Like for all other businesses, early business adopters often make the mistake of trying to make money and that is not the name of the game at that stage.
What you want is gain market share and stay on top of the technology.
I was in that game in the early 1990s with Internet Service Providers (ISP).
The game is to have clients and have current hardware (that sometimes meant changing servers every nine months!), then you could try to make money and compete or get bought-out for your hw and clients pool.

Cheers,

a.

As I mentioned, there was a big change in FDM (filament) printers in late 2023. The jump was mainly speed - insanely fast! This was feasible by software as well as making the print head and mechanisms much lighter. My last one, not a year old, is at least four times the speed and more accurate than my previous two, about five years old.
Lew
Florida ⛱️, USA 🇺🇸

Sorry to hear this. I’m MA all but one hobby shop has gone. I’m buying old kits n building them. On line mostly. The last hobby shop here was in Marlboro. The owner couldn’t get a buyer. I even tried but no bank would help. When he closed he gave me a few nice large kits n I bought others at his cost. We have one Rc store in FoxBoro and a plastic kit shop near there. When my kids were on tour with band in Europe n Australia I had them look for kits. I got a 3D printer from grandson as he had no interest anymore. Built parts with it for some ships. I tried an airplane but it took forever for a part to print. It is expensive n as you say China you cant compete with. It is sad the company is going away.

Thanks for your post Lew.
Sadly I was aware of the Shapeways disaster (pricing their way out of business) as many of the truly talented printers have been going solo and posting their wares on places like FB. "Holden8702," who has one of the largest, military and marine figure databases of them all is still is business. His FB page is below.

ETSY has also become a landing destination for many (like Brian at MidWestRail) and have chosen to make this their chosen field and are continually expanding their offerings. So let's not give up the ship, as it were.
😉

Holden8702 as mentioned...

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=holden8702

In case no one heard, Shapeways is out of business. "Shapeways has ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy."

I have mixed feelings about this.

Pros:
Shapeways has impacted model building in a positive way. It made parts available for those that needed something special. It gave the model building community an opportunity for designers to create objects (propellers, figures, guns, and much more) and have a store front on their site so they could reap some profit for their creations. Over the years I made about $600 US, but I kept my profit margin to about 10% while other would typically run 100-200% profit.

Cons:
Shapeways operation was expensive thus passing the cost for the parts was passed on to the customers. Their printing machines could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Toss in skilled labor and materials, rent and other operating fees.

Why?
During the past two years I complained about the value of the parts produced. We are all used to paying say $40 US for a nice molded kit. To replicate that in 3D printing (for comparison purposes) the cost would be about three times as much.
Add to this is China moving into the business. Here I can make a direct comparison. I had a printed circuit design business 25 years ago. When the design and production moved to the other side of the globe I had to shut down. There were 29 printed circuit production companies in the Tampa Bay area. I believe only one is still in business.
Lastly, home 3D printer prices have remained stable while the quality and speed has risen significantly. In 2023 alone there was a massive jump in speed and accuracy in FDM printers for the home. Not only that, new, hi-tech materials are coming out often.

I have been following 3D printers since the early 1990's,over 30 years. The first 3D printer I saw was printed full sized mock ups for missiles -rockets.

Oops, my 3D printer just beeped, a new part just finished!

Lew
Florida 😎, USA❤️