In March of 2021 our family received a 3D printer from family as a gift (Hi Jack and Kelsey!). We were amazed that we could download a digital file from the internet, and then print and hold a fully three-dimensional item in our hands within minutes. It was like magic.
August and I opening the box to our printer and beginning the assembly process.
After having a lot of fun downloading and printing other people’s designs, we quickly became interested in designing our own items and printing them. My youngest son had the idea to design and print our own custom boxes to hold our Pokemon cards (a favorite hobby of ours).
I took the reins of the 3D CAD software, and my two boys took on the role of creative director. We’d work on a design together, print it out, and then critique it. What if we added a lid?! What if it had our names on it?! What if it looked like a Pokéball?! What if it had magnets that held it shut?!
Before we knew it, we had spent the better part of a spring break staycation creating over two dozen iterations of our little Pokemon card box. And at that point, it had turned out pretty cool!
The final iteration of our Pokemon card box
Proud of our creation, we started printing lots of them for our large collection of cards, and to give to our friends. It was at this point that Erin said “these are so awesome you guys could sell these!”
I had heard of Etsy. And I have always been interested in small mom-and-pop online businesses. So I did a little research, spent a few hours whipping up a simple brand, dusted off my old DSLR to snap a few product photos, and launched our Etsy shop.
The homepage of our Etsy store.
We got our first order within 24 hours of opening! And it was from a person in Australia. Australia! We were absolutely giddy thinking about how a thing we made was going to be sent through the mail to someone literally on the opposite side of the planet to hold their prized Pokémon cards. Amazing!
We ended up shipping exactly 100 total orders that year. And that success inspired us to create other products that aligned with our interests. We’ve created and listed over a dozen more products in our shop since then. Mostly catering to folks with nerdy interests like ours. Our best seller is a case that holds cartridges for the original Gameboy.
Our most popular item is a case for holding original Gameboy cartridges. It’s a variation of our original design for our Pokemon card boxes.
Here’s some fun facts about our little Etsy shop since it opened in March of 2021:
66,800 people have visited our shop
We’ve shipped 1,259 orders
481 people have left a review (averaging 5 stars!)
We’ve shipped to 23 different countries
Generated over $38,000 in revenue
A popular narrative is that you can get absolutely filthy rich by spinning up an Etsy shop. That might be true, but in our experience, it’s not something to get into if you’re looking for a big bump in your income. After you account for all of our expenses (Etsy fees, sales tax, shipping fees, materials), we only keep about a third of that total number. So, we’re talking like $3,000 per year. That is for many, many hours of work. Some people might be getting rich with their 3D printing side hustle. But it’s certainly not us.
We seem to have found a niche in obsolete media. After our Gameboy cartridge holders took off, we created cases to hold MiniDiscs—a short-lived music format from the 90s. We just launched this product, and it’s been very popular!
But more than the money, the real value has been in all of the lessons we’ve learned from this little hobby of ours. It’s taught our boys about what it takes to run a business (in addition to their role as creative directors, they also help out with fulfilling orders on occasion). We’ve learned the fundamental principles of 3D product design and how to use CAD software. It’s reinforced for me as an advertising agency owner that branding is important and that advertising works (experimenting with content marketing, we had a social post go viral and generate $800 in sales in a single day). And finally, it’s just plain fun to make and send people stuff that we created.
If you made it this far, thanks for your attention and allowing me to share this fun story. Whenever I meet new people, this is always the story that fosters the most connection. You can check out our shop at: https://murrayandsons3d.etsy.com