Official Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Fully Open Source with Resume Printing Function DIY Printers Build Volulme 8.66x8.66x9.84 inch

Any printer, correctly tuned, and with the correct speed, can produce almost the same level of prints. The issue is the effort involved in that. The issue with Ender's is that they are an old design, with old parts, and they don't offer the modern quality of life things that newer printers have, and they are not that much cheaper than the newer printers. This was the cheapest Ender 3 that I could find ($180). It's the most barebone printers you can get, still using Bowden setup, instead of direct driver, and there's not a single quality of life in it, not even automatic bed leveling. For literally $40 dollars more ($220), which is two or three filament rolls, you can get the Ender 3 V3, which arguably is a WAY better printer than the regular Ender 3. The fact that the original Ender 3 is still listed baffles me at this point. Now, if you get a Bambu A1 instead ($279), you are still in the same ballpark, but you get an arguably better printer, as it is completely plug and play and does not require any kind of tinkering. But, in the current market, the cheapest printer that I would consider buying would be the Centauri Carbon 2 ($339), which is a Core XY printer and will provide consistent better results, especially in larger prints. And if you don't care about the Bambu market practices, you can still get the Bambu P1S for a bit more ($369) than the Centauri Carbon 2. Lastly, the biggest issue with Creality printers is their quality control. You can be lucky and get pretty good units, that you just pick, do the initial manual (or automatic) calibration and it will perform great, or you can get a really bad printer that will frustrate you. Those are the people that you see complaining here, it's the people already frustrated with them.

Indeed. Just trying to give a base price for a new one. https://a.co/d/0jaIdPOh(Link to Amazon) $175