I was thinking of getting an item 3D printed recently because they didn’t seem to offer a specific item I wanted anywhere in the stores here. There are a ton of free 3D printing files though that you can print out assuming you have a machine. I don’t and so that led me to try and find a store where I could get it printed. The item was pretty tiny as I just wanted a lens cap for a camera. I don’t really have any knowledge of the pricing though.
When I arrived at the store I was talking to the person who seemed to be the owner. While showing the file that had the item that I wanted to print I was curious as to the cost because I didn’t think it should be much. The person was looking and thinking about it and for a tiny lens cap he quoted it to be about $23. To me that sounded really expensive but I decide to go ahead with it anyways since I needed it.
It got me thinking how I guess in your best interest it’s good to ask ahead of time on for a price list of sorts. Otherwise it could be a situation where the person just throws a figure out there to see if you will bite. Kind of like some night market in many ways. But I guess for me since this is my first experience I will leave it to the businesses to determine if they want my future business so to speak. If I find out I was extremely over charged then to me it was basically a cheap lesson in potentially risking doing something huge with them is the way I see it.