Ngl, I kind of like it the way it is. Maybe not one person getting multiple slots but to me it's fun. Like a race XD

Ok so I have 3 things that you can do.

You can either do no AB with snipe protection.
Alternatively, you can do a blind auction where people submit their bids through a forum or similar and you announce the winner.

But ideally both for you and everyone else I think is you can make a submission for a fixed price that you would like to charge for the piece and you choose people after 24h for example that you wish to draw, that way you can also select which characters and similar fit your style better in your eyes.

But to be fair if you get a lot of attention then AB allowed like it is has nothing wrong really for you especially.

I was literally going to say something like the 1st and 3rd ideas yeah

I agree that with the demand here, an application system is very smart for Rajii. Artist can choose their clientele based on that designs/characters/composition they prefer.

I think a raffle will be better if peeple want a fair chance. There are a disproportionate number of certain furs who seem to get picked a lot

This is true, but I always agree with the artists choice as they should never be forced to work on art, or with characters, they don't enjoy. I think that's why some folks get chosen more often.

I think certain folks are just popufurs and that's why. Characters like Archon always get chosen. There are plenty of similar characters out there who don't

Certainly there is appeal for an artist to grow their platform by drawing popular furries. There isn't anything wrong with that at all. Does it suck for the rest of us? A little, but meh.

Worth noting that typically speaking popular characters are often popular precisely because they do have appealing design, characterization, or because their owners are just nice to work with for an artist. While some degree of it is often people that can just throw more money than god at art. There is certainly a lot of it that relates to the characters and their owners.

I was thinking maybe a raffle kind of thing! Have a raffle open for 24 hours, 12 hours, 1 hour even, for every YCH. Therefore everyone gets the chance to snag a YCH from you. Just my suggestion and I thinks its a really good solution so everyone doesn't AB immediately when you can't even post your comment.

If you want it fair, one option that comes to mind is have it a set-price YCH, let people who want in sign up and then hold a raffle to see who gets it

this is what id say is the best and which i mentioned down bellow, thought id comment since there isnt really a rating system for comments here (sorry for the notification)

If you want to be fair and give people at least a chance, you need to either have open ended auctions or raffle the slots. And also a policy where someone can't win TWICE would be nice. Your current system is who can press F5 right one you post a slot. Since you don't count ABs poeple post before that

Set price in the mid range with a raffle could give people the more fair oportunity aswell, just a thought, issue with no roof ab is itd quickly go up to unpayable ranges for most

to continue on, i think a rotation of what kinda buying options would be the best, with 1 set of ych beeing maybe no top roof and snipe protection, next ych is raffle etc.

This is wise, it allows rajii to get maximum value out of people who just don't care about price, but also allows some of the folks who just can't afford that sort of thing to possibly get a slot. It does have the downside of probably decreasing the maximum value folks will bid for a slot in the uncapped bidding auctions because they 'could always just wait till I get picked for a slot.' I'd like to singal boost the idea that folks can't get multiple different ych's slots within some kind of timeframe. Obviously they should be able to get multiple slots in a single ych so they can be with friends or loved ones ect.

yes it would be very hard to keep track on... but some kind of cooldown would be nice (say you can only win only 4th or so ych, totally dependant on how often the ych's are rolled out and all)

If management is an issue, just hire someone else to do that work. With the potential removal of autobuy they'll definitely have the money to do so.

The first things that comes to mind would probably be;

in a multiple character ych, limit it to one person per slot (limit how many slots one person could bid in)
if its a single slot, have an upper limit per bid to encourage competitive bidding between multiple people and not have one person put down, say, a $250+ gap between themselves and the previous bidder


whilst i know they don't sound... *sound*, but its the fairest for all that i can think of on a whim.

This idea disregards people who are buying slots for loved ones and close friends. I think they should only be able to bid on one ych instead, not just one slot. This also elimates the problem where folks don't know how much they are spending across different ych's because they can only bid on one.

In cases like that it may reduce interest by people. For example I generally don't do YCHs with random other people. I'd use my own characters or those of friends. This usually ends up with me having to AB all slots.

Maybe it’s time to remove the option to auto buy? I think it’s pretty clear you’re undervaluing your talent at the current auto buy prices

I don't there is a solution everyone will be happy about, many want the AB option to be gone ~~ some want the last winner to be on a blacklist for the next YCH.
With the no AB option there will be the problem, its not gonna be possible for unwealthy persons ever to get one piece, as your art will skyrocket easily to 2000.

Something that can be made is to raffle the slots. Like you are only allowed to enter one or two slots and submit your form for them.

But its gonna be complicated.
Good luck till the next YCH! love your art <3

yeah, i agree. rajii's art is good, and i would be willing to pay for the quality i see, but i can say with confidence that none of us want it to go the direction of Miles-DF, where the prices increase while quality drops inverse to the price. seriously, M-DF's older stuff is really good, but now its like 500 dollars plus for a slot and he keeps churning out the same plastic pastel shades with no real quality. i think that AB's should stay, but after reading a lot of the comments, there should be snipe protection and a blacklist cooldown.

If people submitted their refs over a 24hr period, and you choose who to work with, it would be a lot more low stress

IMO this is the best system both for comissioners and artist

Personally I don't think it is a bad idea, Rajii would just have to make sure to at least appear fair. While I am sure you will have people ranting about it for one reason or another, Rajii would still select different characters and patrons each time.

An artist doesn't have to be fair in what commissions they choose to draw. It's their talent and their work going into it, they're free to use fair or unfair criteria for selecting what business to take.

That is a very good point! Artists, like everyone else, are completely free to select the work and jobs they take on. Imo, if an artist just wants to create art of a single character and post it online for others to enjoy I completely understand. It is just like how I choose to use windows over mac or linux for my primary operating system. What Rajii choses to do going forward is up to them and their goals as an artist and their intent with these YCHs. I personally don't know what those are, but I get the impression they are to open up slots of people to get art from Rajii who can't get on the waitlist, or they are pieces for Rajii to do for fun to draw situations they want to see. If it is the later then yes, I agree that Rajii should just chose who they feel best fits the role. However, if it is the former, then I believe they are doing this more as a service to their fans. To provide a service you want to have happy customers and build a business. It doesn't do a artist good if they are alienating potential clients, or have the appearance of doing that. Already you can see people complaining about just that for one reason or another. Appearing fair is just a small step to helping people accept the results and preventing drama. At the end of the day the choice Rajii makes will most likely benefit their goals with these YCHs. My suggestion was based on an assumption of the intent of these YCHs.

i think you are right in this. and it is frustrating to see. i think how they react to these suggestions will show the answer.

While I fundamentally agree about the artists freedom of choice, no question there.
I see a rather ...unpleasant problem there for some costumers. Let’s say the artist doesn’t like one or any other character, that a costumer hopes to have drawn. And the artist "dislikes" their design to the point, where he would in all likelihood never pick them during any of his raffles.

