Nothing kills the joy of bidding on a YCH with multiple slots when the other person winning has a gross, lame or horrifying character you wouldn't want to be in a picture with. So...I am more likely to bid on single person YCHs with another character that people cannot bid on, rule 34 stuff. And can't tell you how many YCHs I passed on because "Must be female" and "Must be feline" or "Must have a giant floppy sack of balls".

usually i only say 'must be male' (if the focus is that there's a dick in the pic) and sometimes 'no wings' as they just wouldn't fit nicely
but yeah i see what you mean about not knowing what the other's characters will be like. though I have to say I don't do rule34 stuff much, if ever. just sits a little wrong with me since most of it is based on things actually made for kids. so i avoid it mostly

Ah yes, the "birds and dragons" tax...another reason I typically don't bid. A lot of species and characters have wings, if you tell them you'll remove them or won't draw them, you're excluding quite a lot of people.

i dont exclude them from all ych's. only a very few that wings just wouldnt work in. it's rare that i say no wings. mostly it's on dakimakuras and even then it's more 'i will draw the wings small or they wont fit'

Unless you create a pose with wings specifically in mind, it's sometimes really hard to get them to fit into a picture, especially one with multiple characters. I usually allow it if people let me make the wings smaller or mostly hidden, it's just the nature of YCHs that make them difficult.

Aside from that, some artists just don't like drawing them, either because they're hard or because they're not proficient at them, so it takes much longer. If someone wins a YCH auction at a low bid and then you have to add wings, it can easily double the time you spend on the artwork, but you don't get double the pay. :(

It's an unfortunate situation for everyone, there's not really an easy middle ground, and that sucks. I love seeing characters with wings, they're gorgeous.

I prefer a longer time period, to give many a chance to consider and save up
I'm more intrigued when the figures are sketchy, means the artist is more flexible with the character form

Depends on the artist, depends on the starting bid, I usually look for interesting outfits and poses that pique my interest though. The sketchier the better, leaves more to the imagination.

*Low key takes notes*

but would you be more likely to bid on it if it were a more refines sketch with some shading?
No, I don't see the need to really put a ton of time or effort into a YCH sketch pose. Linked examples of what the finished product would look like are helpful, and varied species, so I can get the sense of what a canine, feline, rabbit, etc. would look like in your style.

or if it were a longer or shorter auction?
For me, at least, longer auctions tend to be more conducive to me buying. I tend not to keep money in my bank account if I'm not planning to buy something, so it may take me more than 24 hours to get to my bank and put money in to cover a purchase. I also tend to be more flush with cash at the beginning of the month, and the longer a month progresses, the less flexibility I have in discretionary spending.

what kinds of poses do you look out for?
would you be more likely to bid on an auction with a lot of slots, or on one of a single character? if it's a two character one, would you be more likely to but both slots together or just one and leave the other for anyone?
Short answer: Mostly I'm interested in female pin-ups.
Long answer: I wrote a journal with my thoughts on these questions, because they are something that I see come-up frequently. If you're interested in a more detailed answer, it can be found HERE.

thanks, I've given that journal a read and you bring up some good points that I'll keep in mind for the future!

Honestly time and sketch quality don't really affect me much when bidding on YCHs (though it's preferable when the bidding ends on a Friday as that's when most people get paid). In fact, a higher-quality sketch CAN make me LESS likely to bid, as then usually more minor things like posing or body type are more hard-set locked in and with less flexibility, since so much work went into the sketch itself.

Honestly what makes me most likely to bid is current Price, and how much I like the concept, with a contributing factor of how much I like the artist's art style for that particular theme.

thanks! I hadn't thought about the timing of YCH's seems like fridays or the end/start of a month seems to be the best time to post them for a lot of people.

When I look at a pose sketch I always check how the anatomy and construction looks. The sketch also needs to be somewhat relatable, but not so specific that I can't picture a different-looking character in the spot.

In terms of content, I look for situations that fit in with the personality of my characters. I also look for creative and interesting poses and situations. A YCH for a generic pinup pose with nothing interesting about it is not going to catch my interest unless I get some sort of inspiration for how I could get the artist to spice it up.

For bidding, I prefer 48hr auctions and winner-takes-all in terms of slots. I don't want to pair my character with an unknown rando for reasons other people have already covered.

Finally the finished art quality and style needs to appeal to me.

