I figure I'll let this out here, once and for all so I don't have to keep repeating it in other people's journals every 6 months. If you're not going to like this, *ahem*Dragoneer*</cough>*, you'll probably want to skip over this.

I don't like commission auctions.

In theory, an auction serves to get the most money that you can for something. This can be appropriate and useful in some cases--if a furry artist is one auction away from having their electricity turned off or refrigerator running empty, then damnit, it's important to get back in the black, and an auction is to the benefit of everyone. If an auction is used as the standard means of taking commissions, though, I start to have a problem with things.

See, I'm a proponent of the idea that something should be worth the material resources and labor that went into making it, with perhaps a bit added on to cover other expenses. That is what I will call the "fair" price. In markets such as vegetables, where one potato is basically the same as another potato, that's what store prices settle at: unless there's an organization which is setting the minimum price higher than that (which is illegal in the US), somebody is always going to be willing to sell for a liiiittle closer to the zero-profit area to snag customers, until everyone functions at that point. That falls apart a bit when you have product differentiation or monopolies--moreso for monopolies, which is why they're not supposed to exist in the US.

What happens when something is a limited commodity? It might change what people are willing to pay for it, but it doesn't change what it cost to make it. The "fair" price stays the same. Different companies deal with actual pricing differently--Apple's initial batch of iPhones went for $200 more than they were priced shortly after launch, arguably to milk extra money from people who were willing to pay that much--but most pick a price and keep it regardless of supply shortages. Nintendo couldn't make enough Wiis 2 years ago, but they didn't auction them off or raise the price to $350, because despite their inability to make them fast enough, the Wii had a set production cost.

Now we get to auctions. If you haven't guessed by now, my main gripe with auctions is simple: the cost that something goes for is determined by the maximum price anyone is willing to pay, rather than the "fair" price of what it cost to make. Whether this is a problem or not is up to you. I don't like it myself. Here are the possible cases:

1. An auction goes for less than the fair price. Congratulations, auction winner--you just got a great deal, at the financial expense of someone who most likely needs money more than you. After all, they're willing to sell their time for less than minimum wage to make you something, and you're willing to drop $30 on a piece of custom-tailored porn. Does that feel good for you? Maybe if you're a cut-throat bargain hunter. Was it really too much to part with the extra $10 that the artist normally charges for a commission, and just go the non-auction route?

2. An auction goes for the fair price. The auction has been an exercise in futility. If the standard commission channels had just been used, then the artist would've gotten paid a week or two earlier, and the commissioner would've possibly already had their finished product by the time the auction ended. The price would've been the same, assuming the auction site doesn't have any fees. But now there's been, possibly, pointless stress on the parts of both parties--will I be outbid? will I be able to get this as a gift for a friend? will anyone view my auction?. Of course, it could go the opposite way, and people involved could just be excited by it--yay, I'm still winning! Oh cool, bidding has gone up by $10!. I'd think that less likely, but in either case, there's a definite waste of time involved with auctions versus normal commissions, and there's a potential for stressing out everyone.

3. An auction goes for more than the fair price. Someone has just used money to buy their way into an exclusive spot, which is normally referred to as bribery in the context of politics and academics, or even standard retail (imagine asking a store employee if he'll sell you the last Item Z if you give him $150 for his cooperation, he'd either end up insulted or fired). But somehow it's okay with auctions, in fact, it's entirely the point of auctions. The auction winner has done what they needed to in order to get the art, and the auction wasn't their idea, so they can't really be looked on too harshly. The artist has just shown that they're more interested in making money from their art than sharing their skill. And that's okay, everyone does art and charges for different reasons. Their choice.

So yeah, I don't really see any positive benefit in these 3 cases. My proposal instead: figure out a price which you, the artist, think is fair. It doesn't have to seem fair to all your fans, or even most of your fans, but it should be YOUR price. Not the price set by your richest fan, but YOUR price. Charge that price for commissions. Ya popular? Only open a slot every few months? You've got a couple choices. Make it First Come, First Serve if you want quick cash and want it to be pretty fair... there's still a bias towards people who have more time to spend checking FA frequently, but it's an improvement. If you have a few days to spare, which you would anyway in the case of an auction, do the most fair thing: let people pitch you commission ideas for a period of time, and either pick randomly from them, or pick one with the most appeal, which you think you could do the very best job at. Maybe do both: eliminate ideas which you know you wouldn't do well on, and then pick randomly from the remaining ones. In any case, you still get the price which you think is fair, your fans can't complain about people bribing their way into your sketchpad, and neither you nor your fans have to feel guilty about having squeezed a few extra bucks from the other party by being above or below your standard price.

I dunno. Maybe I'd feel differently if I were an artist. Maybe some of you, as artists, feel differently. That's fine, I recognize that there are different opinions on what's fair, and you are free to share them with me. Just try not to call me selfish and whiny, 'kay? It really hurts when I try to be fair, rational, and level-headed... and people badmouth me.