The same people that still believe a $49 printer is realistic will also complain that assembled printers are way overpriced.
Point in case: The @LulzBot Mini, a $1,250 printer. Its parts only cost $608.82 (http://devel.lulzbot.com/mini/general/mini-basic-bom.ods), so are they really sacking the other $641.18? (they’re not)
And a lot of that overhead cost is of fixed cost, like marketing, legal, certifications (CE / UL, http://devel.lulzbot.com/mini/daffodil/production_docs/CE_docs/Aleph%20Objects%20-%20EMC%20Emissions%20Test%20Report.pdf), documentation, quality assurance, customer support and just general costs of running a company properly. Once you start going cheaper, you will need to toss some of those out of the window.
+Peter van der Walt i actually prefer cheap kit with no warranty or support but an active forum/community. That said, I do not like the sub 100$ printers, some of them are actually feasible, but the speed and/or precision you will get will make you wish that you went with a 300$ printer + 100$ mods.
This is actually very normal/healthy bussines model. 45% of the end price is material/labour cost of the product, while 55% covers all the rest, guaranties, R&D, marketing, … and of course keep company alive. This is why they are succesful in what they do.
It is a simple “you get what you pay for” translation once you drop below a few hundred dollars. At some point you have to say is it really worth it?
A 50.00 3pd is just part of the evolution of the industry. It has happened before and it will again, that’s how we are. Because of open-source anybody can do it and sell but those prices will only come as standard when manufacturing in series come yo play of hundreds of thousands of units. Or do HP, Cannon eat make money out of their 2D printer?
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty that’s exactly it… HP doesn’t make money on their cheap printers, they make it on the consumables that are overpriced. A number of failed 3d printer manufacturers tried that and we (at least I…) Won’t support the model where you have to buy their cartridges of filament. That is a non starter except for the toy printers that completed newbies might buy.
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty HP, Canon etc literally lose money on many printers they sell because they are betting on the consumers coming back and buying their overpriced ink or toner. This is what’s knows as the razors-and-blades business model, and it doesn’t really work for 3D printers when you can use basically any filament from any manufacturer. 2D printer manufacturers have strong DRM and patented features built into their cartridges to keep white-label manufacturers from cloning them.
@Stephen_Shimatzki at the moment nobody will support it but in the future that may change. Now 3dp user base is really small. Forward to 10 years and thing will be different. Average Joe wants simpler stuff just to press and play
@Thomas_Sanladerer we all want it to stay like that but business go’s first. Failed attempts to standardized was because only the infancy of the industry and the size of it.
I guess I’d rather people stay out because the costs are too much because I think many of the same people will complain it’s too frustrating. There’s a lot of room for improvement yet in many areas and costs are but one factor that needs improvement.
Let’s be honest for a moment here… when you look at filament costs, printer component/upgrade costs (for non-garbage hardware), etc, 3D printing is a pretty expensive hobby. Particularly if you end up with multiple printers, like anybody serious about it eventually does. 3D printers are CNC machine tools used for frickin’ high-tech digital fabrication. People who want it dirt cheap have unrealistic expectations, plain and simple. You might get the initial hardware cheap, but you’ll burn multiple rolls of filament and dozens of hours of troubleshooting time on failed prints. It’s cheaper in the long run to buy something halfway decent up front. Or you’ll give up and instead of a $600 printer that gives thousands of service hours, you’ll get a $200 printer that gives less than a hundred before being scrapped/overhauled/upgraded. What’s your cost per print turn out to be?
I will never pay more then $400 for a printer. And I’ve only bought 1 printer and it’s great for me. I’ll actually never buy another printer, only building from here on out. In the long run I may run that price range for mods or testing higher quality parts but this is just a hobby and good project kill for me so I’m not interested in a printer that’s $3000 just to make my accurate range go down 100 microns .
Really, only 50℅ mark up on bom. That is actually a pretty good deal.
Realizing that bom doesn’t include shipping(ie the parts to the seller), design cost, packing cost, real estate cost (like having an office), wages, or other expenses.
Most small volume products (less than a million) require the bom cost to be a much lower percentage of the sales price.
@Nathan_Walkner take your build/planning time and multiply that by your wages. Now add that to the cost of the printer
@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty good insight.
@Nathan_Walkner yes, but lulz bot isn’t. They do this for a job. So when you say "I can build it for 1/3 you need to include the same variables.
It is like saying I can finish a marathon in 30 minutes, when I use my car.
@Nathan_Walkner include your hours, is it still cheaper if you sell it
/subscribe
@Camerin_hahn he’s not going to answer about his time. I wish he knew how to build networks, maybe I could sell some of his time to my customers for say $75/hour and I wouldn’t have to pay him anything because his time isn’t worth anything to himself, to me it would be worth $75/hour. So he must be good with that, right? 
My time at home is worth more than my time at work because there is much less of it. I work a full time job. Then another “full time” job with my partner in our own business. So it is worth it for me to buy my printers instead of making them! That way I actually have time to print things. I agree that you are an idiot if you think you can get a printer for under a $100. I paid ten times that and love what I got.