Here's a money maker for those with 3D printers: airless basketballs.

[shattered world]

If you've got a 3D printer, airless basketballs are not only a thing you can print, but they sell for a lot on sites like Etsy.

Here's a free model you can use. Don't even need to design it yourself. https://makerworld.com/en/models/141676-airless-basketball#profileId-1457871

These things are selling on Etsy for like $100 each. Not even kidding, look. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4473530470/willson-3d-printed-basketball-airless

 

[RiskyStuff]

Yeah, yeah.

But can you build a business around it?

I don't see much potential in one model.

Maybe enough to pay rent in some cheap ass country like Poland, but scaling it? You need other machines than 3D printers.

But better is to not do anything if all we have is 1 (one) process.

One model... some Chinese manufacturing company will replicate it and it won't sell well.

Btw, it looks like selling canned air. A famous black hat method.

Balls are stupid and BTB knows about it.

 

[t2van]

Nice share, but like most things, people are flooding it, and the mean price is closer to $54-67 to get closer to that $100 you would need to spend more time on it, then when you compare the higher price items and size vs reviews of the smaller cheaper ones...

There might be a way to use that as a jumping off point and translate it to other sports or some other things like trophy toppers or create a nice wooden base and then 3d print airless players, balls, whatever on top. Add value and carve a micro niche.

 

[RiskyStuff]

Anyways...
Why basketball.
There are cooler sports like lifting heavy weights or masturbation.

You can invent your own sports and have 0 competition - blue ocean, sir.

I don't get it. Not my niche. I always fail hard when I copy people. Only my unique arts turn my energy into beauty and rewards.

 

[GoldenGlovez]

I've done a lot of 3D printing, mostly for hobbyist projects, but have completed some commissions here and there.

By the time you factor in tooling setup/changes, calibration, failed prints (which can easily happen 10+ hrs into a print), post processing (many prints need to be cleaned up), material cost (ABS or PLA isn't exactly cheap), cost of the printer itself and the electricity to run it for hours on end, maintenance, merchant fees, shipping costs and time spent shipping the product, chargebacks/fraud, marketing, customer support, taxes, and so on... you'll quickly find just how insanely razor thin your profit margins, if any, are on a single 3D printed basketball.

This is really only something you'd setup if you have absolutely no other more profitable commissions to take on and the printer is sitting idle. The 3D printing space is an absolutely flooded market nowadays, you most likely aren't making a decent living in it full-time unless you're doing highly specialized prototype printing, e.g medical, automotive, robotics, aerospace designs or have a print farm at scale (and with much more expensive SLS printers).

 

[t2van]

I've done a lot of 3D printing, mostly for hobbyist projects, but have completed some commissions here and there.

By the time you factor in tooling setup/changes, calibration, failed prints (which can easily happen 10+ hrs into a print), post processing (many prints need to be cleaned up), material cost (ABS or PLA isn't exactly cheap), cost of the printer itself and the electricity to run it for hours on end, maintenance, merchant fees, shipping costs and time spent shipping the product, chargebacks/fraud, marketing, customer support, taxes, and so on... you'll quickly find just how insanely razor thin your profit margins, if any, are on a single 3D printed basketball.

Spot on

This is really only something you'd setup if you have absolutely no other more profitable commissions to take on and the printer is sitting idle. The 3D printing space is an absolutely flooded market nowadays, you most likely aren't making a decent living in it full-time unless you're doing highly specialized prototype printing, e.g medical, automotive, robotics, aerospace designs or have a print farm at scale (and with much more expensive SLS printers).

Even if you have one idle and sat there doing nothing with id farm out a prototyping service or something.

There's lots of nifty things you can do with them if you put your mind do it, I always thought with golf if you look at traditional golf tees you can get the plastic raised ones or for marketing printed logos on the tees but half of that goes in the ground.

I thought before how come no one has come up with a way to have a companies logo actually stick from the tee as a promotional item for charity golf days etc so imagine the tee with a nike logo physically stuck on the side etc it won't do much to the tee balance as it goes in the ground anyway.

Not seen anyone do anything like that.