Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers  

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

I think, relative to the price of the new kit printers, the upgrade kits are priced how I would expect.

The MK3S+ to MK4S kit keeps only the power supply, heat bed, and frame. Everything else is replaced, and even the heatbed needs the thermistor swapped out by the user. Given that I think $250 off of full price is a pretty good deal. That price makes sense with the rough costs of the individual components you're *keeping* and thus the price relative to the printer as new.

The other kits show a similar price relative to what they have in them.

If you think the kits are too expensive I think what you mean is Prusa's printers are too expensive, but they're a smaller company and Joseph hasn't sold out, so they don't have the advantage of truly large scale manufacturing in a country where labor is cheap.

What you get in return is a printer that's generally higher quality for the specs and requires a lot less fiddling to get it to a good state compared to those much cheaper competitors, because the people making, assembling, and inspecting the components know what they're doing, know what properties of said components are important, and aren't just throwing stuff like warped frame extrusion into the box.

In short, I wouldn't expect them to drop prices significantly unless something major changes with the price of inputs, salaries in the Czech Republic, or something else I'm not thinking of.

RE:

I get tired of people bitching about Prusa prices. Here is a history lesson for the newbies.

Every one of you owe a thank you to Josef Prusa. He invented and perfected more of the 3D printing technology than any other person you can name.

And nobody seems to notice he gives away so.much for free. His dedication to 'open source' means he doesnt drive up prices by patenting the tech he developed. Basically he has taken money out of his own pocket, and given it to his cumt9mers, plus other 3d printer companies and other 3d printer owners. (Here's proof. Why did cheap enclosures take twenty years? Because unlike Josef Prusa, Stratasys patented the idea, price gouging consumers, preventng other companies from selling them.) 

Prusa's designs have been in the public domain meaning his competitors use his ideas to make clones and cheap competing products without investing a penny in the R&D. Prusa doesn't play games like adding RFID to filament to force you to use his expensive product.

He also offers kits so you can save a few hundred bucks, but that's money out of his pocket. Nobody else does that. You can print your own plastic parts for cheap  He also creates an upgrade path for every single version he's made for a decade.You save money by updating just what you need without dumping the old model in the landfill.

His products are not mass produced using slave labor in China, and he pays fair living wages, which cost more.

Some day he will tire of the whining and sell the company to a price gouging company who will patent everything to raise your prices. His Czech people will lose their jobs to Chinese slaves, but raise your prices to pay investors. You will lose cheap upgrades, free membership on Prusa forums, and innovation will be profit-driven instead of user-driven. Do you see big corporations giving away gummy bears? No because they dont case about your happiness, just profits.

Oh yeah. My company tried five more expensive 3D printers before replacing them all with Prusas. Because Prisa products are cheap, reliable.workhorses that dont need babysitting and endless fiddling.

In spite of all that, you whiners have actually fallen for some phony black friday sales gimmic? Really?

I prefer a solid performing printer from an honest company with no need for bogus tricks.

Engineer and old timer, Tom

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

Hi Tom,

You are making some good points about the pricing. The price is the price. If someone wants cheap, buy an ender3. I have spent my time building printers, and I have come to a point where when I take the time to design something, I just want to print it out. Don't get me wrong; I have done the PrintRbot wooden kit in the old 3mm filament, scratch-built, and modified cheap Chinese garbage.

Joseph Prusa's contribution to innovation in 3D printing is truly remarkable, and we can't overlook the pioneering work of Adrian Bowyer, often referred to as the 'father' of 3D printing. Their influence on the field is truly inspiring.

You say you are "old"; may I ask how old? I am pushing 60 myself. 😛

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

I don’t look at price, but cost of ownership.   I had a cheaper initial price printer.   It cost me a lot in time and failure.  Cost of ownership was huge.  My Prusa printer and upgrades have been good.   It is our choice to upgrade.  We aren’t forced into it from lack of support. 

When something doesn’t fit my expectations, the user community has been there with improvements.   I am going to upgrade to the Core One.  Why?  My expectations are changing.  I want to print more of the high heat materials.   Am I upgrading because I am unhappy with the MK4S, no.   Just the opposite.

