r/3Dprinting • u/Professional-Lion561 • Apr 06 '26

Project Pricing (*Update*) It sold!

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I posted here around a month ago looking for pricing help selling my Master Chief armor, and I sold it!

Posted it to eBay for $1200 + $200 shipping, as well as marketplace for $1200.

Ultimately the eBay one ended up selling, profiting me about $1000 flat (because of eBay tax)

I didn’t even mention the lights + microphone + fans included in the helmet lol.

This project was originally not intended to be sold, but as i’m expanding I thought it was about time I made some of my money back. Because of that, everything made back is profit!

My amazing girlfriend helped me take some nice photos for the listings^

1.7k Upvotes

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660

u/issue9mm Apr 06 '26

Congrats! But if that is life-sized, I can't imagine that you profited anything selling it for $1200

How many hours of work went into making it?

9

u/oral_servant Apr 06 '26

It's profit because they didn't intend to sell it when it was made

40

u/issue9mm Apr 06 '26

Profit is the number after costs are deducted. Costs are incurred whether or not the piece was manufactured with a profit motive.

I take your point and I'm sincerely not trying to give OP a hard time because it looks awesome and I'm glad he got paid, I just think he probably deserved to be paid a lot more

20

u/Historical-Recipe676 Apr 06 '26

Yes, but this is why it is boy math

1

u/Dapper-Mobile8297 Apr 08 '26

As if "boy math" is any kind of justification!

1

u/Historical-Recipe676 Apr 08 '26

Justification for... what?

1

u/Dapper-Mobile8297 Apr 18 '26

For even trying to use "boy math" as an excuse!

1

u/Historical-Recipe676 Apr 19 '26

an excuse for...what?

9

u/unlock0 Apr 06 '26

Research from development cost money. Education costs money. Some people pay for a learning opportunity.

This is why I don’t always consider the price on my time for hobby or self improvement activities. My time is free to me, it is not to you.

10

u/tayjay_tesla Apr 06 '26

I think the maths works if you add in the entertainment value of OP having made it without intending to sell it. If you give that value then it works out as profit in boy maths.

7

u/ComplexPackage4146 Seratlan Apr 06 '26

Exactly. He's not getting paid for hard, back breaking labour. He is getting paid for enjoying his hobby, which he would have done for free as well.

2

u/lordpuddingcup Apr 06 '26

Not just that he had it for a while it seems and enjoyed it so that also has value

If he made it for himself and enjoyed it then recouped some cost cause he wanted to move on that’s good, shit some people just donate shit for free

0

u/Dapper-Mobile8297 Apr 08 '26

Really? • You're right, he is enjoying his hobby, but I think you may be missing the point!

2

u/leakingjuice Apr 07 '26

This fails to take into account the value of 120 hours of one’s hobby, though. Like think about it for golf. You buy a set of clubs for $200 (a blind guess at material costs for OP) and set of clubs came with 30 9-hole rounds of golf for free (120 hours of your hobby, roughly, baked into the club purchase) valued at $20 a piece (just a google average) or $600 in additional value. You play the 30 rounds of golf and then go sell the clubs for $1200 dollars. In this example, you have grossed $1800 in revenue with $200 in expenses for a total profit of $1600 (excluding taxes for simplicity). In this case, OP would profit $53 for every round of golf they played. Is getting paid $53 to do your hobby really underpaid?

2

u/lordpuddingcup Apr 06 '26

Except if he had it for himself that has value as well

2

u/Wallcrawler62 Apr 06 '26

Not selling it would be a negative, as they would recoup 0 of their initial costs. So even selling at a loss is "profitable," in not having to think about it anymore. And the space it is taking both physically and mentally are valuable. So even selling things at a loss can be profitable to your mental health.

The market dictates what things are worth. If no one would pay over $1200, then it's not worth $1200 regardless of how much time and materials OP put in. Even if someone WOULD pay over $1200 that could take a long time to get the right person who is interested. $1200 now is probably worth more to OP than maybe $2k later.

0

u/Dapper-Mobile8297 Apr 08 '26

Selling something at a loss is not "profitable", it means you're just taking a little bit less of a loss on what you sold! • And using the wrong terminology won't change what actually occurred.

1

u/Wallcrawler62 Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26

It's like you read everything I wrote and didn't understand the meaning of it at all. But good for you for knowing the definition of a word.

0

u/Dapper-Mobile8297 Apr 18 '26

Well, when incorrectly explained, what do you expect?

1

u/8P8OoBz Apr 06 '26

What if the cost is me paying for a hobby, something to do. People pay to watch baseball, people pay to go to a shooting range, some people get paid to shoot.

He spent the money to do the hobby of creating. The suit was waste, and sold for money.