Selling 3D Prints at Craft Fairs and Markets
How much stock to bring, what it costs as one run, and how many sales cover it, before you load the car.
A craft fair or weekend market is the one place a made-to-order shop needs stock on hand. People buy what they can hold, and they buy it that day. Bring too little and you sell out by noon; bring too much and your margin sits in boxes in the car. The way through is to order the table as one run, in the quantities each design is likely to sell, and to know before you set up how many sales cover the stock.
What goes on the table
- Keychain tag3 g · 12 min$0.51 each
- Coaster22 g · 33 min$1.67 each
- Succulent pot35 g · 48 min$2.53 each
- Ring dish30 g · 42 min$2.35 each
- Phone stand72 g · 94 min$5.40 each
- Business card holder34 g · 47 min—
- Plant label8 g · 18 min—
- Bag clip8 g · 20 min—
- Items
- 120
- Stock costs
- $207.78
- Printer time
- 67 h
Sell 18 of the 120 to cover the stock. Everything after that is margin, before the table fee and your time.
Each line is one design in one colour, priced as copies that share a printer bed, with the $2 order minimum applied once. PLA Basic at today’s rates; delivery of the stock is quoted at checkout.
What the run teaches you
At a market, cheap fast-moving pieces pay for the table. The bigger pieces are the profit.
Why it is cheaperCopies of one design that share a printer bed cost less each: labour drops 10% from the second copy, 20% from the fifth and 30% from the tenth.
Planning the table
01
Pick a range, not a catalogue
Five to eight designs in a few colours look deliberate. Fifty designs in one of each look like a jumble sale.
02
Bring small and impulse-priced pieces
Keychains, coasters and small pots sell to people who stop for a minute. They are the bulk of what moves.
03
Bring a few showpieces
A tall vase or a large planter draws people to the table, even if fewer sell.
04
Order early
A full table is a lot of printer time. Our default table here is about 67 hours; runs past roughly two days of printing take as long as their print time, so order two weeks ahead and confirm the date.
On the day
- Price in round numbers
- Round prices such as $5, $10 and $15 make change easy and are quick to say. Bundles, three for $10, help small pieces move.
- Take card payments
- A phone card reader costs little and stops you losing sales to people without cash.
- Collect the next order
- A card with your shop link and a QR code turns a browser into an online buyer next month. Personalised items can be ordered there and made to order.
- Write down what sold
- Keep a tally by design and colour. It is the best guide to the next run and to what to list online.
What sells at a table is a good test of what to list online. The best sellers can go up on Etsy, Shopify or TikTok Shop and be made to order from then on, with no more stock to carry. For product ideas with their make costs, see the Make-Cost Index, keychains to sell and planters to sell. For bigger runs, see placing a wholesale order.
FAQ
Enough of the fast, cheap pieces to sell all day and a few showpieces. Work out how many sales cover the cost of the stock before you go; the calculator above does it for your mix.
Small, impulse-priced pieces people can pick up and pay for on the spot: keychains, coasters, small planters, ring dishes, and personalised items you can take orders for.
Order the whole table as one run. Copies of one design in one colour get a quantity discount, and the order arrives as one shipment.
About two weeks. A full table can be several days of printer time, and runs with more than about two days of printing take as long as their print time to make.
Stock the table in one order.
Every design printed, checked by hand and packed in one shipment to you, priced per part in seconds. Larger runs are quoted and scheduled.
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