Only european PLA

I got a 3D printer and so I searched for a reputable filament supplier.

All of them stated “this PLA has European origins”, or “the pellet used for this filament doesn’t come from China, but from Europe”, as if this is a mark of quality. This is why this doesn’t mean anything.

The cost of raw materials

The most popular plastic for 3D printing is NatureWorks PLA 4032D. A 20 kg box costs 140 dollars, 6 euro for each kg. If we order a ton, wholesale, the price is much lower!

This is the price in China:

“Chinese” PLA, chemically identical to the “European” one

22 yuan for 1 kg is around 3 euro, to which you have to add shipping fees. You can’t get shipped 20 kg of plastic pellets with the UPS, or you will pay 300 euro to get 60 euro of raw material! You have to make a LCL (less than a container load) shipping by sea. For my personal experience, shipping 1 cubic meter with LCL, costs around 1000 euro with all various fees.

A cubic meter of PLA weighs 1250 kg, so you have to consider that you’re paying 80 cents for each kg, for shipping.

The “chinese” PLA, is industrially made and it’s absolutely identical to “european” PLA, costs basically the same! They use european PLA, because it’s cheaper and more accessible!

Plastic is cheap, and shipping it between continents is very expensive.

How the filament is made

Moreover, it depends how the filament is made

Which one is better, a  “Made in Italy” filament, made by an amateur in his garage, pulled with a $300 Filastruder, or a “Made in China” filament, pulled in an expensive high-tech factory?

They seem to imply that “made in Europe” equals to say that “it’s premium”, but it doesn’t mean anything.

Personally, I trust more a Chinese factory that has a daily production of thousands of rolls, and so has optimized the process, than a roll “made in Italy” by an unknown entity, without knowing how they make it…

FEClix does not pay

Well, I waited too much time, I officially say that FEClix does NOT pay. I waited 220 days from the withdrawal, while their TOS states “within 20 working days” or something like that. Tickets are being ignored, the forum does not work (at least for me? I’m banned?).

They owe me $10

LOL, this ends my adventure in the “beer money” websites.

I knew from the beginning that they wouldn’t pay, because of this hints:

  1. all the rented referrals they do exactly the same number of actions every day. I mean, exactly. How you can take 100 people at random, and have ALL of them do the exact number of actions, an average of 1.608 daily??? This proves that they are not human, but simulated.
  2. 90% of the actions were just self-promotion, like “vote us on this top 10”, or “visit our forum” – who pays for this? Nobody! Fake money
  3. the admin doesn’t visit the site AT ALL, he still runs automated campaigns like “if you deposit money before the deadline of [6 months ago], we will credit you with extra bonus. At least have the decency to update the deadline. Questions from potential money-making customers like “can I deposit money for ad campaigns” are also ignored.

Frozen account on Poloniex

Yesterday I logged in on Poloniex to see what’s going on my few crypto coins. (Very few ethereum, some euro in Pascal and 400 DOGE).

I am told I have to give name, surname, address, phone number, scans of my id card + a selfie.

I am pissed! I have to give an incredibly large amount of personal data just to withdraw some pennies!!!

Eventually, I comply, and I give them all my data. Today, the suprise: my money is frozen unless I send a selfie with “Poloniex” handwritten on a piece of paper!

WTF??? Does this smell like a scam? Unless I send this questionable selfie, I can’t withdraw anything…

Thinking to the import

Searching ways to become a millionaire (I’m very far to the goal) I found an item that is usually sold in stores for 10 euro tax included.

In Italy you can get this item from wholesalers for about 2.50 euro + tax

But what’s the price in China?

If you search it on Aliexpress you can find it for 2 dollars, free shipping. The shipping is very slow, it takes up to 2 months, if the post office doesn’t lose it.

If you search on Alibaba (that’s a “Wholesale Aliexpress”) you can find it for $0.90 + shipping, with a minimum order of 500 pieces. Shipping is a big fee, because a 500 pcs box weights 20 kg and sending it with a fast delivery like the FedEx costs at least 1000 yuan.

If you search on Taobao (that’s a “Chinese eBay”) you can find them for 4 yuan each, no minumum. If you ask for a quantity discount, you can get them for 3.5 yuan.

So, the prices, converted in chinese yuan are:

  • MSRP in Italy: 60 yuan
  • Wholesale in Italy: 18 yuan
  • Aliexpress slow shipping, 1 piece: 13 yuan
  • An agent sources them for you in China: 5.80 yuan. With 1000 yuan for shipping, its 7.80 yuan each.
  • If you can source them by yourself (you need to speak Chinese): 3.50 yuan; shipped is 5.50 yuan each.

