You're not alone. Person contacted me about bidding on a fursuit I had for sale, we worked out the details, they won and... nothing. Social media shows that they're actively online, too. :')

Yeah theres a lot of fake bidders here unfortunately. |D I think they just want the feeling of winning something but not actually going through with it lol.

Yeah, I understand the anxiety problem since I have that myself, but I also tell them (normally before I remove them from my queue) that if you're in a situation or change your mind, to let me know and I wont be upset or anything. Still no answer |D

But thanks! ;;

Oh actually Plyso isn't a raichu haha, hes his own species: https://pelepia.weebly.com/plyso.html

But hes been mistaken as a raichu a lot understandably cause of his color patterns xD

I get people that do this to me.
They tell me that would like a ych but when I respond to them they don't say anything
Or they read the note and that is it.

I had one gentleman tell me that he wanted one and asked for my paypal.
When I sent him it, he read the note. A week went by and I asked if he was still interested.
A few days later he responded with. "I didn't want it now, I wanted it maybe later in the future."

Luckily I havent had any problems with my YCH bids, but I know that ghosting is super common with auction type things |D

I guess he was expecting you to hold it for him until he had the money saved up or something lol

If that’s any kind of consolation then I assure you Mr. Draggincat. That you aren’t the only artist who struggle with such such client’s.
I have friends among artist with the same problems as you have and what I my only advice for solving this problem is to kame some sort of 24H payment regiment.
IF you don’t pay after the 24h passed since you took a slot.. then you are out. No excuses.

People who give you such treatment as you described clearly don’t respect your time and effort that you spent on realizing their commissions. And this in turn means that they don’t respect you.
Remember that it is you who is doing them a favor by allowing people to commission you for a reasonable price. And in turn they receive a beautiful drawing that they will admire for years to come.

I think it’s finally time to slam that fist on the desk and stop tolerating such people.

My current limit right now is 3-5 days after I've contacted about payment, though sometimes I'm a bit more lenient and extend it to a week, since I understand that people get busy and I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If theres no word after that, then I boot them off my queue lol.

But at the same time, it should be understandable that an artist cant wait around to be paid for so long, since they need to pay bills and whatnot. So I agree with probably having to be a bit more strict on these things!

To all the artists out there that OTHER people do this to -

I am sorry. It gives ALL of us (the commissionees) a bad rap - one I do not share. I never commish unless I am able to - at that point - to pay for the whole effin' thing.

Dont worry, I know the majority of my commissioners are good peeps! This problem has only been dealt with a few people haha

Good that it doesn't happen that often - but still bad it does.
I have plans to get something from you - likely after con season is over this fall.

I never understood why someone would want to claim something, but then never go through with actually buying it. |D Like.. why even? lol

I'd buy a commission from you any day of the week.

Considering that I've already dropped 2 people from my queue and that it will most likely become 3 pretty soon, I'm probably gonna have a few spots to grab soon ;D

Sweet! It's been a while since we did the business thing.

when people are like this i usually just assume they changed their mind. it happens to me a decent amount which sucks because i'm a smaller artist. i feel like when i get contacted about a commission it winds up being a bust more often than not. :'( if anything, when people say something i at least would know its not because my art isn't that desirable or my prices aren't worth it.

Yeah I assume the same. For me it usually happens after I give them their price quote (I guess it scares them off lol) or if they've been waiting on a waitlist for a while, and then they change their mind.

KH BHECUVWEV big mood! I HATE THAT SO MUCH .it makes my heart want to pop and stop From the anxiety :'I

do it to me almost always in trades and coms :'I . it isnt a bad thing just tell people you dont have the money

I've just given up on trades lol. Even people who've I've actually accepted trades with and seem super enthusiastic to start just end up never going through with it. |D

i'm actually having to deal with this right now, i definitely understand your frustration 100%. ignoring your questions and responses isnt the way to go, if they think it's more rude to tell you they're not interested anymore than to just upright ignore, it's actually the other way around so! and not only that, if you're taking commissions via slots and they still have one, it's not fair to the others who want the commission more than they do :/

Yes exactly! Everytime a person flakes out on me, it just makes me feel bad that I couldnt give someone who wanted to commission me for so long their spot.

