'The 3D Printer' Offers 3D Printer Rentals Now

Remember back when you used to rent video games at the local video rental store? Well now an Australian company s making desktop 3D printers rentable sort of like that, only pricier. The 3D Printer, an online store based in Victoria Australia offers three different printers for weekly rental. These include the UP Plus 2, BEETHEFIRST, and the FlashForge Dreamer. Rates start at 100 AUD a week. Schools can rent the machines for free as long as they pay shipping charges. More details on this service can be found here: http://3dprint.com/17703/rent-3d-printer

Let's here your thoughts on this business strategy. Would you recommend a 3D printer rental?
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/3d2.png

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Originally Posted by Brian_Krassenstein

Remember back when you used to rent video games at the local video rental store? Well now an Australian company s making desktop 3D printers rentable sort of like that, only pricier. The 3D Printer, an online store based in Victoria Australia offers three different printers for weekly rental. These include the UP Plus 2, BEETHEFIRST, and the FlashForge Dreamer. Rates start at 100 AUD a week. Schools can rent the machines for free as long as they pay shipping charges. More details on this service can be found here: http://3dprint.com/17703/rent-3d-printer

Let's here your thoughts on this business strategy. Would you recommend a 3D printer rental?
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/3d2.png

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Having worked for 10 years for Fuji Xerox, if I compare it to say renting photocopiers (which we did for monthly contracts up to 5 year contracts) I can think of probably 15 major things that as far as I can tell, they are not doing that would improve not only their business but the customers side also, shipping the machines is where i'd be starting, and instead of shipping them they would be hand delivered, demonstrations etc..

$100 bucks a week.
Put that money in the bank and in 2 months buy your own printer.
I can see where it might be nice to try before you buy.

But any school accountant that agress to that kind of outlay without ownership needs shooting.

We would be keen to hear any additional strategies you may have for our business if you like please email us. We do already do hand delivery and demonstrations onsite for schools and business' in Victoria unfortunately we cannot offer outside of victoria this service. Maybe in the future we may have representatives in each state of Australia doing this.

The costs we agree are high however the concept is I guess more about a maximum 7 day trial. The pricing is setup to accomadate a very short 7 day trial so as to allow the client the ability to test and proof of concept their idea for the 3D Printer. Considering a once off 7 day loan we think the price is accurate. For longer term rentals or loans we would consider offering them a financed business lease. Unfortunately in Australia to offer these solutions most finance companies require massive turnovers that we are not able to guarantee. We would also like to offer interest free purchasing but again our turnover is not as high as the financial vendors in Australia require.

One last thing. This idea came about because we have something like 10 printers in stock as demonstration units. Their is only so many things we can think of to print with them, so rather than they sit on our shelves and not get used we figured the best use for these machines would be to loan them out and allow schools free loans and business a paid loan. Sometimes we even allow the business' a free loan depending on te nature of the use of the printer.

It will be interesting to see if other companies begin offering such services. Advantage of such a service could be valuable to someone considering a purchase. However, the cost of these rentals will begin adding up if you wish to hold the machine for more than just a week.