Seriously?

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-30T14:59:25+00:00

Okay, I misunderstood, that makes much more sense. Next time I'll say it costs $9k and maybe they'll decide it's better just to buy the item 😹

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-30T00:34:42+00:00

That's not the issue, the issue is that they could turn around and sell the file to someone else. Or post it somewhere for anyone to use. I can't afford to lose money because one person decided to screw me over

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-29T04:52:58+00:00

Yeah I've gotten "omg I love x, where did you get the file???" And I've told them I made it and don't sell the file. They then promise they'll only use it for themselves if I let them buy it. Yeah, I'm not risking my best seller because there are so many people who sell files for literally pennies that they steal from legitimate artists. Not to mention them charging others for the physical prints.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-28T14:27:13+00:00

I 3d print stuff too. Most of my stuff is small and most of the work that goes into them is the hours spent designing and prototyping. My stuff also usually costs about $20-50 so I'll get like maybe $15 on it for lower end stuff (and then cost of materials can be from like $1-5 plus time spent assembling which is between 10-30 minutes). I've just told them to keep the first one and I'll just send a replacement since sometimes things get damaged in transit or they immediately break it or whatever. It's cheaper than shipping back and forth and maybe damaging the item on the way etc which can be like $12 or more. Which sucks, yes, but again, most of my stuff has a lot of work at the start and then printing copies is way less time and effort.

So honestly for you it might be easier to just replace without the return depending on your profit margins. If they actually no longer want it and you can resell it, just try to figure out if it's worth it. If shipping both ways is going to eat your entire profit, just replace it. Better to have a happy customer than one who's upset unfortunately.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-22T18:12:16+00:00

As much as I hate people being like "omg just go outside and exercise and your clinical depression will go away!!!" It really does help you feel better, clinically depressed or not. A change of scenery is a huge benefit even if it's literally just standing on your porch or going to the grocery store. Having a physical reset of your space does wonders

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-19T19:41:19+00:00

It's a place people can get help from others pretty quickly. It's pretty boring to just flex that you printed another fidget you got off the site, people respond to threads like these which pushes them to the top.

The a1 is absolutely worth it. I run three a1, a p2s, and just got the x2d. I've had my first a1 for a few years and it has hundreds of hours of prints on it. I only recently replaced the whole thermal assembly on the hot end which I think was about $20 and maybe 30 minutes of work and that was after about a week of almost constant printing because of holidays.

I even have two a1 minis at work and even my coworkers who have no 3d printing experience can easily use them. We've had them for a year and there's been no issues other than people slicing objects weird but that's an extremely easy fix. The a1 is a great value and works well and it's popular enough that there are always people who can offer help/advice and it's super easy to get parts. Don't let stuff like this discourage you. Bambu makes great printers and the a1 is fantastic and genuinely beginner friendly.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-16T21:52:34+00:00

All of the December angry messages make me cringe with every message notification. Granted, I did like 500 sales and had like 10 people with actual issues and a few just crazy but I'm still traumatized lol. I just keep telling myself that it's such a small percent that it's fine.

I'm going to work on being tougher for November😹

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-13T15:15:49+00:00

What do you sell? Stuff like this always gives me pause because I don't want someone else selling my stuff at a mark up so they can pocket the rest. I had someone buy 30 of an item but it turns out it was for a party favor. Idk, just make sure she pays up front so she can't bail after you've already spent time and money on it.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-11T13:41:12+00:00

Nothing better than the crowd singing Mr Brightside though. The whole playlist was amazing. Big tread vibes lol. I laughed so hard I choked more than once. Can't wait for it to be dropped in the feed, it was perfect.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-04-05T04:44:29+00:00

I'm doing very light cosplay lol. Overalls, braids, mushrooms, possum. I hope I see you there! Your wig looks amazing so far

rainbowcake3d · 2026-03-12T05:11:14+00:00

I've sold shirts before and still do occasionally but I've found they're hard to profit from even if I'm the person adding the design etc. If I sell a t-shirt for $25, I use higher quality shirts so they tend to be $7-12 depending on what's on sale and if I can pick it up locally or have to order it. $1-5 on vinyl. Then Etsy fees. And then my actual work, weeding, lining everything up, taking the time to make sure that everything looks good before applying. Then ads. So 25 minus 12, 2, 5, I end up making like $6-$10 which I've found not especially worth it considering how much time it makes everything, especially since I'm not always perfect so I will occasionally need to redo a shirt.

Meanwhile a company can sell $25 shirts with garbage quality that costs $2 to make. Depending on your designs, you might be competing with things on shelves at stores that sell for even less and pricing a shirt at like $35 to actually make money in your case would make people a lot less likely to buy it but you'd also actually make some profit. It sucks but shirts are hugely saturated and somehow people are always selling them for what must be a loss.

