Average ebay prices for Reprap ABS parts kits

I just averaged 5 Reprap ABS parts kits (with extruder parts, with shipping included), by US sellers. The average was $195.50. Clearly if you want to build a Mendel, the price is going in the right direction.

(I paid too much it seems, and had to email after three days to remind the guy to give me a tracking number. My auction was earlier, so it's no longer bringing up the average in my figuring)

(190+187.5+200+200+215)/5=
spans Sep 5-13, run today, 18sep2010
search phrase: (Reprap,Mendel) (Parts,Complete) -thick -"Extruder Parts Kit" -nes
all auctions ended in a sale, none expired without a bid or buy-it-now.

Anyone else have any historic pricing?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2010 11:28PM by pica.

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My blog's Reprap feed: [blog.markbova.com]
I'm currently working on a stock Mendel build with a Seeeduino Mega and four Pololu A4983 stepper controllers.

Don't have the actual numbers, but yes, the price has fell though the floor in the last year. I know for a fact, 1 year ago the plastic bits for Mendel where going for 600+ every week on Ebay, The price propitiously dropped about 6 months ago to about 400 and stayed there for a few months, then about a 2 months ago we experienced this last drop to $200.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

yeah i also just paid $200 for ABS parts (Inc wade's extruder).

Approximately how much do parts weigh? I'm wondering how much raw plastic it takes to build a complete set. i'd weigh them, but i'm half assembled already. i'm thinking the price will settle at: cost of materials + print time + 10%? + shipping.

I got all the parts here in a box, its about 950g for all plastics including Adrian's extruder.

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my blog: [reprap.tman.be]

That is outstanding news. I myself didn't feel anything when I saw Darwin, became a forum member when I heard about Mendel, decided on a repstrap when I saw the prices, Delayed construction due to really lousy documentation [1], and decided to forge on with a standard Mendel when I noted the price drop a month ago.

Having a Reprap right now must seem like having a goose that lays silver eggs, except those eggs are rapidly being debased with copper.

Still, I think if we make some noise about the $200 price / dramatic drop, we may just start getting people with half finished repstraps and people sitting on the sidelines to create some demand for parts.

[1] (from a repstrap point of view, if you've got a working extruder the documentation is actually pretty good and the forum support here is pretty amazing, but if you wanted to know where to drill the holes on your handcrafted MDF replacement parts you really needed to know your way around some software packages)

spacexula Wrote:
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> Don't have the actual numbers, but yes, the price
> has fell though the floor in the last year. I
> know for a fact, 1 year ago the plastic bits for
> Mendel where going for 600+ every week on Ebay,
> The price propitiously dropped about 6 months ago
> to about 400 and stayed there for a few months,
> then about a 2 months ago we experienced this last
> drop to $200.

I got my mendel parts for $375 about four months ago. This is when you would see 1 or 2 medel parts up a week. I also got mine directly from Adrian, so I feel better my money is helping the cause. I have been watching the price drop suddenly in the past month to the 200 dollar mark as well. When a lot of people have the automated build platform, I can see the price go down to 175ish. The only problem I can see with the price dropping more is the quality of the parts might suffer.

Mark

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lousy documentation

I hope you found an answer for the missing pieces and more importantly, you put these snippets into the Wiki. Everybody can edit and enhance the Wiki.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

Maybe the prices falling because many people losing motivation building such a complex (complicate) machine.

currently, the documentation is no worse than any lego kit i got as a kid. those instructions only had pictures, if any of you remember. the mechanical construction is pretty straightforward so far. i expect the software and electronics are a bit harder.

I've been taking pictures as i go when i figure out something that isn't documented. I'll go through those when I'm done and post them to the wiki where appropriate.

If anything I think a "little" more realism is coming into the community. People where spending $400-$600 for the RP parts, then $600-$700 for the rest of the kit for a Mendel.

In the end, if you new to the hobby a $750 Makerbot or $1000 Rapman is a better deal than a $1000-$1200 Mendel, just because the support is better.

Now at $200 for the RP parts, a $800 Mendel is a good value when compared to the Makerbot and Rapman, but it's not THAT much better deal. I still always sugjest people go with a repstrap for their 1st printer, you have to learn so much on the usage end, it's hard to self teach how to build it, then self teach how to run it.

Now if we could get Mendel consistently down to $150 RP, and $450 everything else, then a $600 Mendel is a better deal than the Rep straps, even if you are new.

wowbagger_duv Wrote:
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> Maybe the prices falling because many people
> losing motivation building such a complex
> (complicate) machine.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Well, I stopped building my repstrap, and I started building my Mendel. We'll see if I pick up the repstrap after I start printing.

I think I can document a "semi-strap" where there will be a large amount of the machine fabricated by hand, and only a few "tough" pieces get extruded.

An example of poor documentation: Can you quickly point to where I can find out how far apart, on centers, the overhead tool gantry is? I know it's possible to figure it out, but the average person building from a kit the information is not needed. But it would be useful for someone making a repstrap or a "semi-strap".

If there was an entire machine modeled in something easy to use like Sketch-up, I think you would see a hundred different repstraps extrude, (and no, we would never use this as an excuse to flush out the dissenters, and I'm sure that Adrian is at least seventy-percent right ;-)

I think I remember how to use the tools in Sketch-up to take dimensions off of a 3-d model.

I think an entire set of 2-D part drawings showed up at one point, but by then I was off my repstrap.

Traumflug Wrote:
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> I hope you found an answer for the missing pieces
> and more importantly, you put these snippets into
> the Wiki. Everybody can edit and enhance the Wiki.

I embarked on a repstrap because at the time mendel parts were around $600. Now it's built and works (not at the moment) but i bought all the mendel parts for $100, beacuse that's how much i would pay someone just for the time it takes to get it all together (resin parts, not printed) let alone the cost of the resin. Bargain... saves me a heck of time printing parts. Don't regret making the repstrap at all though because of how much i learnt.

Buback Wrote:
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> currently, the documentation is no worse than any
> lego kit i got as a kid. those instructions only
> had pictures, if any of you remember. the
> mechanical construction is pretty straightforward
> so far. i expect the software and electronics are
> a bit harder.

I have to agree with this. I am close to finished my mechanical construction which I did over the weekend. The main problems I had were where the parts I was using are different to those specified (i.e. new & improved by the community, but not part of the official distribution yet).

As for the electronics, I tinkered with those during my ScrapStrap build and they took about as long to figure out as the complete mechanical assembly.

Of course in my case I had bought the RP parts (from Nophead) & Electronics (TechZone). If you attempt to make either of these yourself then the complexity level does go through the roof, but the same could be said if you tried to make your own Lego kit out of blocks of wood, or a meccano set by manually making all the pieces.

Of course, I'm not done yet, but with all due respect, I think the people who are complaining about complexity were mistaken when they entered into the fray. No-one said this was going to be easy. This is an attempt to lower the barriers of entry. If you want easy then buy a complete kit from someone. "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Craig

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[blogger.kritzinger.net]

yeah i agree Craig.

I've been building computers since the 386 days. Back then (1988) installing a hard drive took all day, if not a weekend. That was with help from my uncle, who worked at NCR (so was a pro). I'd say the reprap project is at a similar stage.

I think if you can't build and fix your own computer you probably shouldn't attempt to build a reprap. there are lots of similar skills, like sourcing parts and troubleshooting problems.

perhaps the pricing formula for RP parts should be: cost of materials + print time cost + profit margin (10%) + premium to filter out those without strong commitment + shipping