TOTALLY get that feeling, it's awful D: but it's never your fault man! You just dont know if the person doesnt want the commission any longer so you're not sure whether to give up their spot, it's just u wanting to be on the safe side n thats good! (-:

aaah last month I had a situation like this, it's always bothering when happens :'3 I feel upset for being ignored cuz it's feels like I'm not even worth a reply from the person sobs

Nooo you are always worth a reply to! D:

Like a couple people theorized, it could most likely be because of shame or fear that they keep silent. But doing that is just really inconvenient to artists who have to keep a schedule.

Because artists have been known to lose their shit and publicly badmouth/shame commissioners on a whim?

Really? Cause I dont think I've ever seen this happen (or maybe its cause i dont follow asshole artists haha).

If an artist publicly shames someone just because they decide to cancel out on a commission (before any payment or work is done of course), then they're just being an asshole. If they're doing that, then they shouldn't be doing commissions and people shouldn't be supporting them.

Phew, good question.
My best guess is that some people are feeling guilty/anxious/embarrassed.
And rather be like "If I admit the money issues now, I loose the comission, but I just need to hold them off until my next paycheck/ until my friend pays me back my borrowed money/until I make that one sale, and everything will be fine"

Having said that, and even though I undertsand the thought process, I still absolutely disagree with this kind of behaviour, and think that open, honest communication cans ave everyone a lot of problems.

I understand that feeling, but they also need to understand that communication is key and keeping artists informed of whats going on is important. Mainly because some artists rely on making a certain amount of income from commissions to support themselves and cant afford to wait weeks and weeks for a reply.

But for the way I have my commissions set up, I can easily accommodate for people who need a bit more time to save up so that they dont lose their commission spot.

" but they also need to understand that communication is key"
That was what I was trying to say, yeah ^^' sorry if that wasn't completly clear

Oh yeah i gotcha before xD sorry if i repeated it haha

I feel you. Recently had slots for commissions where payment wouldn't be due till the start of the next month, so there were even three weeks before payment. On the 1st, I message them about payment. Gets ignored, for a week. I message them again and suddenly they're like: "Yeah.. you can just take me off that list". I never even replied to that, lol, I was so mad they didn't just tell me the first time I messaged them instead of ignoring me for a week.

It's especially frustrating when commission slots fill up quickly, because it's a spot that could've gone to someone else.

Yeah when things like that happen, it reminds me why I stopped using waitlists before. |D Cause theres a stronger chance commissioners might bail once a good amount of time passes.

That's true :P

Yea, you're well part of a crowd who hates this weird business version of ghosting. You approached the artist first, sooo uhhh follow through with the communication or don't consider doing business with the artist to begin with lol. It's needlessly anxiety inducing, waiting on a response that'll never come.

We can't read minds, how is anyone gonna automatically think just cuz you don't respond, it means you don't want anything? That's not how it just works lmao. We can't see each other irl outside of cons, there's no telling if you're gonna go through with commissioning someone as long as you respond. Folks really need to learn this more.

I like how one of my friends hates this so much that they'll actually put ppl on blacklists for this lmfaoooo
I don't blame them, it's legitimately a waste of your time

Exactly my feelings haha

Normally the people who give me the silent treatment end up not approaching me ever again, so I usually dont have to blacklist, but i dont blame your friend either lol

I've seen where ppl do get concerned they'll upset an artist by turning them down, but I'm like......don't do that lol. The concern is appreciated, but it falls apart when you become unintentionally doubly rude by assuming a lack of a response equals rejection to us. In general to just anyone. It comes back around to the fact they approached you first, so it makes them look bad even more.

Haha, that's a relief to hear. I guess the intent my friend was after was in case the ppl who decided not to follow through to accept or turn down getting an order, they wouldn't get the chance to ghost them again lol. But yea, someone never coming around, just saves you time and energy but it sucks cuz you coulda known sooner on whether or not you would get some business if only if they didn't go quiet for no legitimately good reason.

Amusingly I seem to be having this strange opposite issue where an artist I literally am wanting and ready to throw money at gives me silent treatment and gets into a bad RL situation preventing them from doing my commission. Either way though, this seems like strange and ill behavior, really shouldn't be done. If someone wants to buy art then they should be setting that money aside a bit ahead of time just in case money problems become a thing.

Both ways are pretty bad honestly, and I wish it wasnt so prevalent in the commissioning community |D

This happens more than not I think the trill of trying to win but then once they do, then what, well that is half the issue. That is why I have not gotten art from you as much as i like to, I know I cannot afford at this time nor sure when if I do you e open for commissions hope this cleared up and better clients soon

It mainly just seems kinda pointless to snag a spot but not go through with it, personally xD But thanks!