to pay to gain entry were $20 for small venues and $50 for large ones.
14. Tony Rose
Tony made a total of $200 from his community garage sale. It was a test run and it helped them figure out what they would need as the main event was scheduled for the following week.
Most of the items were sold between $5-10 and a few at $20.They had very nice eye-catching prints like the ZOU3D animals, and surprise eggs (best seller) — which had eggs in them, all sold for $5 each.
The dragons on sale had very unique color schemes in their gradient or multicolor schemes.
The large-size dragons sold for $65, while the medium and small-size dragons sold for $35 and $20 respectively.
They also sold the T-rex and the Shark models for $20 each.
Tony also had a “Spin the Wheel” at the garage sale for people who had signed up for his newsletter, so that they could get a discount or a small free item when they spun it.
15. Stephen Lightspeed
Stephen did $40k in total sales from his TikTok shop, Etsy, Cults3D, Patreon, and Thang’s shop from the Saturday before Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve. 94% of the total sales came from his TikTok shop as he went viral four times and this helped boost his sales.
He only sold unique non-IP models that fit the current season and was able to make a 1,000% markup on most of the items he sold. The running cost came to about 30% of the total sales, which is pretty profitable.
Stephen mentioned that selling had little to do with price, it’s more about knowing your audience, pictures, presentation, and uniqueness.
To keep up with the rising orders, Stephen had to invest in more 3D printers. He bought 2 Bambu A1s and a regular A1. Flashforge sent him a 5M pro which came in handy and FLsun also sent him a super racer.
He also made a huge error and bought all his supplies from Amazon. He got overwhelmed and was scrambling to get boxes, tape, and labels to complete the orders.
He also designed this tray for Valentine’s Day that can hold two glasses and two chocolates and is hung over a bottle of wine. The tray is available on his Patreon at Stephen-TheLightSpeed.
16. Tony Roman
Tony set up a tent with a handful of prints that he had on hand already. He made about $300 from the garage sales, although he made about the sale on FB marketplace.
He had about 10 people come around, and 6 of them purchased some of his models on display. Three of them purchased his large dragons which were in the range of $40-75, 2 small dragons at $15, one dracolich which was defective for $10, and the plague doctor mask for $50.
Tony said they were initially skeptical about buying the models, but after a little explanation about the whole process to them, they were intrigued.
17. Melissa Renee Teeple
Melissa attended a show with her husband and made about $180 from her total sales. They both shared the same booth but they had different tables and models available for sale. She said the event had a lot of people and she had never been to any show with such a crowd before.
She said her husband’s dragons sold much better compared to the other models on sale and he made twice as much as she made.
Her best seller was sold at $10 each but she didn’t mention the name of the model. She also had the full-size ferret in rainbow colors and painted the eyes and nose for sale at $25 each or 2 for $45.
She had the Matt Mire models on sale but she wasn’t able to sell any. There were also minis on sale for $2.50 each or 5 for $10.
Melissa mentioned that her husband sold his dragons at $10, $20, and $30 each for the 60, 80, and 100% scale.
18. John Desadier
John participated in the holiday market event. It was a huge one as there were about 240 vendors present with only two selling 3D prints.
He paid $150 for the 3-day event for a 10×10 space. At the end of the event, they realized about $5,000 after expenses, an average of $1600 each day.
His best sellers were the dice towers, dragons, and dnd figures. He said he had hundreds of items on sale for as low as $3 or 2 for $5 which were sold out by the third day.
John also said that they had some custom orders from customers at the end of the event which pushed their net profit to about $7,000 in 3 days.
19. Aaron Michael Wallace
Aaron watched his kids handle his 3D printing business for him. They spent the last month picking filaments and designs to print. They had a neighborhood sale and made a total of $400 in just 3 hours.
The models were brightly colored and very appealing, which probably contributed to the success of the sale. Some of their models included phone stands, dragons, stickers, and so on.
20. Ollie Henwood
Ollie just completed his fourth big event at the Southdown Music Festival. He made a total of $700 in two days.
He said people bought more of the flexi factory dragons and alligators. Most of his models fell between $7-35. He had some unique models on sale, like the glow-in-the-dark alligator which was listed at $15. Other models were the skulls which had very nice colors.
He said his best sellers depend on the location where the sale is held because, at his previous sale, he has sold more frogs.