Would you say the artist is in some way obliged in regards to morality, to be fair enough and inform these costumers about this circumstance?
Or would it be ok to simply avoid the drama, and let them get their hopes for a precious picture of their most favored artist up. Only to put time and effort into each futile attempt, just to be rewarded with disappointment and frustration time and time again.
I guess most will consider this scenario rather unlikely to happen to themselves, and therefore insignificant, given that such cases are usually rare and tend to have more specific reason for disqualification, than the artist’s personal taste.

While I made this sound rather dramatic, I still think it’s worth to at least consider such a scenario.
As well as the side effects it could have on the artist itself. If we’d say that an artist should theoretically be responsible and tell costumers with little to no chances off, what would probably happen?
Will the artist "have" to confront the frustration and anger of these people. I’ve seen a handful of artists over the last few years, who had a rather delicate personality. And saw them ending their careers due to circumstances which were far less troublesome, than this hypothetical scenario might possibly become.

And if the artist were to simply block these people and all their means of contacting them, how likely would you deem it, that they act like adults and quietly move on?
....well, maybe I’m just overthinking... I guess this or a similar kind of drama, could spring forth from any of the suggested options in this journal. After all, most of us have probably seen or heard about stories, of how utterly deranged and troublesome certain people can become.

Anyway, just thinking out loud...gotta get some sleep now.

It's not an easy path to walk by any means.

I think this system is the ideal way of handling commissions in general; slots open for 24 hours, after which the ideas / characters the artist is the most interested in doing gets picked. To me this is the most fair system, and is mutually beneficial to both artist and commissioner alike (artist gets to draw something they want to, commissioners get more time to think of an idea, and make it less of a stressful impulse purchase.)

Same goes to you, not the place for it.

I replied to your note, so I'm going to delete this comment 'cause this journal is not the place for it.

I like open YCHs where theoretically anybody can just contact the artist and have their character drawn into the scenario.

I'm less fond of YCHs that have one sole winner.

Problem with that is, with how popular Raji is there is no way they'd be able keep up with demand

Fair point! The latter type of YCH is easier on the artist for sure.

I'd say intermingle YCH's with Waiting list man. You have a good system. If people are willing to wait (which they are I assure you) then you can just go back and forth between them.

As for YCH yeah, I agree with the sentiments above. Pull out that AB price. Let people pay what they want to pay.

If you can get on the list which I'm pretty sure had been closed

his regular commission prices are half a decade old and way too low for the work and time he puts out for a pic. I understand that many on the waitlist have been there for years but I think it's also fair for Rajii to substantiate a significant price jump even there. why work for 1/5th the money.

Considering I have a bit of a bias (I'm literally next on the list and have been for over a year and a half) I'd happily still pay the price if it were to jump. People can decide if they want to pay or not. People will still pay what it's worth.

Yup. paying more is a lot better than having the whole list dismantled, plus the list will actually start moving if my assumption about the prices being the motivating factor is correct.

Oh absolutely. Don't disagree with you there.

Honestly, it's pretty clear your art is worth much more than the AB or people wouldn't constantly AB. Removing that is a temporary option. I think you're best served by using an actual auction website if there are any that exist that would host your content. While I think that's best for you, it sucks for someone like me, and many of your other followers, who just don't have the budget to bid on uncapped art. I'm not sure exacly how you'd fix that, or if you care to honestly. One problem at a time. I just think using FA as an auction house only really works when you don't have thousands of people who would love to buy your art.

I think the best way to do it would be to have a set price and then just raffle off the slots

One option you can do is post an advert on FA for your YCH's but have them held on

https://ych.commishes.com/

That way people can bid in a more professional manner. Although I do not know if there is an Autobuy function at all

Nice! This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to mention

Twas the first thing that came to mind. Least that way they don't have to worry about FA's comment format breaking mid bidding chain

There is an AB option, yes. That site and a few others are nice, but you can still run into trouble with them, like with people making a fake account and just ABing a piece and then ghosting, which shuts down the auction and ruins the bidding for everyone else.

The problem isn't the bidding technology, the problem is that the AB price is too low given the demand.

considering how quickly Rajii's auctions go, I'm not sure the trolls would have enough time xD

Well if he set the AB higher they wouldn't go as fast! Or skipped the AB option.

Very true, I agree though I think the AutoBuy Prices need to be raised because they're clearly too low at this point as the recent auction turnout and the pure number of AB's that were thrown out by folks showed

You could make so much more money if you removed the AB and just let people bid. You're underselling yourself compared to the demand for your art. You deserve more!

I guess you can try not set an AB limit. Pretty sure offerts may skyrocket in few hours way over the usual AB.

Another option may be set a fixed price and put all the entrant in a raffle, leaving to fate the commitment to choose a winner.

1- Your commission waitlist is super long and your regular prices for it are waaaaaaay too low, providing 0 incentive to do your commission waitlist. You need to raise your regular commission prices to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400 per character fully coloured.
2- Double your YCH AB's to $1100 OR Leave the bidding open with no AB, the second option allows you to find the market value people are willing to pay for your art. I suspect its easily over $1000

I would be inclined to agree with raising commission prices, but it kinda sucks when you've been on the waiting list for almost 5 years like I have, knowing how much you are going to spend. Id have to drop out of it if I knew I would be spending 5x the amount I thought when I originally joined the list. It will make the list shorter for sure but man having to wait that long only to find out you'll NEVER be able to afford it sucks big time. v_v

Not that I dont want Raiiji to make money, he deserves all the mons.

you're just on his waiting list, you've not yet entered a business arrangement. The waitlist exists in good faith, and it's fully within Rajii's ability to adjust his prices to reflect the true value. If the waitlist was a list of prepaid commissions that were owed, then it would be a different story. Would it suck, yes. but as it is he has 0 incentive to actually complete anything on that list, so keeping prices low would see it never move at all (like its current state) having more realistic pricing to it would provide an incentive to complete work from that list.

I also know that, but I dont think ANYONE on that waitlist thought that they would be waiting YEARS.

and like I said, he should totally raise his prices but it will suck for literally 80% of the people that have been waiting years. It's up to him though, and he should definitely be charging more than 100 a character. I agree with the YCH making bank there is no incentive for working on that list. Another option would be to just dismantle the list, but I dont think that would go over well either.

If they're willing to wait that long, I'm sure they'd be happy to pay more rather than have the list dismantled. Which TBH is the only other option.

I think anyone who isn't okay with a commission price bump should probably be off the list regardless. You have no business contract/agreement. You're not entitled to be grandfathered in.

i think the reason the list is so long and takes forever is because why bother doing a cheap comm when you can insta sell these ychs at any time?

obviously.

for the sake of pointing them out, two things:
A: A quadrupling of the price is not a *bump* its a full on adjustment. A truly worthy one for the quality of art that is being made, but none the less, when some say bump they usually imply something along the lines of a 10-15%

B Following up on A, when and if the time comes, I think the waitlist should be nuked. One thing alot of people do when they get on said waitlist is set aside cash for the commission at the current prices. Since those expectations are no longer accurate, and thus it would better to force people to reevaluate their situation to see if they can fit into the new situation.