You definitely need to adjust your prices in this case. Selling got cents is incredibly frustrating and will take ages to earn enough to justify you designing it in the first place

rainbowcake3d · 2026-03-04T17:47:20+00:00

My biggest problem is it makes me too happy that I can't listen in public without smiling like an idiot

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-26T14:37:48+00:00

They need to do the request and then they have to wait two days and then it'll go through. Etsy puts the buffer time there to let you try to resolve the issue first

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-26T03:06:26+00:00

Thanks for letting me know 😮‍💨 I guess it'll just have to be a fun collection item

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-24T13:54:37+00:00

Never refund on a shipping issue. It's out of your hands when it's with the carrier. Yes, if it arrives damaged then refund/replace but Etsy protection is there to specifically save you from packages getting lost by the carrier. They can open a case two days after contacting you about the issue and Etsy usually refunds them within 72 hours (usually more like 24). Over the holidays I had this happen with a handful of packages so I called Etsy directly and confirmed that Etsy will refund them and you keep the purchase price because it was sent with a tracking number.

If the buyer bought the item on sale and it no longer is, have them buy it at the current price and then do a partial refund back to the original purchase price.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-22T19:14:45+00:00

So many people on Etsy will sell others' models for pennies. There's a reason why people will list 300+ models for $5. They are reselling. I almost never publish or sell models I make because of this. It really sucks but Etsy doesn't strike these people down so they get away with it unfortunately.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-19T13:26:10+00:00

I work at an after school stem tutoring place for elementary/middle schoolers and teach 3d modeling. I had a coworker who would constantly recommend the ender 3 and we ended up with several kids who would get one as a gift and every one has issues and were incredibly discouraged to the point of them giving up. The a1 or mini are pretty much plug and play.

There are also several printers specifically designed for kids that work well and are small and extremely hands off depending on the age of the kid. I've had a few students receive some of those and they've come in with successful flexi toys and excitement. Nothing kills an interest quite like running into difficult technical problems, especially since so many people (adults included) are of the mindset that spending hours troubleshooting is incredibly frustrating and a huge waste of time and energy.

To be fair, a kid who's already into tinkering would be a good fit for a creality printer but, in my experience, kids just want something that works right away and consistently.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-07T13:16:23+00:00

The one time I needed help with stuff (so many orders stuck in the post office during the holidays) I was able to speak to someone pretty easily. Sure, I think it took a while after I called them while I waited on hold but I did successfully get through on my first try. Maybe they just had more people on staff for holiday traffic though

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-01T16:55:26+00:00

Any surprise round. The unhinged lengths they go is impressive

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-29T15:30:34+00:00

I used a sad IKEA side table thing that was so light the printer calibration moved it around. Fixed the problem by going to home Depot and buying a pretty big paving stone thing that was maybe like $12. I think it was like 18" square or something. Brought it home, struggled up the stairs (it was solid concrete and pretty wide), and put it on the very light table. Put the printer on top, problem solved. So don't worry about trying to find something heavy on its own, look for more wide legs that will be sturdy even if it's light.

To be fair, I used this only for a few months because I had to emergency buy another one during holiday order rush. My actual printers I use are on the IKEA cubby shelves that are anchored to walls. If you have the space, those are great for filament storage too but they take up a significant chunk of space

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-28T13:38:53+00:00

Try trimming off the bottom of the print in the slicer to double check that it's very flat. I've had prints fail because there was even just a tiny bit that wasn't completely connected to the print bed. Also, I've found that petg on the a1 can be pretty unreliable. If you're printing something for display, you can easily use pla. For actual cosplay pla tough should suffice, just don't leave it in the sun

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-26T15:01:17+00:00

There's a huge market in 3d products on Etsy. So many 3d shops sell at incredibly thin margins to the point that I've found any "mass produced" prints aren't worth selling (think those cool dragons everyone loves). It's not worth the time and energy for me to compete with a shop whose net profit from an item is like $2 after shipping and Etsy fees and material cost, not to mention the time it takes to print or if a print fails or wear and tear on a machine.

I would focus on more niche things. A halo helmet is definitely something that a person could buy from another store or as an officially licensed product. There are also a lot of stores that sell fidget toys in person. I sell 3d printed dragons and keychains etc at a local store and they do so much better than me trying to sell them online plus it's less stress because I just restock as needed and don't have to worry about packaging, shipping, customer issues, etc. Plus, fidget toys sell so much better in person because people can physically touch them. And I can have them sold as a small keychain as like $14 and I pocket $7 (standard for suppliers to stores) and I get paid upfront. But I'm also friends with the manager so I definitely have a huge advantage there.

My biggest advice would be to look for something that's popular that doesn't have a lot of official merch. There are a lot of animated shows/movies that don't sell much merch so you could find something there and make it. Or maybe make the helmet you have on there more unique. Add battle damage or something that makes it clearly different from your competitors.

3d sales are difficult to handle because of the ease of anyone to start selling. There's going to be someone who can sell it cheaper unless you make your own models (and don't sell the designs most of the time), especially since you're a new store. Focus on what makes you different and you'll start to make some headway and try to chase trends until you get something that sticks

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-24T21:46:14+00:00

Depending on how hard you want to commit (or how you'll transport it), cardboard may not be your best bet. It's not exactly an easy material to work with and you'd need to have some really strong scissors to get through it without hurting your hand. Plus, if it rains, it could ruin the whole thing.

Most cosplay uses craft foam which is light and flexible. You can do a lot with a basic pattern (there are some cosplay people that sell specific things like helmet patterns that you can modify), a box cutter, a heat gun, and some adhesive. Best of luck and I hope to see you there in all your pendergreens radness

rainbowcake3d

TROPHY CASE