Also good for composting and making room in your recycling bin
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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Selling the actual print is more work than selling the STL.
Oh definitely, I just think it's easier to justify paying for a physical product than it is paying for a single file if you still need to manufacture it yourself. Still a valid business practice, I'm just biased toward "information should be free" and all that.
But it's not just information, someone sat in front of their computer and put the work in to design it, then print it and iterate.
You're paying for that process, and for the time and effort the person took to acquire the necessary skills.
However, there should be a noticeable price difference due to the easy scaling / replicatibility when distributing digital goods.
I'm with you insofar as the final product feels like it should be 3 bucks, not the file.
I replied to another response similar to yours so I won't bore you unless you want to read more, but I mostly agree with what you said and I totally agree that the work itself to create the file is worth compensation. I'm just a penny-pinching bastard who would rather find out if the print is actually good before paying lmao.
Pay-what-you-want, donations, and subsidizing with a higher price for the final product makes more sense to me in terms of these kinds of digital goods, but that's besides the point, and I'm no expert on this kind of thing.
Honestly I'd be willing to pay 5-8 bucks for the final product since it looks more polished than any of the free designs I've seen. But yes, fair points.