A price bump/adjustment is the same difference, you're arguing semantics here. The point I'm making is that the commission price needs major re-evaluation. I think giving the option for people to keep their spot on the current waitlist is a kinder way of going about things rather than dismantling the whole thing. A waitlist in of itself is not a guarantee of a commission. You're simply in queue and people can exit anytime they want, and the artist can update their TOS anytime they want to better reflect the product.

Yeah that significantly cuts the market by doubling the prices

Also kills the chance for people who cant dump 4 digits on arts which sucks?

Rajii's not a charity? Clearly, his art is worth 4 digits, and honestly, if you can't afford that then don't buy. Don't guilt-trip him into undercutting himself just because you want a better deal, it's damaging to a person's morale and self-worth.

Yeah, that's true too. His art is definitely worth 4 digits or more if it can go higher

Raise your prices/remove AB. I personally feel that, if I would never pay more than $xxx for a pic, and it passes that mark, I kinda mentally disengage and don't mind not getting it anymore. Many artists want to keep their prices low--and I get it!--they feel it makes their art more accessible to everyone. But I think its a more honest and straightforward process if you simply let your pics sell for the crazy high price they must be worth, and whoever wants them THAT BAD can buy them if they really still want

I've seen plenty of artists go with a cooldown system. Granted, that makes more work for you in the long run, but, if you wish to have a broader client pool, new characters worth your interest and time in drawing, the idea would be relatively simple on paper, but again, up to you on execution.

The process is, more or less, if Client A gets a slot from you in say...January, they go into a cooldown period where they cannot get another slot / YCH from you for a duration and period of time. You simply keep track of it by adding their name to January's cooldown list, and after that time elapses (say a month, two, or even three if you wish), they get moved off. Can even be set up and tracked in programs like Excel, or other spreadsheet programs, even trello I'd imagine.

If that process is too much, then the only thing you'd have to do is keep track of those who have already bought significant portions of work from you in the past. While I doubt the threat, or looming sensation has crept in just yet, if an artist is asked to continuously draw the same several characters over, and over, and over, and over again, I'd imagine that would get boring, or tiring at least. Even if the ideas are just barely different from one another.

Giving a large audience all a chance at having opportunities to get a piece from you also comes at a cost to you: stress and time. Especially if you go with the option I presented first with cooldowns. More work for you to keep track of, more frustration and anger out of your followers who want you to draw their porn fantasies.
It's a gambit of balance at this point. The point of a YCH system is to give people opportunities, but no matter what path you take in making it fair for everyone, it's still going to have its own brands of positives, and negatives.

All you can really do is conduct your business as you see fit. It's your job, and sure, options and opinions are great to get feedback from, at the end of the day, your business is your own, you're the boss. You're going to have some amazing clients, and some really intolerable ones. Doesn't matter how much money someone throws at you: a poor attitude client is not worth the dime they give you if they're going to make your job more difficult.

YCH / Slot cooldowns with tracking, or keeping AB-methods if you wish to continue working with the same few dozen people for another year. If you want fresher clients, I say keep the AB system, because people will over-inflate and over-saturate it with bids that will still upset people who were willing to pay for the normal AB slot prices that they budgeted for, but were just unlucky enough to miss the opportunity to snag.

Also, the one thing I failed to mention is what someone already appears to have suggested: going with the submission of forms. You get to be in charge of who you work with, and gives you some additional clients to work with that might provide a breath of fresher air, if you will.

Could try a raffle or bumping up the YCH AB, but I would suggest avoiding removal of the AB as knowing how fast the recent YCH was bought out, you'd probably see a bid war going well into the thousands just for a single piece. I would definitely start calling these set-price YCHs since that's how they've played out for a while now. If trying to renovate the system, could make it so instead of people ABing on individual comments with each piece's letter, you have everybody AB on the piece they want and keep it first come first serve. A "One per customer" rule would work great, too.

If people are hitting the AB too quickly, then set a higher AB. There's obviously a lot more demand than supply, so if your pieces sell within 10 seconds it's obvious you're leaving money on the table.

Another technique I've seen people use successfully is to open the auction with no AB for the first 24 hours, then once bidding settles down a bit they add an AB price based on the current bidding (like 50% or 100% or whatever higher than the current bid, or just whatever price feels right).

You're never going to come up with a situation where you can draw affordable art for everyone who wants it. If you sold pieces for $150/ea you'd be drawing 5000 pics a month, or be drowning in a 5 year long waiting list, or making everyone-but-one-lucky-guy angry/disappointed by raffling spots.

If you end up getting $5k/pic or whatever then so be it. The people who want your art that much will be able to get it, and if you feel guilty then you can spread the love by using some of those mad furry dollars to buy art from other artists.

A raffle system for the slots would be a good way for people to have a better chance at getting a piece.
Other than that Removing the AB from a Ych is another way to stop it from selling in 10 seconds.
Good luck with whatever you decide to try out!

One last thing to note: if you do remove the AB which it seems like a lot of folks are arguing for, then you will find that initially prices will be crazy high, but after a few months or a year they will settle to about where they should be, given no crazy changes to the market conditions (pandemic lol).

Make the AB higher. > >

Remove the AB and have it go to 12 hours last bid is made for the slot

I think we should skip the middleman and all just start making full drawings of characters having sex with the faceless YCH placeholder slugs.

There is no real solution to this particular problem. If you really want to maintain your current pricing and turnaround rate, the only thing i can think about is implimenting a small cooldown between YCH AB's.

Ex: Say X person AB's YCH 1, the would have to wait till YCH 3 to AB again. It would at lease open up some opportunity for others to attempt to secure pieces from you.

Another potential solution would be to further fragment the YCH's themselves. Each slot having a smaller AB threshold that totals to the original AB for the full piece.

If your YCHs keep getting Autobought in the *First Bid*, it is time to either increase the autobuy or do away with it. Just turns the auction into a race, and is economically shortchanging you.

Reading through I'm definitely not the first to come up with these, but I'll still toss it out there to weigh my opinion on everything, especially as someone who's wanted to get one of these ych pieces several times. You could:

1: open a list to see who wants to AB the piece at your current prices. From there, after 24 hours raffle it off, ideally with some kind of limit (like someone who wins a slot can't win again for a set amount of time). It's honestly frustrating seeing some people have their characters in several of your ych slots and still not being able to get one myself.

2: increase your AB price. Even if you raised it to $1000 I still think they would sell within seconds. It may be out of the reach for some, but others might feel more inclined to save up and keep trying. You could of course raise them even higher to whatever you feel comfortable taking for the work you're putting in.

3: split pieces into several ych slots. So a 3 character piece is now 3 separate slots at the current price. This would help the amount of people each round go up and keep the possibility for everyone to have their character in a piece.