I look for whole-picture auctions, flexibility in gender configuration, and a subject material I find appealing. Having funds available helps too :)

I'm really interested at how many people are saying they only bid if it's sketchy enough to leave room for imagination, etc. Right now [due to time constraints], I only sell YCHs that are fully inked and shaded beforehand, just to get the majority of the work done first. It means I have a quick turnaround time and don't get stuck in a cycle of not finishing something for too long, plus the person bidding gets to see exactly what quality they're buying. It does mean that I sometimes have to do a lot of re-inking after the auction closes [to change the species or body type or add accessories/clothing], but I tend to start with a neutral and common species [like a canine] since those are the species I so often get commissioned to draw.

I tend to have quite a bit of success doing that, too! I guess there are people who prefer it both ways. :)

I don't bid much, so sorry for my useless comment, but I do find this journal really interesting!

I tend to link to finished examples in the description or sometimes add a finished example in the ych submission pic itself cause I have having to re-ink things I've already inked xD
I sometimes feel like drawing the characters with a specific species (usually canine) seems to encourage that species to bid but then again if it's usually canine as most furs are canines it's not surprising lmao.

It's not a useless comment at all! I'm really interested in how other artists do their auctions and stuff and what seems to work for them.

Well I avoid them simply because I don't have a character sheet yet, but if I had

well, my fursona is shemale, so gender locks for slots is one, if there is a dick, well then have the female wear a strap-on, or include a herm or shemale option

The other reasons, well, pretty much they've all been pointed out above, but again . . .

Often its the other winning character, not being a character my character would be attracted to, that said I've seen YCHs with winning subbies that my fursona would be attracted to, but there are just so many variables,

I would prefer to buy both slots, just couldn't afford to, nor have a second character to put into the subby slot, though if the YCH was for a dom slot with a already created character, as in the sub slot it not one any one can bid on, instead its a character the artist created, or

why not, hold separate YCH actions, first, open it for the subby role, it ends, winner wins, start new YCH for the top, domm, what have you, link the sub's pic, ref sheet what have you, then people would have a some what good idea of what their character will be fucking or what have you, then next time, put up the top or some slot up first, then the sub, to subs and doms get = heads up or how ever you wanna put it

or open the YCH, open the <Slot> for x# of days and then open the other slot, add a link to the character that won <Slot>, so that people know . . . .


Its late, about to start rambling, that's my two cents.

yeah i hadn't thought of people not wanting to bid because of the other character in it. I tend to separate the slots most of the time because I like having the variation of characters designed by different people. like, some people make characters who end up having a lot in common with each other unintentionally (for example, i have loads of black and white characters, and loads of brown tone characters). so it's nice to draw some variation.

but going forward I'll probably do more couple pics as one slot. and pictures where there's one set character that's either mine or a friend that people can effectively 'win a night with'.

but your idea of holding two separate auctions/delaying the opening of the second slot is one i hadn't thought of! though it runs the risk of the first winner not liking the second winners character even if the second winner likes the first.

thanks for your two cents!

I don't usually bid on ychs

I think they are a easy way to make people throw money at the artist. It's not hard to notice that the winning bids on ychs are usually double or triple the price that exact same concept would cost if commissioned in a normal way.
Due to this, I feel encouraged to bid only when the ych picture concept is something REALLY original, something I've not seen thousands and thousands and thousands times before in other pictures, otherwise I prefer to pay a regular commission.

Imho ychs should be like few bright ideas you want to raise the price as reward for their effective uniqueness value.

So, originality is mostly the point to me, more than the number of characters or poses or auction lenght etc.

while they usually end up more expensive than a normal commission, (at the risk of sounding like a 'selfish money grabbing artist' as some people say) it's good for the artist because they don't have to take as many commissions to get the same amount of money, it makes it easier for them to support themselves.
since art is my only income, i find ych's help remove some of the pressure of having to take loads of commissions, and helps protect from burning out. but i understand peoples hesitancy to bid on them if they could just commission something similar. especially if it's a common concept.

Matter of points of view. For sure, a ych is a faster, easier safer way for artista to have regular incomes than building incomes regularity on, for example, respect and kindness for clients, professionality, respect of reasonable work finish dates, constant search for quality and attention to even the minor details.

I'm not telling that all people who makes ychs don't have what I just said, but ychs still remain some kind of a cheat to me, unless the higher price is justified with an effective plus, and a way to mask a lot of artist job missings for some people. Well my judging maybe is too influenced by past bad exoeriences...

After all, nobody forces people to throw money at ychs the same as nobody forced an artist to be an artist and choose art as prior income