sharing my website

Hey guys I'm a new user coming to the 3d printing realm. I've been looking to get into 3d printing for a while now but everything out there online is very unorganized mainly because of the variety of products available and a HUGE bloom in the 3d printing industry so that's all understandable. Sure, there's Google and amazon and 3ders and a few other sites if you want to search, but still you wonder how many 3d printers are out there that I actually have not seen that I would want if I knew it existed? The only way to know is to research.

You do a "3d printer" search on google and a random list of 3d printers pop up anywhere from kits to assembled printers to professional printers to others. All these printers are profoundly different in their own ways. The prices are different some ranging from $500 (printer kits) to $5000+ (home use professionally built). 3d printers are all different, some are un-assembled 3d printer kits to delta printers (which have a non moving platform bed for printing) to wooden 3d printers etc. You do another "3d printer" search on amazon and you're fed with a huge variety of 3d printers once again.

http://s28.postimg.org/u05mh6jsd/Scr...2_31_31_AM.png http://s28.postimg.org/nnqh7cgq5/Scr...2_31_52_AM.pnghttp://s28.postimg.org/ptks1uk6l/Scr...2_32_13_AM.png http://s28.postimg.org/xnldn8rzh/Scr...2_40_18_AM.png

The point is: there's a whole lot of different printers. From wood, to metal, to kits, to fully assembled professional ones. There's also a sizable variety of filaments including the original ABS to biodegradable materials (PLA) to flexible materials (PET), just to name a few.

I found it really hard to actually choose from the many printers available and filament , so I decided that I'll organize a site kind of like a directory list for 3D printers and filaments into categories to that made sense to me and hopefully to everyone else that uses the site well.

I'd like to share my site with you: > filamentx.com < I hope it helps. Thanks for reading and have a nice one.

I am curious how a newcomer to 3D Printing establishes a list of the "Most Popular" Printers and Filaments? Is it because those are the ones you are selling? I think there are a lot of people in the field, that have been working with 3D Printers for years, that might not agree with your selections? Not trying to slam your business model but I prefer to buy from vendors with experience and knowledge of the product they are selling, that way they can give me support and suggestions when I encounter a problem with their product.

Hi Bruce,

Can I ask, do you actually stock any printers? or do you just order one from the cheapest place you can find and have it shipped directly to the customer?

@JohnA136: First off, I would like to start by saying Thank You because you actually took the time to go onto my site and give me critical feedback, which I do appreciate. I understand there are a lot of questions regarding my site and I'm going to do the best I can do answer them. I also understand many experienced 3d printer users may not necessarily agree to the list, but hopefully after my explanation as to how I concluded the non-finalized list of the most popular, it'll give you a better idea on how I got to the list. The list was generated using reviews online and I populated the list with printers that were available to my site at the time and that I felt should be placed on the list. Clearly, the most popular list is not finalized or complete by any means and will constantly be updated. Like with any new field you go into, you start by learning, reading, making mistakes and re-learning and talking so I'd like to see this as part of the process. Can you suggest some 3d printers & filament that may among your popular selection?

@Geoff: The printers are actually stock from vendors on Amazon and the price of the products listed are always the lowest possible we can find.

I appreciate those of you who have checked out the site, and I will be updating the site as frequently as I can to suit the needs of my users. Thanks again.

Bruce, the next issue of MAKE magazine will have their annual 3D Printer Shootout, a comprehensive 3 day trial of some of the newest and best selling printers available today. It may prove helpful in you deciding what types and brands to offer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce3D

@JohnA136: First off, I would like to start by saying Thank You because you actually took the time to go onto my site and give me critical feedback, which I do appreciate. I understand there are a lot of questions regarding my site and I'm going to do the best I can do answer them. I also understand many experienced 3d printer users may not necessarily agree to the list, but hopefully after my explanation as to how I concluded the non-finalized list of the most popular, it'll give you a better idea on how I got to the list. The list was generated using reviews online and I populated the list with printers that were available to my site at the time and that I felt should be placed on the list. Clearly, the most popular list is not finalized or complete by any means and will constantly be updated. Like with any new field you go into, you start by learning, reading, making mistakes and re-learning and talking so I'd like to see this as part of the process. Can you suggest some 3d printers & filament that may among your popular selection?

@Geoff: The printers are actually stock from vendors on Amazon and the price of the products listed are always the lowest possible we can find.

I appreciate those of you who have checked out the site, and I will be updating the site as frequently as I can to suit the needs of my users. Thanks again.

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Thanks Bruce,

I do like the site, it is laid out fairly well, the only thing that struck me odd was the price of the Kossel mini kits you are selling, which all but one seem to be over $1000.. which for current amazon value is a little high, about twice as high for a couple of the models. So your site I assume keeps populating itself with new suggestions and types of printers, but how does it ensure the RRP prices shown are actually the best or current?

I know the type of printer is important to a new buyer, but also just as important is the cost, and I suppose if I was going to offer you any of my insignificant advice it would be to get that part of the backend a little more in check. I know you are not setting the prices yourself, but if your site is in the genuine interest of helping new people to find the printer they want or get into it (which I think is a good thing of course) then those prices need to consistently reflect the current market standard for that printer. That's hard I know, especially the way things are fluctuating at the moment but it's part of the game I guess.