4: some combo of those because they're not exclusive by any means.
- Raffle slots off and have your prices go up.
- Increase your prices and do it per character
- Per character and the slots are raffled
- All of the above

Personally, I think a raffle feature with a frequency of customer limit seems the most fair to me, especially if it's included with the other two

solid ideas, opening up multiple slots in one YCH is a great way of increasing supply, and keeping prices for those individual slots around what they are currently would do a good job at reducing the demand.

Quickest dirtiest solution I have is to post the YCH image before its actually up for bid so folks can have a quick glance before it's gone.

And then also I mean, if your YCHs are being gobbled up in literal seconds... charge more for AB. The demand is there! I know artists can be hesitant to raise their prices but honestly if they are this popular you should charge more.

If you don't want to do that though you could wait 24hrs to update with an AB value (or just not offer an AB). You could raffle spots or choose your favorite from a list of submissions (downside: people potentially upset they don't get picked, they now blame you instead of whoever bid faster).

That's a very good question I was asking myself for years.

One of the main complains I had about this system is the fact some artists only had YCH pics, or most of their pics are of this kind of stuff, preventing people to know how their art looks like, through I think this is much a problem that FA and other sites geared to artists should solve in their own by having a special section for YCHs or similar stuff.

Abandon auctions entirely. Have a set price point (what you would normally set as the autobuy). Let people comment to enter as a raffle.

To cut down on abuse, blacklist people who aren't ready to pay after winning the raffle.

I honestly dont think removing the ab limit would be fair. Itd for sure give a chance to those who aren't as fast but are deep enough in pocket. But it's way not fair for those who even with the current ab price are saving up each month only to get out sped AB'd. Probably fairest way is a raffle system with a fix price, and a limit to how many times someone can win, say once a year? Hopefully people agree. Feel like a huge amount of people would be let down if the price were to be 2000$ every month. Good income though i guess

I can understand the notion on behalf of the consumer, however what you're proposing also asks that the Artist intentionally forego getting paid what they're worth which all and all isn't really fair to them.

The issue with this is it becomes another Miles-DF situation. It ends up resulting in who is the richest, who has the deepest pockets, and they start to basically become exclusive and single out most "normal" people who don't make as much money. I think there's a fair middle ground here so he doesnt single out even more of his interested commissioners

That problem with that notion is that it implies that Rajii is obligated to cater to "normal" people. If he's reached a point where he can cater to the above average commissioner then there's no reason why he can't. I know we'd all love a Rajii art piece, but how much can we honestly expect Rajii to suffer for that to happen?

On his end there's nothing wrong with it, but I can already tell you there will be more people pissed off if he does that than if he doesnt keep it somewhat reasonable. Just like other exclusive artists who charge an arm and a leg, there WILL be people who will voice their opinion on a piece being $2000 who will *most likely* cause him even more stress. But hey, if he wants to make bank and probably triple his YCH earnings, he certainly can do it

That's more or less just the status quo of how things work honestly when it comes to product growth. But thankfully it's just Furry art which is a "luxury" and not a necessity.

Rajii is the one setting the current prices not us. they are already selling it at these prices. how is a raffle at the same price unfair? if they want to raise there prices than thats something thewy need to decide.

The initial comment was that he shouldn't remove his AB. We've already established that Rajii's prices are too low and need to be readjusted by allowing people to Bid competitively. Holding a Raffle at prices we already know are too low for what people are willing to play is still in the realm of being unfair to the artist.

thats true actually yeah.. hes stuff is definitely worth more really

Well since normally you tend to have these as male only I don't have too much experience with your YCHs so I don't know how valuable my input is. But I generally am against a first come first serve policy when it comes to commissions and for YCHs, I would very much suggest having no AB. It's something I advised some of my artist friends who always had their YCHs get ABed and I imagine bids would easily go over 1k at that point for you if not more.

I simply knew how the system worked by observing past auctions, that the AB comment needed to be placed on your comment, which I see others being salty about saying it earlier than your comment, but if I could've claimed it without having to reply to you I would still have been quicker than them or someone else would've likely beat them. You've always worked the same way so it's a bit silly for people to be angry for not winning through a way that the auction doesn't work and I just got lucky with being the first. And as I mentioned, in the past with the male only thing, it was unfortunate for me as a girl, but you've the right to work however you desire, so I can't be mad at that either. You're the artist so you decide how things work, not us the commissioners and don't let angry people dictate the way you work, since there are plenty of people who appreciate and adore your work.

So yeah, it was one of the few opportunities for me to get to work with you so I took it! But for your own sake, to reduce anger/drama and increase the money you're making, a lack of AB would work much better and it would also reduce anxiety significantly for everyone who is trying to get art from you xD (since refreshing FA for a while is quite uhm, anxiety inducing lol). Even if that means I probably won't be able to afford it anymore, you deserve the bids, since you do awesome work!

If you're running low on boys we can split one 50-50! 😘

I definitely agree that eliminating the AB option or delaying it makes the most sense. Doing FCFS or randomized or whatever just makes everyone who doesn't get it feel left out and disappointed. At least with high prices people can save up for a while to guarantee themselves a spot eventually if they really, really want it.

Well since your YCH's are going to be AB'd every time regardless i would just suggest to raffle off the slots to make it random where the winner will need to pay the price you set.

Obviously part of the problem is that people insta AB your slots, I know a lot of people are suggesting raising your prices but truthfully not sure if that'll actually solve it as I imagine people would still just insta AB (if you want to raise your prices go for it, but if you feel they're in a good place then that's your decision). I think a raffle style would be nice have people put in their refs and then you can pick, but I imagine that you would get a LOT of submission so maybe put an upper limit on it, and also maybe set it up so people can't get slots back to back for fairness.

Side note, would be nice to see a preview of the YCHs before posting them. I wasn't personally going for any this time around but seeing the "Any Gender" options when you typically do "Male only" was a surprise and if I had the funds would have tried for C this time around.

I agree with the general consensus that I'm seeing here. Your YCH pieces are AB immediately, which shows that the AB price is either too low, or should be done away with completely. I believe it would be both more fair to the clientele and would earn you more money if AB was removed entirely.

AB has its merits, of course. If you remove it, it means that your YCH pieces become exclusive to the wealthiest clients (or, if not the wealthiest then the ones willing to spend the most). But, as it is right now your pieces are exclusive to whoever was lucky enough to see the post first, which can be frustrating to folks who have jobs, or responsibilities, who can only check FA a handful of times a day.

I have mixed feelings about the idea of submitting applications and leaving it to your choice. It allows you to draw what you feel, which is super important! Yet at the same time, it can leave people bitter because it takes the agency away from the bidders, and those not chosen may feel it was unfair (e.g. popufurs chosen over others).

I think an idea may be to have different kinds of YCHs. Maybe one kind that has an AB similar in price to your current ABs (or maybe higher, given your current popularity). These could be Flash YCHs. The other kind would have no AB and allow people to bid as much as they want.

i think all have their own issues, and thus suggested that itd be on a rotation which is used... issue with the current ab way, is its really disencouraging to a big part of the fanbase (which this journal proves) and it also discourages newcomers to participate since its gone in a flash

I think ych auctions that start low and have more bidding interaction are more fun than those that start high and only get one person interacting, then it just feels like a flat sale. I know not everyone has the following to be able to start auctions low, but if possible I think it's way more fun for everyone. Of course, auctioned slots need to be extended for as long as the bidding keeps going.