It’s interesting seeing how a product price rises, at each middleman: once the final customer gets in their hand, the price increased ten times!

Of course there’s the problem about how you can sell them in stores: it’s almost impossible to sell 500 pieces at 10 euro each if you are not a big chain, like Target.

Neobux is just a waste of time

With Neobux you can make a lot of money!!!11

I’m sure you read this sentence in a lot of other blogs (because they want to have you as a direct referral). The truth is; it’s just a waste of time. The rented referals they have a very low daily activity, the average can’t pay back the rent price. The automatic recycling of rentals comes after 14 days but… what a “coincidence”, after 13 days they have a small activity, then “die” again after one day. Is that possible??? ALWAYS LIKE THAT????

I wrote on the official forum, asking for explanations. My post was deleted in under one minute, without any further explanations.

What to say? Enough, I withdrew all of them, and game over.

Luckily, they send the money immediately via PayPal, I got them within 15 seconds.

My PTM project is starting!

Did you remember the investment I was introduced to two months ago? Renting a place+machinery, to make some extra money?

I almost cancelled the deal last month when I went to see how the old man was working, and I saw that he was working at 500% his capacity, to produce months and months of “advance” work for my future Customers, attracted by a strong discount.

So, like an idiot, I would have found myself without ordersk for months, and maybe the customers would have asked “everything must go” discounts as he did!

In the end, however, we changed the economic terms, and here I am, ready for this new adventure!

The terms we agreed: € 300 per month for renting this room + several hundred euros of “free” raw materials (ie: as a refund of damages). Regular lease agreement with a duration of 4 years.

The problems started right away: the old man told me “I gonna teach you all about manufacturing” – but he barely just knows how to turn on the machine! The workmanship was totally handled by that employee, who found another job! That’s why even though the processing is “very simple”, he decided to sell everything!

So I had to call that employee and give him 40 euros to have a quick crash course.

Second problem: the work is not “simple” as he stated – the 2-3 hour crash lesson from ex-employee was not enough – I wasted a lot of raw materials to do the experiments! Luckily they were “free”.

So the first month was like this:

Expenses:

  • 300 per rent
  • 40 “lesson”

I got very small orders:

  • 98 euro
  • 40 euro
  • 10 euro
  • 10 euro
  • 20 euro (This was hard! In order to find the right parameters I wasted like 100 euro of materials!!!)
  • 67,5 euro
  • 25 euro
  • 10 euro
  • 150 euro (but also this order was hard, I wasted a lot of stuff……)
  • 90 euro
  • 10 euro
  • 200 euro
  • 30 euro
  • 10 euro

Total for first month: 770,50 euro made, 340 euro spent = 430 euro profit

Not bad!

Neobux: the first 30 days of rented referrals

This is the table of my 12 rented referrals on Neobux.

I did not pay a single dollar from my pocket. For now it seems that it’s possible to earn something, but we are far from the earnings I was told. 14 cents a month do not seem enough to justify a daily login and daily clicks. I will give it another month to see if the click average will rise and then I will decide.

Is it worth to recycle a referral on Neobux?

Take for example this Rented Referral on Neobux. It seems the perfect candidate for a “manual recycle”.

I paid 20 cents to rent it for 30 days. He clicked for 2 days and then disappeared. Having enabled AutoPay, I spent 2 * $0.0057 = $0.0114 to extend for two days his rental.

He made me earn 8 clicks, for $ 0.005 = $ 0.04

If I let it expire, it will cost me:

  • $ 0.20 for initial renting
  • $ 0.0114 for extending rental for two days
  • $ 0.02 for return fee

Total: 0.04-0.20-0.0114-0.02 = a $ 0.194 loss.

But maybe, it could “wake up” and start clicking again.

If I manually recycle it, it will cost me:

  • $ 0.20 for initial renting
  • $ 0.0114 for extending rental for two days
  • $ 0.07 for recycle it

At this point I would have paid 24 cents, but with a “new” referral, with 16 days of rental left.

In a perfect world, this new could make 4*0.005*16= $ 0.32 and I will make money. But it’s not a perfect world. From the averages I saw, it’s going to do 1,5*0.005*16=$ 0.12

So by recycling, if I got an “average” replacement, I would end with a 12 cents loss. And of course I could get a “lazy” one that clicks once every three days, with an higher loss!

If, however, I hope in the free replacement after 15 days of inactivity, however, I would find a new one within 10 days deadline, which, with an average of 1.5 clicks per day, I would yield $ 0.075: the end result would be a loss of 12 cents!

So, after all, in my opinion, is not worth to do manual recycles on Neobux, it’s better to let them expire.