The same object, two very different purchases
Every design on our Our Designs page is available two ways: as an STL file you download from Cults3D and print yourself, or as a finished piece we print, finish and ship. They produce the same object, but they are genuinely different purchases, and the honest answer to which is better depends entirely on who you are. We sell both because we would rather people get the right one than the more expensive one.
What the file actually costs you
The file itself is a few hundred rupees, which looks like the obvious bargain until you count the rest. You need a printer, filament of the right kind — marble PLA for an idol, several colours for a multicolour figure — and the time for a print that may run six to twelve hours. Then support removal, sanding, possibly painting, and the very real chance of a failed print on the first attempt. For someone who already owns a well-tuned printer and enjoys the process, all of that is the point. For someone buying a printer just to make one Ganesha, it is a very expensive Ganesha.
What the finished print gets you
Ordering the print means the tuning, filament choice, supports, failures and finishing are all somebody else's problem — specifically ours, and we do this daily. Multicolour figures arrive in full colour with no painting; idols arrive in marble filament, cleaned and inspected. The price is higher than the file, obviously, but it is the price of the object rather than the price of a project. It also means you can gift it, which is hard to do with an STL.
Who should do which
Buy the file if you own a printer, enjoy tuning it, want to print several copies, or want to modify the model — add a name to the jersey, scale the idol up, print Groot in your own colours. The file gives you that freedom and it is cheap. Order the print if you do not own a printer, want it as a gift, need it finished to a standard, or simply value your weekend. And if you are somewhere in between — you own a printer but the multicolour figure is beyond your machine — buy the files for the simple idols and order the finished multicolour pieces. That is what most of our printer-owning customers do.
