Disclaimer:
This small "rant" of mine is not directed thorward anybody in particular and i hope it doesen't sound
offensive to anyone.
Those are my own thoughts on the matter and i hope nobody will take it personal.
If you think i've "crossed a line" and directly offended anyone of you, please let me know and i'll see what i can do.

So... we all know about YCH stuff: you bid in an auction for having your character in some artist project and the
one who pays the highest price wins, simple enough.

Let me start this by saying the concept itself is not bad on it's own as in some cases it can and does make sense like for example for large group pictures with a lot of stuff going on, and big/long term projects like comics that go beyond a certain amount of pages, animations beyond a certain lenght of time, and even images and pictures on rendered environments like games or dioramas (also if the characters themselves have some kind of rendering as well).
Even "Fixed price YCH" are good although those are more of a lottery or a FCFS (First Come First Served) kind of commission.

However the problem with the thing is that for a good 95% (being kind there) of the times we see this kind of policy applied to even the simplest and bland things like characters "sitting there for the camera doing nothing". Maybe i have a certain regard thorward money because, as you know, i'm a broken artist coming from a poor family always (or at least most of the times) very careful on how i spend it, but is it really worth to spend a lot of money for actually very simple and bland things that any artist can do with the same quality for a smaller fixed price ?

A couple of days ago i even happened to stumble onto a YCH portrait... How can anybody put on auction a portrait ?
I know it's not up to me to tell people how to spend money but what's the point on bidding for something so simple and artistically rudimental like a portrait ? It was a well done portrait for sure but i know about several artists that would have made the same exact thing with the same quality for lesser and without a "YCH" tag plastered on it.

Another problem of the YCH auctions is that in about 90% of the cases you're not even sold an "idea" or a "concept" of a picture but a "finished product", which means the picture is already finished and you are not even up to decide how the thing will look like (Except for some minor details IF possible).
Imagine you're going to the bakery to buy a choccolate cake and the shopper tells you "Nope ! Sorry, the baker today only made a strawberry cake that is up for bidding, and if you win you can choose the decorations"... what would your reaction be ? Personally i would change bakery.

Now, I'm not saying that people should not support theyr favourite artists the way they want (it would be hypocrit from me to), however there is also a line between supporting somebody and let that somebody take advantage of your goodwill.
It's a great thing to support your favourite artists with commissions and donations, i actually encourage it too (and i also do it myself when i can), but at same time the artists themselves shouldn't try to take advantage of the audience by putting up auctions for pictures anyone else made (or even still make) as "normal" commissions for a more fair price.

For how i see it, the vast majority of YCH auctions right now are as much harmful as preorders, microtransactions, and season passes in 60$ videogames. YCH auctions add nothing special to pictures you would get for the same price (Becuase let's face it: except for "big" stuff, when do those YCH pictures offer more than non YCH ones ?) and instead take away (Because is not even up to you to decide about the picture) and for an higher price too.

I'd like those YCH buyers to do one very simple thing next time they spot one: Look at the artist gallery and see if it did this kind of stuff before as "normal" commission, or even ANY other artist of the same level of skill (or with a similar style) did itand see if they do that kind of stuff as normal commission, and then ask themselves "Is it really worth to bid on something anybody else can make me for a fixed price ?"
They would be surprised how most of the times the answer is "no, it isn't !"

People should be more careful when trying to get a YCH, the Artists should (earn) and be supported with commissions and donations but people shouldn't buy into YCH if it's something they can get for a true and more fair price.

And those artists too... I don't mean to mean to offend anyone (i apologize if i do) but they should stop with this "YCH here and YCH there" as well because this way they are literally treating the audience like a bunch of dummies eager to buy anything just because there's theyr name on it or because it's in a certain style. If really they care about people following theyr art and giving feedback they shouldn't try to take advantage of others goodwill and respect like that.