You have to compare that to the other options. Protomold starts at $1500, they have a different business but somewhat comparable. Makerbot has some options fo

You have to compare that to the other options. Protomold starts at $1500, they have a different business but somewhat comparable. Makerbot has some options for cheap, but you are still paying in the thousands. Commercial rapid prototyping machines are tens of thousands and up. Online CNC places charge roughly the same price as Shapeways for much simplier parts that I can make on a mill in a half hour. So for net shape parts with fine detail in low quantities, shapeway has my business. For larger quantities, I'm going to protomold. I am unfamiliar with the details of Shapeways offerings, but it might be cheap enough that a company would not buy a rapid prototyping machine and prefer to just buy things through Shapeway and have them overnighted. If you don't do it that often, it might be worth it.