Black Friday

I am really disappointed with this year black Friday, did not go to sleep saying  I need to make my Black Friday order, now going to sleep without making any order 🙁

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

Thank you about you contribution in the topic guys. You made some solid points, which adjusted my view on the whole situation. Despite of a poll saying otherwise, I think you have lot of wisdom in what you are saying. 

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

I usually just plan on all the stuff I need to stock up on during the year and do a once a year Black friday order because of the free shipping , as this is a killer in South African currency and a massive cost ($1 = R18 (ZAR)) and thus is a massive saving even if I do not get any discounts, and if there is, well awesome. And it gives me an opportunity to spend my Prusa meter vouchers. Are there cheaper brands of printers to buy , of course yes , Ender and Bambu labs are stocked to the brim in our country , but I guess sometimes its like buying a top end vehicle vs a budget vehicle. But like anything in life you either stick to a brand or you don't , and why do you stick to a brand because you know it works .....  and I find the interaction that you get from Prusa is way more than other printer brands and to me that shows they are committed.

Purchase price is not a good way to compare printers...

At a recent event I got to chatting with a couple of other users over an overpriced sandwich and low grade coffee ... memo to self, always take a packed lunch ... we did some ballpark comparisons: (Prices at time of lunchbreak, they are all over the place at this time of year, but close to...)

Purchase:

Bambu multicolour ca £1000

Prusa Mk4+MMU ca £1300

Prusa XL5H + enclosure used *just* for multicolour ca £4300 (if for genuine multimaterial it's a no-brainer automatic win)

Multicolour printing waste:

Bambu wastes 2-7 x the model weight as 'poop' and tower. Lets assume 3x.

Mk4+MMU wastes 1 - 2 x amounts as tower. Let's assume 1.5x.

XL wastes about 0.5% as tower and about 1.5m of the end of each spool in the bowden.

Assume you wish to print 50kg of multicoloured things: Easily done in a year.

Useage:

So the Bambu uses 50 + 3*50 spools = 200 spools

The Mk4+MMU uses 50 + 1.5*50 spools = 125 spools

The XL uses 50 + 3 spools = 53 spools (Perhaps less)

Using reasonable quality filament at about £25 per spool that's

Bambu - £5000

Mk3+MMU - £3125

XL - £1325

So for your first year's production, ignoring all other costs assuming they are equal (they aren't but not very big differences) you have spent

Total:

Bambu £1000+£5000 = £6000

Mk3+MMU £1300+£3125 = £4425

XL £4300+£1325 = £5625

...and Black Friday sales are often disappointing, many companies, not Prusa, simply raise prices for a while in the summer so they can announce reductions in november.  Prices are often lowest at the end of winter when shelves are cleared for the new year's stock.

Cheerio,

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

Your analysis is spot on! I had purchased an MMU2 kit when they were first released. At that time, I had MK3 printers, and they were printing great, so I didn't mess with the MMU. Fast forward through the MK3s upgrade and now the MK4 upgrade, I purchased the MMU3 upgrade to the MMU2. It's been quite a journey, and I'm sure many of you can relate. With the fantastic upgrade of the MK4 and finishing the last upgrade to six printers, I am finally getting to the MMU3. Well, while doing a little research, I discovered that the MMU3 is more efficient in multi-color printing than the Bamboo, as there are countless videos complaining about it. So, your are analysis is perfect and I am purchasing the XL today to take advantage of the free shipping "black Friday offer". 😉

RE: Black Friday or should we say price adjustment for the upgrades for older printers

Follow up on what I said below. I purchased the XL with 2 heads. 😎 😎 

Posted by: @foxboroman

Your analysis is spot on! I had purchased an MMU2 kit when they were first released. At that time, I had MK3 printers, and they were printing great, so I didn't mess with the MMU. Fast forward through the MK3s upgrade and now the MK4 upgrade, I purchased the MMU3 upgrade to the MMU2. It's been quite a journey, and I'm sure many of you can relate. With the fantastic upgrade of the MK4 and finishing the last upgrade to six printers, I am finally getting to the MMU3. Well, while doing a little research, I discovered that the MMU3 is more efficient in multi-color printing than the Bamboo, as there are countless videos complaining about it. So, your are analysis is perfect and I am purchasing the XL today to take advantage of the free shipping "black Friday offer". 😉