Could you just clear up one thing, if someone orders from you, are they ordering from you? or are they re-directed to the Amazon listings?

i.e I add an item to cart, when my payment is processed, who processes that payment? who organises the delivery etc?

@JohnA136: I appreciate the suggestion, I'll take a look.

@Geoff: Thanks for the feedback Geoff, I'm glad to hear you like the site layout. The site does not populate itself with new suggestions and prices of products. It is done manually in bulk increments and for that reason it does not always reflect accurate pricing. Only during checkout process, the prices will be most accurate and updated. The prices you see on the Delta printers are the lowest prices available using our current integration on behalf of Amazon's database. I only have 4 delta printer listed because those are all the ones I was able to generate using the list available at the time. I will try to update the 3d printer lists as often as I can to provide a wide variety of newer products when they are available. As of today, the lowest delta printer price available offered on my site is ~$598 for an unassembled kit. The other 3 delta printers are listed anywhere from $1176 - $1499. Keep in mind those are very different printers in terms of machine size and print build volume.

To address your question about the backend, my site is organized into categories of 3d printers types and filament types and using the system to generate the product's lowest prices available on Amazon, therefore always ensuring lowest price available using our current database of products which is limited to Amazon at the moment. The challenge is generating more products from third party sites such as Google shopping or other e-commerce stores and reflecting their prices along with amazons prices as well. That will definitely take a lot more work but at the moment, the products and prices are sourced from amazon. FilamentX.com does not ship any orders and products are shipped via vendors/sellers of the product.

FilamentX's purpose is to provide a site that is organized in a way that makes sense and give users a valuable 3d printer shopping experience, kind of like a directory for 3d printers/filament that showcases the different types of 3d printers available and filaments available on the market but at the same time function like a web store so that the user can purchase an item if they are interested.

Here is a direct link to tthe delta printers I currently have as of today: http://www.filamentx.com/product-cat...a-3d-printers/

I hope this helps and I would appreciate any other feedback/comments/questions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce3D

@JohnA136: I appreciate the suggestion, I'll take a look.

@Geoff: Thanks for the feedback Geoff, I'm glad to hear you like the site layout. The site does not populate itself with new suggestions and prices of products. It is done manually in bulk increments and for that reason it does not always reflect accurate pricing. Only during checkout process, the prices will be most accurate and updated. The prices you see on the Delta printers are the lowest prices available using our current integration on behalf of Amazon's database. I only have 4 delta printer listed because those are all the ones I was able to generate using the list available at the time. I will try to update the 3d printer lists as often as I can to provide a wide variety of newer products when they are available. As of today, the lowest delta printer price available offered on my site is ~$598 for an unassembled kit. The other 3 delta printers are listed anywhere from $1176 - $1499. Keep in mind those are very different printers in terms of machine size and print build volume.

To address your question about the backend, my site is organized into categories of 3d printers types and filament types and using the system to generate the product's lowest prices available on Amazon, therefore always ensuring lowest price available using our current database of products which is limited to Amazon at the moment. The challenge is generating more products from third party sites such as Google shopping or other e-commerce stores and reflecting their prices along with amazons prices as well. That will definitely take a lot more work but at the moment, the products and prices are sourced from amazon. FilamentX.com does not ship any orders and products are shipped via vendors/sellers of the product.

FilamentX's purpose is to provide a site that is organized in a way that makes sense and give users a valuable 3d printer shopping experience, kind of like a directory for 3d printers/filament that showcases the different types of 3d printers available and filaments available on the market but at the same time function like a web store so that the user can purchase an item if they are interested.

Here is a direct link to tthe delta printers I currently have as of today: http://www.filamentx.com/product-cat...a-3d-printers/

I hope this helps and I would appreciate any other feedback/comments/questions.

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Thanks for the reply Bruce, that clears it up, personally, as a consumer I think I'd prefer to deal directly with the vendor, especially after experience with re-sellers in the past - if I had only contacted the supplier in the first place I could have saved myself hundreds. :D But all the best, there is much competition out there.

@Geoff: There are different types of consumer. I understand that as a consumer, you are seeking for products according to price and getting the lowest priced product is important to you. However, to new consumers I think figuring out exactly which 3d printer is best suited for them is the challenge as there are many variety of 3d printers and many variety of filaments. Using my site, you are directly dealing with the sellers in the amazon marketplace and the site actually pulls information from amazon without any markup on prices. Regardless if the site is updated to the second, the customer using our site will receive the final price while they checkout on amazon which could either be higher, lower, or the same as our listed price. I do not resell or mark up any price for a profit. For example: if my site lists a product for $100 and redirects to amazon for $90, the customer would pay that price and vise versa.

I think if you want to save money, you should contact the supplier directly. But like I said earlier, the point of FilamentX is to provide some value in the 3d printer shopping space in terms of organizing products into categories and providing useful information on 3d printing. The goal is to ultimately strive to make the shopping experience more valuable for the customer, not so much about finding the lowest cost 3d printer/products but helping the customer find the right 3d printer/products.

I hope that helps and makes more sense.