On the other side of the coin, I don't mind sharing a few statistics from my shop.
Of the 235 items in my
shop, 36 have never sold. Interestingly enough, most of those unsold items are enlargements or changes requested thru members of the Shapeways forum that never turned into sales, many due to price expectations.
For the core set of models (the other 200), I've sold over 3,500 in three years, and the total markup collected so far doesn't equal ONE of my monthly DayJob paychecks. (I think I'll keep my day job.)
From my shop, 5 models have sold more than 100 units, 40 models have sold more than 20 units each.
The two models yeilding the highest total markup to date have been:
Rebel Switcher ($112 in markup so far)
GM Fishbowl Bus ($110 in markup so far)
Some of the models I have took as many as 40 hours to draw. If it has netted me only $100 in sales, that means I'm making about $2.50 per hour. There's a bunch of models that have only netted me $5 total markup... that's about $0.12 per hour.
I Think I'll Keep My Day Job.
But... never misunderstand me.. working with Shapeways and offering these items has been
EXTREMELY rewarding. I get an incredible sense of fulfillment when I see one of my items sitting on someone's train layout.
And, the markup I've collected so far has helped me amass quite a little pile of items here on my own train layout. For me, that's what it's all about.