"Today was a terrible day because..."

[Scytherwolf]

gosh i feel you. sometimes the art community is just brutal. i definitely undersell my art and i've just give up at this point haha. don't let them get you down though. there's someone out there who will definitely pay full price for your plushes. they're great <3 its just a matter of time of waiting for the commissioner you know? :')

Yeah, I'm so sick of this and kind of just want to say screw it. And I know good people are out there, because I've had good experiences before, I've just had a long string of crappy ones where I have to help pay for someone's luxury item from me.

Bingo. If they can't afford it, they can't afford it. Plushies and other fun things like that are great, but they're not essential in life. We're not talking food, water, and shelter here. If they can't see the value in your work, then it's probably not a customer you want to work with.

I've purchased a few custom kigurumis through Etsy and I can tell these poor shops have been burned by rotten customers in the past. Product pages with warnings in all caps, detailed notes and rationalization about why they can do or can't do certain things, and all kinds of other signs like deposit paying that make it clear they're on their guard about trusting who they're doing the stuff for. They must be outright SHOCKED when they get to me and I try to be as friendly as possible and pay everything up front as soon as I get the quote. And if it's too high, I just politely say thanks but it's a little too high and that's it. To me, I don't haggle because quite frankly, it seems terribly annoying to the shop owner and they've got other customers waiting. Their time is precious too and I respect that. I know it would drive me crazy to have long back and forward negotiations where the customer expects freebies and favors done just because they think they're a special snowflake, and if they don't get it, they continue to bother you or even do something morbidly stupid like report your shop. I hate to say it, but I've seen multiple really cool Etsy shops close down and I have a feeling garbage like this was the root cause of it.

Still, stand your ground and be true to yourself. Your work is AMAZING and personally I would NEVER expect you to under-value it or put a price on something that you feel just isn't fair to yourself and the time, energy, skill, and material cost that goes into these fantastic creations of yours. And to me, I enjoy supporting independent shops and have gotten many really cool things from them over the years (I freaking LOVE this Emolga kigurumi I have!).

I know what you're thinking and yes, you would totally nail me hook, line, and sinker with the prospect of a customized Emolga plushie. If and when the stuff on your plate clears up... feel free to reach out and we can talk about the one Pokémon that has a sheer talent at derailing my train of financial responsibility. XD

Yes, exactly. I'm not their only source of food or something. If they want a plushie that bad, go to a toy store. It won't be what they want, but it'll be cheap.

Yeah, I have an etsy shop (need to renew my listings though) and no real bad experiences there, but I haven't sold much either and all this stuff scares me.

But just...WHY? Why is my time not worth the money? These people would be super upset if they walked into work and their boss said "sorry, I'll have to pay you less this week because I'm short on money. You still have to work just as hard and just as long though." That's pretty much what they're doing to me except I'm already working well below minimum wage even without lowering my prices.

Yeah, I will stand up to these people from now on. And thank you, I'm really glad you understand this!

Also I would absolutely trust you as a commissioner. Maybe this can be done sometime!

it could've been the high shipping cost the buyer was concerned about, NOT YOUR ART. so you could have had the option for the buyer to pick up the item ( hopefully they weren't trying to make you feel bad ) because you are a great artist Scytherwolf, PM when you get a chance to so i can see some of your art that you are selling




also Neo Emolga has a point @Scytherwolf that you as a artist needs to receive a decent amount for the plush you create ( with the key factors being. cost for materials, the time & effort you put in, quality of the art ( and i'm guessing the art is amazing quality ), etc


if you're selling art on Etsy i would like to look at your awesome art if there's a link

Unfortunately, they can't pick it up as they live a looooong way away from me. But yeah, I can show you my art sometime. ^^

I do have an etsy shop, but like I said I need to relist some things. XD It's here!

Also update, the plush buyer (grudgingly) agreed to me paying half shipping, still complaining it was "too expensive." I DON'T CONTROL SHIPPING COSTS. And it's a BIG plush.

They said they'll pay later this month, but if takes too long I'm just gonna say, "Sorry, need to sell soon" and put it on Etsy. I've had so many bad experiences with "holding" plush for people, only for them to never ever pay.