Since it gets bought for ab price, maybe just raffle the ych for a fixed price and randomly select the winners

Hmmm... not sure... I know this idea'll be thrown out for one of a multitude of reasons, but maybe make multiple versions of certain YCHs? Could even be retroactive - if some are incredibly active or autobought incredibly quickly, you could run it again maybe?
Could also make autobuying way more risky by increasing the price. Like, say, if a piece was going to be $200, make it $300-400; or if it was $500 make it $900-1k (I know that one's a bit much, but just made it fit the formula.) That way people have to think twice before autobuying.
As other people have said, you could not do auto-buys, or maybe you could only retroactively add autobuys if sales are slow.
Also, if the cause of people rushing to buy your art and causing problems in YCH auctions is that your art is in high demand, maybe, Idk, take smaller commissions or make smaller ychs more frequently? I know that's a lot more work, but if you create more opportunities for people to get art from you, that could lessen the effects of your art being in high demand with low supply (not saying making the amount you do now is 'low-effort', 'slow' or 'not enough', just throwing out a suggestion)
Idk, my ideas probably don't help, feel free to ignore.

I think the current state of YCH for popular artists is representative of a greater economic problem: when there is a relatively inexpensive luxury good for which demand drastically outstrips supply, how do we distribute these goods fairly?

We're currently seeing versions of this play out in the physical good space with the scalping of next generation videogame consoles. In the context of physical goods, there are some guidelines for fairness. The desire is for the person who receives the direct sale of the MSRP console to be the end-user of the console. There may be no way to read someone's mind to ensure what they intend to do with a console, but we can mostly agree that at the end of the day this purchaser should be human, at least. So companies like Walmart have done their best to combat scalper bots, but have otherwise been unable to stem the tide of demand. If we define the basic guidelines for what a YCH transaction should accomplish, then we can start to understand which levers we can flip to optimize it.

The issue here is one of trade-offs. Retailers could lottery off their devices instead, but capitalism likes the notion of first-come-first-serve transactions for goods and services. This simply swaps out one perception of "fairness" for another. Instead of fair being determined by the person hitting refresh and devoting the most time, instead it's determined by randomness. This equalizes the playing field, but not in a way that allows for meritocratic demonstration of investment or interest. The person that barely cares about the PS5 - or barely noticed the opportunity for the YCH - has just as much of an opportunity to win as a diehard, frothing-at-the-mouth fanboy with the t-shirts and bedroom posters to prove it. However, it also provides an opportunity for someone who is a genuine, earnest fan to participate even if they don't have constant internet access, or often have to work when new YCH slots are posted, or live on the other side of the world. Is this more fair or less? Depends who's asking.

Retailers could raise their prices to select for those that "really want" a particular device, but this is a double-edged sword. First, there are many people who earnestly want a PS5 that can't afford to pay 2-3x MSRP for it, and second, there are many people who are scalpers or moderately-to-mostly apathetic to the next shiny good or service (in this case, a PS5) which can easily afford one. This is a fundamental issue with the pricing of luxury goods in a free market - as wealth becomes less and less equally distributed, pricing out interest selects more and more for the socioeconomically privileged than the "most earnest". Is this more fair or less? Depends who's asking.

So, let's make a list of principles we would want to have for a "fair" YCH, in theory:

1. Everyone who is a genuine, earnest fan should have a chance to but a slot at least once
2. No one should be prohibited from eventually purchasing at least one YCH due to cost
3. People who care more about the good or service should get a chance before those who are less invested
4. The artist should be treated fairly. This means reasonable compensation, reasonable hours, reasonable amounts of stress.
5. The customer should be satisfied that the work is unique to their character and personality, within reason
6. The artist should be able to balance YCH work with other creative and non-professional endeavors

You know that old joke about going to college? "Sex, Social Life, Schoolwork, Sleep. Pick two." Turns out the trade-offs around YCH organization are like that.

If you raise prices, you maximize #3 (for those that can afford it at all), but at the detriment of #2. If you switch to a lottery rather than first-come-first serve, you maximize #1, but at the expense of #3 - no guarantees that the superfans get to go first.

There are a few other alternatives, though. I've gotten a few pieces of art through Hazaky's "Unlimited YCH" system. The gender, body type, pose, and background are all predetermined, but it is open to as many people as would like to have it. What are the trade-offs here? Well, for one, we're maximizing #1 again at the expense of #3 and #4. This system does not select for the most earnest fans, and it can also be taxing for an artist - there is a finite amount of time in a given day, week, month, et cetera. But also - it is creatively limiting as well. So we're starting to miss out on #5 and #6. There's a certain amount of risk in burning out when working on the same basic outline over and over and over. And spending more time doing that means spending less time with fewer slots that allow the artist to assuage a greater amount of creativity and ability to use YCH's' as an avenue for experimentation. As far as price goes, this seems to strike a nice balance. If the artist can reuse some of their work, then the amount of dollars-per-hour seems to be greater than doing individual commissions or separate YCH's. So, pros: more accessible, less of a race, more price-effective for artist and commissioner. Cons? Less creative freedom, more risk of burnout, more frustration for those that feel they could get a YCH in the current system and have to wait longer for one they think fits their ideas, and the commissioners don't get a sense of having a unique status symbol to show their friends. When everyone is special, no one will be. Is this more fair or less? Depends who you're asking.

Another option is to take an approach similar to Feralise, where instead of a lottery, slots are submitted for ideas rather than YCH's. This isn't quite the same thing, but it's a different-enough trade-off to be worth mentioning. Pricing is still a matter of what an individual artist thinks is reasonable (coughmdfcough), so this doesn't help one way or the other with #1 or #2. However, it can select for earnestness while also preserving the creative integrity and fair treatment of the artist. That's #3, #4, and #6. #5 is subjective here, but generally better than something like an unlimited YCH. So what do we give up? No pre-fab sketches, so not generally a true YCH. It still doesn't really solve the problem of the quiet voices getting drowned out or priced out. And it can be a lot to ask for a popular artist to read through and choose from dozens or hundreds of ideas for any given slot. But if the submission process is "blind", there is a certain kindness in not having to outwardly reject an idea that you dislike. The assumption is that there is a finite amount of time, and other ideas were just better / more interesting. There's also the implication here that only those that have new or interesting ideas are the most worthy of art. If they have an unremarkable character or prefer to give the artist more of a "blank slate" to work with, they are less likely to get a slot in this system. It selects both for novelty and for ideas that align well with the interests of the artist. Is this, as a whole, more fair or less? Depends who's asking.

