The evolution of 3D printing technology has grown significantly since when it was first introduced. 3D printers used to be the most high-end technology you could ever get your hands on. It seemed so surreal. But now, anyone with just $300 can buy a really good 3D printer.
Places like Amazon, Best Buy or Home Depot all have 3D printers you can purchase right now. It is an amazing technology. They are useful for making projects, replacement pieces for various items, toys, dioramas, tools, etc. But unfortunately, that’s where greedy online sellers come into place.
3D-printed items are very fascinating and useful at times, but you need to be careful who you are buying these trinkets from. Take this into consideration: is some random trinket that was printed in five minutes from a stranger’s house REALLY worth your money?
The online shopping world has been invaded by 3D-printed objects. This invasion even happens at physical markets. For example, half of the booths at craft shows are almost guaranteed to have a 3D printed item or two.There is nothing wrong with a few 3D printed items. It is a fun and creative way to make money! But it does start to be harmful if you are creating a farm of quickly made objects that are designed to get the attention of shoppers. The idea of some items are novel and fun, but then again, a metallic wiggly dragon that is 6 inches long with one solid color is absolutely not worth $10 to $20. It actually starts to make someone who owns a 3D printer annoyed.
Think about 3D-printed objects as the hated “AI generated” version of real life objects. Not everything 3D printed is AI generated, but there are a lot of similarities between AI art and printed items. Not much love and effort is required at all, they are used by many to trick others into thinking it is something of higher quality, and they are often based off of a stolen idea. In the world of Etsy.com, 3D printed objects are a very controversial topic. The current rule is not to sell 3D-printed objects unless it is a model that you created and that you printed on your own printer. Clearly it is a very complicated rule that has guidelines, and raises the next point.
Stolen models are a very common problem in the 3D printing world. If you have a 3D printer for yourself, you have to download someone else’s model from a website, edit it to accommodate your printer settings, then you just simply print it out. Now you have your own item for whatever you want to use it for. But this is where a very serious, and fraudulent problem comes into play such as selling these stolen pieces online.
I can’t even imagine how frustrated someone would be if they were feeling generous and uploaded a “free to download” model online, and later on discovered that people were making real money from the model that they put their effort into by printing it out with just one color in literally minutes. This is clearly a huge problem that will need some further review in the near future.
3D printers are amazing inventions, they are a great way to get creative and have fun making your own projects, and with them constantly evolving and becoming more available to everyone around the world, they will skyrocket in popularity.
But this will also lead to the downsides of this insane technology. My advice is just to be very careful online when you come across these creations. Sometimes these listings actually have some work put into them. It could be multiple pieces that the seller glued together and even painted! But you should really, really think twice if you were ever thinking about purchasing a small 3D-printed object with one solid color. Those are the exact type of listings you should stay away from. No one is stopping you or others on the internet from making a little 3D print market, but please, never be the one who abuses that power. My suggestion would be to even get into making your own prints with this technology. It can be a bit pricey when it comes to the necessities like the refill filament and the printer itself, but you can create whatever you want, just like these listings online.
If you come across anything like I’ve covered, be very aware and careful, as it is most likely not worth your money and is a part of a big 3D printer sweatshop.
