German printer owners pay twice: once for the power, once for the paperwork.

Filament is competitive: 15 to 25 euros a kilo for PLA, with the German and Dutch sellers shipping next day. That is 1.5 to 2.5 cents a gram, so around 1 to 1.75 euros of plastic in a 70 g part.

Electricity is the German problem. Eurostat had household prices around 39 cents a kilowatt hour in the second half of 2025, second only to Ireland. A five-hour print at 120 W is 0.6 kWh, about 23 cents. A machine running most evenings costs 50 euros a year or more to feed.

At German prices, an enclosure pays for itself twice: the bed stops fighting a cold room, and the print stops warping. Measure first with a Zwischenstecker meter rather than trusting anyone's estimate, ours included.

Eurostat put the EU average household electricity price at about 29 cents a kilowatt hour in the second half of 2025, with Ireland and Germany highest at roughly 40 and 39. Your own tariff is the only one that matters, so take it off your bill, or put a 10-euro plug meter on the printer for a week.

DHL's tiers are unusually decisive for a printer: the small Päckchen rate and the Paket rates sit far enough apart that a part which fits the smaller box is a different business from one that does not. Hermes and DPD undercut on some lanes, and the comparison sites are worth a look before you commit to a carrier.

• Design to the box, not the plate. Splitting a part so it fits the cheaper tier is usually worth more than any slicer optimisation.
• Buy labels online. Counter prices at the Filiale are the worst rate available.
• Packstation drop-off removes the queue, which is the real cost once you send a few a week.

Selling printed goods regularly is a Gewerbe, not freelance work, so the order is: register at the Gewerbeamt, then complete the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung for the Finanzamt. It is a modest fee and an afternoon, and it is not optional once you are trading rather than occasionally selling off a shelf.

• Kleinunternehmerregelung (section 19 UStG). Below 25,000 euros of turnover last year and 100,000 this year, you charge no VAT and your invoices carry the section 19 note. Cross 100,000 and the status ends immediately, not at year end.
• Gewerbesteuer. There is an allowance of 24,500 euros of profit a year before trade tax applies, so a side income rarely meets it.
• Einkommensteuer. The VAT exemption changes nothing here: profit is still declared, with an EÜR.

Figures checked in October 2026 and not advice. Ask the Finanzamt or a Steuerberater, especially about whether your selling counts as a Gewerbe yet.

Germany's size cuts both ways. There are more buyers than anywhere else in Europe and more sellers competing for them, so the generic categories on Etsy and eBay Kleinanzeigen are brutal. What is not brutal is industrial-adjacent work, because German small manufacturing is everywhere and values a part that arrives this week over one that is cheap.

Jigs, fixtures, machine guards, spares for equipment past support, parts for the Modellbau and RC scenes. Dull, specific, repeatable — and the buyer compares your price with their downtime, not with a marketplace listing. See what actually sells.