For the last few options, let's do a rapid-fire round. You could limit access to patrons / discord members first. More selection for earnestness (#3) at the cost of pricing out people (#1 and #2). You could collaborate with other artists and specialize in having one person do coloring or shading or what have you. Lots of complexity and investment to set up, and you lose the distinctiveness of your artistic style in the gestalt, but the pipeline increases without drastically increasing your workload. More #1 and #2, less of #5 and #6. You could sell less complex version of your work. Tentative sketches, bases, things designed to be colored or "finished" by other artists or the customer themselves. More #1 and #2, less #5. Also more complicated to price fairly.

In the end, something has to give. We sacrifice the sanity and working hours of the artist, or the poor-but-earnest fan, or the exceptionally-creative-and-particular. It should be noted that the list of six example values above are non-exhaustive and may not match your point-of-view. Take the time to delineate what your values are for your art and your YCH process, and then rank them. If you can choose one over another, then the solution space starts to narrow considerably. Hopefully this helps. Cheers!

I would never have imagined to find such a philosophical and analytical response to something as trite as furry YCH systems. This is well-thought out and articulated.

Ah, why thank you! I tend to be a bit verbose with open-ended questions ^^:

I don't actually have an issue with the current system except that I think one improvement could be to implement a rule so that the same person/people can't win too many times. You could say for example that one person can't win more than once every 6 auctions. That would allow others to feel like they have a good opportunity. Another possibility could be to say that if a certain number of people AB within a minute of each other, than you'll randomly select one of them. This could prevent the issue of people being beat out by a few seconds. For example, if there are multiple ABs within a minute of each other, then the first 3 will go into a raffle and one will be randomly selected.

Those could be a few ways to make it feel like more people have opportunities. But overall, I think the first come first serve system as you are doing is the most fair way of doing these. If everyone was in a raffle, it becomes more disappointing for all those who lose the raffle, and if it is some kind of selection process, people will feel left out by that as well.

No AB with snipe protection benefits you the artist most, though it means the clients with the deepest pockets generally end up with all the slots. Not necessarily a bad thing, just inconvenient for us medium and low income furs.

I'm in favor of the raffle system. Post the ych image and let people comment if they want to enter. You comment a number to each entry. After the raffle pool is made, let's say 24 or 48 hours, you use a random number generator to pick the winner.

I feel this is the most fair to give people a shot at getting your art. People get a chance to see the image and no instant buyouts. One thing I would implement along with this is that whoever wins the raffle can't be part of the next few raffles. Seeing one person grab up multiple slots has always been my least favorite thing with ych's.

I'd say make it a raffle with a set price. This gives everyone an equal chance to get chosen.

option B: You can remove the AB and sell to the highest bidder.

In all honesty there is no truly fair solution everything will have some downside. First come first serve favors people in certain timezones with faster and reliable internet. Raffle allows for everyone to have a fair chance but can leave mixed emotions after the fact. Not to mention if a RNG program is used and people find out which one is used then they can gain the system by figuring out which number sets come out the most since RNG programs vary in how truly random they are.

So in the end it all depends on you and how you want to run things. It is your job and you have to find the balance that you feel comfortable with.

Another thing I thought I should throw out there. If you decide to remove the AB, I would definitely institute a longer cooldown on how often the same person can bid on an auction after they win. Like honestly I'd move it to a year in that case. I know a lot of people have indicated their concern that without the AB, the most wealthy person will always win. I think giving it a very long cooldown in that case will help to mitigate that risk.

What's the problem?
People bet on a spot, highest bidder wins. Kinda like Ebay except with porn. What's the issue?

except that isnt how this worked at all? it was just a cluster fuck for buy it now

They have an autobuy price set (abbreviated to AB) and recently the slots are autobought immediately as soon as it starts. So its not really about the highest bidder, it's only about who types AB first as soon as the auction starts

Gonna mash up a few ideas from some of the others and suggest perhaps either

1: Submit your reference with a cooldown system

2: Raffle off the slots with a cooldown

Also, you could make each character in the ych's a different slot. That'll give more people chances to get in and you more money from each ych.

You've cultivated a really strong demand and reputation through hard work. Unpopular as it might be to suggest, I think you should reap the benefits of that and find a timed way to allow blind bidding which has a minimum bid and victory to whoever is willing to pay the most for any given piece.

Demand is clearly off the charts but you also want to minimize the amount of frustration which occurs in public / visible auction systems so that sincere bids have a chance to beat out those who make the mistake of trying to lowball a slot despite having the money to pay for your work.

Alternatively, if you don't like the idea of raising your prices in any and you want to move away from the first bid, you can move to a timed opt-in only raffle system and televise the use of some wheel that picks a name from your list so that people know that you're not just playing favorites.

What do you think is flawed about it?

Raffles get my vote for sure!

I believe ychs should be no more, just commissions. Have an application form and a fixed price depending on background, number of characters. add your own tos of what you will or will not draw and then use random number generator so its fair for everyone.

Just start raking in as much money as possible (its the new hip thing to do, sayeth the popular furs), eventually the people who spam-buy your art will have to run out of money, then you can make art for those dirty poors who can't afford to pay that much. And by that time you'll have so much money you can invest in cloning technology to create duplicates of yourself which you can enslave to make more art!

While I totally understand the sentiment, given how some people argue in here.
That last part though, sounded like you’re aiming your "frustration" towards the wrong person~

While surely everyone agrees on raising the prices to a appropriate level. The dimensions that some rather carefree appearing people suggest, especially those who coincidentally own a art collection filled to the brim with pricy high quality artwork, seem certainly a "little bit" biased~

I think either hosting a raffle with a set price, removing the AB option or having simpler single character YCHs that can be bought by up to 3 different people would be the best option

A lot of people really want to support your art more directly, so adding more opportunities to get art from you while also raising the prices a bit to reflect that seems like one of the Best ways IMO

I'm not actually sure what problems you're having. Taking a glance at previous YCHs, the only suggestion I'd have is increase the anti-snipe time to half an hour or so, since ten minutes is a very short window for someone to react to a comment on FA.

I also concur with the other comments suggesting a sort of "cooldown" period wherein a previous auction winner can't win again for some time.

Ultimately, though, this is business. If the same people continually want to bid very large sums of money for your work, take it as a compliment and accept the work.

A raffle system seems like the most fair option option to with. This is unfortunately a pure chance system, but since you simple can't possibly get to everyone who wants a piece from you, this seems like the best option by far, at least as far as fairness is concerned. I might suggest that if you go with a raffle system, you include odds incentives for participants, such as Patreons getting higher odds, higher tiers on Patreon getting slightly better odds, etc. Since they're already supporting you, they ought to get the best odds, you know?

I would suggest not returning to your commission waitlist, since it is so outdated and overloaded, that it would punish the vast majority of fans/customers which simply came to you a bit later than others.

The Most fair way would be a raffle for every slot and you pick a random number

This is short but id suggest 1. Remove the AB option or 2. Have ur YCH's as a raffle. Everyone gets a number. You roll the numbers and whatever numbers it lands on, the person with that number wins that YCH piece.

