People ask this two ways. Some think printed pieces should be cheaper, because it is plastic. Others think they should be more expensive, because it is bespoke. The real answer is more interesting than either.

Time on the machine is the main cost

A medium vase takes somewhere between eight and twenty hours to print. That machine cannot do anything else during that time. Unlike injection moulding, where the second unit costs almost nothing once the mould exists, our tenth unit costs roughly what the first one did. That is the core economics, and it cuts both ways.

Material is real but smaller than you think

Filament is a meaningful cost, especially in the specialty colours and finishes, but for most pieces it is a smaller share of the total than the machine hours. Where material really bites is on large solid pieces, which is why a big sculptural item costs more than its size alone suggests.

Failure rate is a cost nobody talks about

Prints fail. A layer shifts, a part lifts off the bed, a spool runs out at hour eleven. The failed print is filament and machine hours with nothing to sell at the end, and that cost has to live somewhere in the pricing of the ones that succeed. Anyone claiming a zero failure rate is either lying or not printing very much.

What you do not pay for

There is no mould. That is the part worth understanding, because it changes what is possible. Injection moulding a vase means paying thousands up front for tooling before a single unit exists, which is why mass-produced goods come in three colours and one size. We have no such constraint, so there is no minimum order, no setup fee and no reason we cannot print you one in a colour nobody else has asked for.

What that means for you practically

Buying one is not penalised. Buying twelve gets a discount for handling and batching rather than tooling amortisation, which is why our bulk pricing steps are gentler than a factory’s but start immediately.

And because every piece is made after you order it, nothing is discounted to clear stock – there is no stock. What you see is what it costs to make, plus a margin that keeps the machines running and the lights on.

More on how we work: how a design gets made and what made-to-order actually means.