Fully concur with Jon:

1. Large-format commercial grade 3D-printers would be required to print a full model ship kit. We don't use them because here in the US they are simply unaffordable. And generally, most large-format printers are made in China anyway so the likelihood of us ever being able to buy a large-format resin printer is rapidly approaching zero.

2. 3D-printed models made by Chinese competitors typically have tell-tale signs that the CAD file the model was printed from was converted from a computer gaming file. Thus, the model itself is not an original design painstakingly made from costly and time-consuming original research by the vendor who is printing and selling the model.

Some of our own thoughts and observations:

While converting gaming files for 3D printing may be legal in some locations outside the US, it certainly isn't here in the US, nor in our opinion is it at all ethical. We don't rip gaming files and we wouldn't.

From time to time, a customer in China, and elsewhere, too, would purchase an unusually large sample of our products. The composition of the order tended to indicate that the purchase was for research or other purposes not related to someone actually making models with our products. Although I cannot say with any certainty that our products are being copied by others, I would not be surprised if that were happening.

If that were happening, it would deprive of us of the revenue we earned through original design and research.

And lastly, we are just now starting to feel the impact of tariffs. Sales to customers outside the US are way off and decreasing rapidly. The biggest drop so far are sales to valued customers in Canada and Denmark which have fallen to nearly nothing. Since a third of our sales are to international customers, we are deeply concerned.

In the last week, we have had unopened packages returned to us from international customers in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium, who declined to pay the taxes imposed on them. Although this happens occasionally, perhaps once or twice per year, 6 in one week is extraordinarily unusual. A significant volume of returned packages is not economically sustainable for us.

We would also like to point out that all of our 3D printers, their associated consumables, the packing materials we use, and even the software we use for printing, all originates in China. High quality, affordable 3D printers and resins simply are not made in the US. As the effects of the tariffs take hold, we will have to make some changes to our operations in order to stay in business. We deeply regret to say that some of those tariff-response changes may include further price increases.