Anyone can use a auto buy script to instantly win under buttons.

1. No auto-buy
2. 24 hour snipe protection (auctions don't end until there's no higher bids for 24 hours)

You could leave it up for 24 hours let everyone place a bid of what they want to pay, then you pick. like then it comes down to what you want to draw character wise and price, so it is not first or just the most money.

-shrugs- o.o

Some thoughts about the YCH system:

1) Create a raffle system
2) Application system for characters to be featured in your art for private YCH's
3) Raise the AB price to 700 USD
4) Snipe protection - wait till at least 30 minutes after the last bid to close the ych
5) Create three queues - 1) patreon only YCH 2) Wait list 3) General YCH

One thing I would do is limit the amount of times people can get recurring commissions from you, if you state it as a rule I'm sure that would help with some light enforcement and prevent someone from making you their own personal artist.

I'm not sure how you're feeling about the wait list, but I'd create a rolling commission system where there's a limit to the number of people on the waiting list at any given time. Creating a giant list can create a lot of stress for those on it and for yourself, it's like looking at an endless to do and losing hope that you'll ever get to the bottom of it. For your own well being, I'd figure out a way to shorten it and make a raffle system for the wait list where the last person on that list doesn't have to wait more than 3-4 months till the start of work. That might mean only 5 folks at a time or 20, depends how much bandwidth you want to devote to the wait list versus your YCHs.

I dont think it is too horrible, but my 2 cents is, the bidding/AB system works well for when you want to sell quickly and may not be sure your pieces will sell, by offering AB and bidding you can entice people to bet and ab if they really want it, however you are too well known properly to still use this since people will always AB, what may be better is to offer a price of your ych that is the same as the AB price you would have given it, then let people say if they want to buy it or not, then give all who AB'ed a number and use a random number generator to pick one.

Honestly. You're at the point where people are willing to spend high amounts of money for your work. I'd reccomend either doing a raffle system like everyone is suggesting, or switching to you picking from character submissions.

Because the instant over AB YCHs are getting depressing.

I'd do three things:

1 Increase the AB as a first change
2 Add a cooldown to how often people can win to spread it around/vary your portfolio
3 If thats still not enough change AB so instead of an automatic win it starts a 24h timer. Anyone who ABs in that time gets entered into a raffle for the slot.

One idea that you shouldn't do that comes up a lot is splitting the slots in each piece into multiple auctions. I don't want to be in a sexy piece with strangers and a lot of other people would feel the same.

Yo diría que elimines la opción del AB, que pongas una fecha límite y veas a cuánto llega cada YCH.
De esa manera podrías averiguar cuánto es que la gente acepta pagar por tus cosas para poder poner después los futuros YCHs a un precio fijo más alto que el actual. (Porque la verdad, yo considero que quinientas lucas por una ilustración de hasta 3 personajes es muy poco :( )

Además de ello, como leí por ahí, también apoyo la idea de que elimines tu waitlist para poder poner precios a las comisiones personalizadas que sean más justos con tus trabajos. Por ejemplo, 350 o algo así por un personaje solo más fondo.
Yo recuerdo que eres de Chile por ende me imagino que ganar más sería bien ventajoso con cómo está la situación en el país. Yo también soy Chilena, por eso mismo cobro harto lol.

Oh oh y lo último es que; siempre habrán tipos/as descontentos con cómo decidas hacer las cosas. Pero debes no dejarte desalentar por ellos, no vale la pena sentirse mal o dejar de lado las habilidades que has ganado en tantos años por wns quejumbrosos.

hmm imo it would just be really cool to have some ych's where you can only bid fir the entire thing and ych's where you can bid oer character.

This really gives couples a chance to win an ych without the risk to suddenly have a random person win the other character of the ych. My bf has had this once and it was really difficult to get out of. Therefore ych's whete you bid for the whole artwork would also be cool (posting some of those as well as normal ones, to mix it up a bit)

or if you like doing an ych twice you could oost it twice, once where you bid per character and once where you bid for the whole piece. Though not everyone likes the idea of buying an ych that also exists with ither characters and therefore not being unique anymore

This Vsauce video is actually really good at explaining the psychology and economics of auctions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-.....xmg&t=545s

Here’s an idea that I have that could be fair for everyone:

Post your YCH as normal but do NOT allow bidding to start. Simply post the YCH so people know what to expect.

Then in the description post the exact date and time that the YCH will be officially posted so that if someone really wants it they can at least have a fighting chance rather than the YCH going live at a random time where someone might be looking away or asleep.

This is how most online retailers sell collectibles. They’ll make their announcement of what’s to come and then give a date and time in which the item in question will be for sale. First come first serve. But at that point at least people have an idea so if they want it bad enough they’ll set alarms and reminders. The advantage to posting the YCH early for people to see will give people a chance to look at it and see if it’s something they want rather than just being impulse.

One thing I hate with YCHs or commissions is raffles. It’s very disheartening and when like 500+ people enter EVERY TIME then the odds of you winning are basically 0.

he announces YCH's about 24h in advance via journal

I’m aware. But unless he announces the EXACT TIME it doesn’t really matter. Cause I was at work when he posted it. If he announces a time I could make an arrangement for a bathroom break or something.

But also if he posts the initial sketch of the YCH instead of a journal he can get more eyes on it and also see if people are into the idea itself.

Imagine going to GameStop in line for a PS5 and they raffle it off? That’s unfair to the people who made an effort to be there early.

But it doesn’t matter if the opening time is unknown.

he does announce the exact time. 11am EST for this latest batch was announced yesterday. And to be clear it was posted at 11am EST give of take a few seconds

I didn’t know that. I don’t look at his journals

The issue is that that will result in the EXACT same issue - people who have either no life or are adderal gremlins will stalk the page and snipe the AB before anyone else has a chance to even react.

The issue can be easily fixed by preventing/ignoring ALL AB offers with the potential of driving the price of the YCH higher. This isn't truly an issue, however, as people will get what they pay for and it is up to them to dictate the value of Rajii's artwork. "I got carried away" isn't an excuse. In turn, this can generate more income for Rajii. The downside of course being that certain people will (they always will) rant about not being able to snipe up his YCHs anymore by instantly ABing it.

EDIT: (I also get this might've come off as hostile; that wasn't my intention!)

By posting a time tho if you want it bad enough you kinda have to do that. I buy collectibles and if I want it bad enough I have to stalk the site and snipe when I can or else it sells out in a minute.

I think rajii should upload the actual ych so people can at least see what it is so they have time to make a decision if they want it instead of impulse buying it.

I like the AB idea because it gives people a better chance. Some people with no lives will pay literal thousands for a piece of art, good on them I suppose, but it really makes it unfair for others to compete with rich people.

I’m on rajiis waiting list. Will I ever get my turn? Who knows. But I’m sorta waiting for that cause I’m hoping I won’t have to deal with the ych.

mapleyy brought up a good auction method earlier that I think is worth consideration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey_auction

That’s not a bad idea.

