Desk Accessories to 3D Print and Sell, Priced as a Set
Twelve desk pieces sliced on our printers, what each costs to make today, and why a matching set outsells the same pieces one at a time.
Desk accessories are one of the steadiest things to 3D print and sell. People look at their desk all day, so they will pay to make it tidier and nicer to look at, and a desk piece is small, light and hard to break in the post. They sell best as a matching set rather than one at a time. Here are twelve desk pieces we have sliced on our own printers, priced live, so you can build a set and see what it costs to make.
Finish for the whole set
4 pieces in the set
- To make
- $14.93
- Printer time
- 3.8 h
- Weight
- 175 g
One parcel for the whole set, where the same pieces sold one at a time are 4 orders, 4 parcels and 4 postage charges.
$24.07 left over after the make cost, before your marketplace’s fees and postage.
Run the fees in the Etsy calculatorEach piece is a real model sliced on our production profile and priced live, with no separate packing fee. Your own designs are priced the same way when you upload them.
The set is the product
A phone stand is a purchase. A phone stand, pen cup and card holder in the same matte colour is a desk.
And afterwardsA buyer who likes the set comes back for the piece they left out. List each piece on its own as well, in the same colours.
Why desks work
- People see them all day
- A desk is where someone works eight hours. A set that makes it tidier is something they notice every day, which makes it an easy purchase.
- They post cheaply
- Most desk pieces weigh under 100 g and are solid shapes with nothing thin to snap. A whole set fits one padded mailer or small box.
- They suit plain colours
- Muted matte tones and black carbon fibre look expensive on a desk. That suits printing, where one material in one colour keeps every order identical.
- Colleagues buy them as presents
- A set in someone’s favourite colour is an easy present for a new job or a desk move. It needs no special season.
Building a set that sells
- One anchor piece
- The phone stand, headphone stand or monitor riser people search for. It carries the listing photo and the title.
- Two or three fillers
- A pen cup, a card holder, a pack of cable clips. Cheap to make, and they turn one purchase into a set.
- One finish
- Pick a plastic and a small range of colours and keep every piece in it. Matte PLA reads as calm; PETG-CF reads as technical.
- One shape language
- The same corner radius, the same chamfer, the same base thickness on every piece. That is what makes a set look designed.
Cable clips and wraps cost little to make and buyers want several. Sell them in packs of five or ten rather than one by one. Copies of a small part share a printer bed, so a pack costs less per clip than a single one does.
Making the designs your own
A plain phone stand is on every model site, which is exactly why it needs something of yours: a distinct shape, a name or initials on the front, a cut-out for the charging cable. If you sell on Etsy, the design has to be your own anyway. You can draw a set in CAD, or describe it to Studio and get printable designs back, one piece at a time in the same style. Before you use a downloaded model, read whether its licence lets you sell prints. For more product ideas with their make costs, see the best things to 3D print and sell and the Make-Cost Index.
FAQ
Phone and headphone stands, pen cups, business card and SD card holders, cable clips and drawer organisers, especially as a matching set in one colour and finish.
Matte PLA for a clean, calm look; standard PLA for the widest choice of colours. PETG-CF for a darker, technical look and a part that shrugs off knocks. Both cost little per gram; most of the cost is print time.
It depends on the pieces. A phone stand takes about an hour and a half on the printer and a card holder under an hour; the calculator above prices each piece, and a whole set, at today’s rates.
Both. Lead with the set, which raises the order value and ships in one parcel, and list each piece on its own for buyers who want to add to it.
List the set. We make every order.
Each piece printed in the same plastic and colour, checked by hand and packed in one parcel under your name, whichever of eleven storefronts it sold on.
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