But there will be that one person that ways pays like 2k lol

I know artists who draw the same characters over and over because they seem to have a bottomless bank account

By definition, an auction is sold to the highest bidder. the whole point of the auction is to get the person who was the deepest pockets to pay the most. What it sounds like, is that you don't want a YCH auction you just want commission slots.

There are furries who will pay up to $5k for a $300 drawing. Those are the people who ruin it for others.

But yes I prefer commissions over YCHs simply because I have a dragon character which he usually doesn’t do proposed YCHs for. And even if he did it would sell out immediately because I won’t know what it is.

- Stalk protection. Prevent/ignore ANY AB offers for the first (X) hours upon posting an auction.
- Set price raffle. Let people enter, then draw lots, 1 lot to a person. The person who is drawn gets the commission - if the winner can not pay, redraw with their lot as forfeit.

Raffles are one of the worst things when it comes to selling stuff. I hate when people do raffles. It makes me not want to participate and eventually lose interest in the artist knowing I’ll never get a chance at a drawing. If 500 enter that’s a 0% chance at winning.... every time.

Statistically, no, it is a 0.2% chance, but I digress.

Basically 0.

Well, given how popular Rajii is, there really is no other way to prevent losing a slot to AB sniping other than partaking in it yourself, which only perpetuates the issue at hand.

If you have a raffle, there's no guarantee that you'll win, but you'll (ideally) have the same shot at a slot as everybody else. If you host an auction with no AB ceiling, then only the people with the deepest pockets will win. If the artist gets to choose, then there's the risk of favoritism -- no offense to Rajii or anything, but that concern has been expressed upon reading through some of these comments.

Rajii is well within their rights to do whatever they please, but if they want to make things fair and accessible to as many people as possible, then leaving the slot winners to chance, limiting slots to one-per and implementing timeouts is about as fair as it's going to get IMO. You and many others may not like it, but all things considered, it's still better than simply leaving the YCH situation as is.

I think he should keep his current method but instead of writing a journal, post a sample of the ych so people know what it is.

I think a lot of people impulse buy even if they don’t like the ych itself simply to get art at all. Hell I’ve done it before. I didn’t like the theme of the art but I knew it was my only opportunity so I took it

Same. The second I see the word "raffle", I go someplace else.

If I was an artist I would just stick to AB I think increasing the price would kill those who wanted something from you as a fan.

In conclusion the best and most possible chance that is extremely fair is locking it to 15 abs per slot.

A. 15 people entered ab
B. 15 people entered ab
C. 15 people entered ab

You run the raffle to randomly pick the winner 3 winners.

They cannot enter other slot but only one just like they limited to one YCH

Once the winners are posted. The rest who entered cannot enter next month ych to give others a chance. They have to respect this.

After this month the previous who have entered have a better odd of winning next ych. This does not increase every time just once and it expires just like a coupon.

Always verify the winner if they are trying to get alt in and if they have won before. If so ban them from ever entering ych cause of violation.

This is the best possible for being fair for the flawed system and in fact I don't mind this.

Another problem not knowing what what the ych will be like. Some preview would be nice beforehand before releasing the official bid pool table. This would give the person to to think what slot would be wanted. Also maybe being a bit unpredictable with posting it on point would be nice as long as it's within 30 minutes from the actual time.

A preview beforehand would be a great idea I think. It’ll give people a chance to decide if they even want it before bidding without having the stress of deciding right then and there

Yeah this would make it easy on everyone without stress picking.

Those for big pockets you can do big exclusive and make it a bit special because they got the money for it. Meaning no ab option, state your business what you'll work on for them to test the water. Within your comfortable time to do so. As for wait list there has to be something done about it as well for example find a schedule to knock out 5 at a time or simply stop doing ych/ exclusive for a while until you are caught up with them. Same can be done with closing the wait list and disabling comments for two years until you are done. Open it whenever then close it when you see a reasonable amount on the wait list.

Announce when you open or close wait list to let them know

I feel like most of what I would have suggested has already been said, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway.

Going with a lot of what others have been saying, it's probably best if you limit YCHs to one per person. Those who want to buy one can apply, and you could either go the raffle route or choose the characters based on what you had in mind when creating the initial sketch.

Furthermore, the person who got their YCH for that period of time shouldn't be able to get a shot at another one until after the next batch of YCH slots that you open up. So, assuming you continue doing monthly YCHs, if someone got a YCH in January, they wouldn't be able to sign up again for another chance at a slot until March.

I know it might seem unfair to some people, but I think this is probably the best way to keep YCHs relatively accessible to as many people as possible instead of having auctions with no AB ceiling, which would leave only the people with the deepest pockets fighting among themselves for a slot.

That said, it's your art, and as it's been mentioned before, you clearly have the capacity to charge more or simply let the wealthiest duke it out. Regardless of your decision, I still look forward to getting another piece from you should the opportunity arise.

Let everyone who wants to AB be added to a pool to do a lottery from

It's not fair that AB goes to whoever is fastest, people like me who sleep during the day for nightshift usually get screwed this way

The way I see it, if multiple people want to AB and have the ability for it, let them have an equal chance at it? That's my suggestion, thank ya

Select folk who want stuff you want to do most.

A few already mentioned this, but set a set price on slots, give it a 1-2 day cutoff for 'slots', then pick the guys that you want to draw.

You're the artist, should be able to decide what you actually want to spend time on, you know?

People are going to be unhappy - you're an awesome artist and demand is through the roof.

In defense of the AB option: Suppose you want to get something for you and your partner as a surprise gift--a common commission premise. Without AB, one of your characters is liable to get paired up with some rando, completely defeating the purpose. This is why, without AB, I would just avoid all YCHs, and so would my money.

And you can set the AB price however high you want.

I agree to this. I’ve been paired with someone I wasn’t too fond of before

That's kind of an accepted thing with YCHs though, if you need to get art with a specific character you should be doing regular commissions, not betting on YCHs, otherwise it makes it not a YCH and just a regular commission slot that someone called a YCH.

+1 to raffle idea.

Give normal people a fighting chance against those with a 6 digit bank account or people who smash their refresh button to insta-claim slots.

I prefer raffle or raffle-like commissions where you open for commissions/YCH slots/etc, for say an hour or 12 hours or whatever (to get a bunch of submissions but not too many to go through), then either take the ideas you like the most or just do a random number generator type thing and pick random people on the list, preferably giving priority to users who haven't commissioned you before.

Start using Patreon where subscribers will all get a fair chance of winning the YCH via a raffle, that way most fans are able to not only get a chance at your art (not being limited by their income), but also to support you. I personally think it has the positives of not only giving people that love your work a change but perhaps also being more lucrative than the current YCH system.

I wish you the best <3

Solve them like everyone solves everything these days. Ban them all and let them e beg somewhere else

Normally I don't chime in due to how fascist people are these days but fa has become 90% ych spam so... there really isn't much left to loose. So telling people to do the overzealous censorship they always use with everything else seems fair. And now that's its needed no one will do it...