Just need some advice

[foxonian.livejournal.com]

Some years ago(2005),I commissioned a certian furry artist to draw a pick of my character Cindy.I recieved the image via jpg. file,but never the original.At the time,I thought that it was either lost in the mail or this commission was for an image file.I do recall sending the artist an email about it back then,but never got a reply.Well, a few days ago,I was looking though Furbuy and I came upon this: http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1013018.html I sent the artist an email a day or so ago asking them to either cancel the auction and send me the pick(to which I would pay s/h) or if that were not possible,do draw another pick of Cindy in a simmiar pose for a price that would be negotiated.To date I have recieved no reply.This leaves me frustrated.Should I place a bid on a pick that I already paid for long ago? or just let the whole thing drop and chaulk it up to my own stupidity for not having checked back with this artist over the years.I just don't know what to do here. Note: since I wrote this,at the advice of a friend I have contacted Furbuy administrators to ask to have the auction pulled until I can work this out between the artist and myself.I am awaitng their response or a reply from the artist in question. Edit : Since this post was made,I have come to a resolution with the artist in question.I will be getting my art for a price that was negotiated fairly between us.Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions concerning this matter.It is now closed as far as I am concerned.

Comments

[nurseniknak.livejournal.com]

I doubt there's much that can be done about it now, especially since the bidding is over $300 (WHAT?!).

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

Woah. that is /really/ shitty. Especially that you kept contacting the artist. I'm sorry about all this, I'm not sure what can be done now that there's bids.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

Just reading through this thread's responses now. There's a lot of information that's missing. Foxonian claims he sent a follow-up e-mail about getting the original not long after I sent him the finished scan. Unfortunately for him, a Google search shows our commission dialog thread proper, but I never received his followup e-mail. The commission was executed during finals my senior year of school, and I can only use this as a (poor) excuse for letting it "slip through the cracks", in Foxonian's own words. Normally I'm much more meticulous, but at least I kept the item safe in my binder up to now. Heh.

[hellebore.livejournal.com]

man i need in on this furby stuff thats crazy

[lurkerwisp.livejournal.com]

For serious. :|

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

... holy crap I hadn't even paid attention to the price. What the...

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

You really need to go back and check the agreement you had with the artist and make sure it was supposed to be mailed to you. I'm sure the furbuy mods will take the complaint seriously if you're right and present them with evidence to back it up.

Also unless you are prepared to pay $300+ for it? I wouldn't keep bidding on it.

[rizzy-rau.livejournal.com]

That does suck, on the fact if you paid for it you should have gotten it, however having recently commissioned the artist myself, i can tell you contact, and emails might be a little slow to being responded, as the artist is planning on moving, and is slow to reply.

This could honestly be a mistake on their half, especially in a frantic of clearing out and moving. I'd say possibly shoot another e-mail to see whats going on.

[kitefeathers.livejournal.com]

Aren't they breaking some FurBuy policy by doing this?

[lobotomysoup.livejournal.com]

Ug why would anyone do that?

I understand the desire for the original, I mean thats your brain child there. But to keep bidding on it .. to bid on something you don't want this person to sell in the first place? You're bumping the price up even if you don't win it.

But now they won it? That was just .. stupid.

[zoom-gas.livejournal.com]

good god 9_9

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

"I thought that it was either lost in the mail or this commission was for an image file."
Uh, that's a pretty important distinction there. Do you have proof you were owed THE ORIGINAL?

[voidrae.livejournal.com]

welp, at least you'll have the original.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

Wait, didn't she already tell you to keep bidding, and when you win it, she'll ship it to you for just the price of shipping and handling (based on another journal entry of yours)? I thought your initial fear was that you'd lose the piece. But you ended up winning it, so won't she just ship it to you for S/H?
I hope that's how this pans out. Good luck!

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of /this/ at all. That puts things into a whole new light and I'm happy that it seems that the OP will get their piece without having to pay extra for it, but my thinking is that since this community's entries are moderated and are generally put into a queue to be approved later, this happened after the entry was written, submitted and later mod-approved.

[foxonian.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's pretty much how it went.To be honest,there were mistakes made on both sides of this arrangement.I should have been more vigirous in following up on this matter.I'm just happy that it worked out okay in the end.

[growly.livejournal.com]

That's... not cool. o_O I always offer to ship originals to customers before I pop them up for sale. If they don't reply or say no thanks, then I sell it.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

Here's what happened. Foxonian had commissioned me several times before, and in the past it was part of our terms that I give him the original as part of the deal.

This particular commission was done during finals my senior year of college, which explains why I was less mindful about it, and delayed in mailing it out. At one point, I asked Foxonian for his "address", meaning his e-mail address, so that I could send him a PayPal invoice. He interpreted "address" as mailing address, and sent me his physical address instead.

I never overtly acknowledged this, and we never explicitly agreed that I mail him the original; however, when I looked back over the email thread I belatedly realized it was something that was implied. While never dictated in writing, because of our prior history I realized it was his understanding this whole time that he was owed the original. He tried sending a follow-up e-mail but I never received it, as evidenced by Gmail search.

I've learned from this situation, of course. I probably should simply have hung onto the original and not bothered with selling it; maybe posted the image to a gallery to help ask for identification. And of course, a professional would have realized that you must play by the books and go by the proof that you have in front of you. That would mean I'd have to be hard on Foxonian and say "sorry, tough, but we never outright agreed to this"; but my sympathy for him directed me to favor his circumstances.

This is obviously not something that happens on a regular basis for me. I only put the auction up for sale because in the four years since the commission transpired, I had forgotten who the original belonged to. I regularly make practice to offer first dibs of an original to a client -- 99% of the time, at no extra charge besides shipping.

[bethymania.livejournal.com]

You should send the artist a jpg. of $320.

[lozpie.livejournal.com]

lol

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Did you agree that you would get the hard copy at the time?
It sounds ridiculously meticulous that you'd have to ask for it, but not every artist includes ownership of the original with the commission price. When you commission someone you usually pay them for services rendered and not necessarily the physical item.
Sounds weird I know, I always send people the finished product, but different strokes. If you didn't agree beforehand, it is legal for him to sell the drawing.

I do hope he gets back to you and that you can come to a mutually satisfactory decision. Personally I'd advise against commissioning him again though, lest you're in the same boat 4 years from now.

[foxonian.livejournal.com]

Before anyone else says anymore,since this post was first placed I have resolved all issues with the artist in question and I will soon be getting my pick.I am sorry that I could not stop this post sooner.I also apologize to Kaput for any unintentional harm it may have caused.As far as I am coincerned,this issue is closed.Let's move on shall we?

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Then you need to edit the post to have the resolution in it.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Yeah Kaput is good people. I figured she would resolve this peaceably. I'm sure she just found it in a stack of stuff and wanted to get rid of it, and forgot to send it to you.
Despite all the drama from the comments from the usual suspects, I'm glad to see this got resolved.

[foxonian.livejournal.com]

*nods* I agree. She's a great person to work with.I would recommend her to anyone who wants a commission.

[jurann.livejournal.com]

I will just note here that this was NOT the proper method to resolving an issue on FurBuy. Rather than work with our policies and the admin team, the artist and commissioner took matters into their own hands and left a trail of upset bidders for us to deal with. It may be happily ever after and "worked out" for the two of them, but there are several other people engaged now in discussing the proper response to violation of contract and terms of use on FurBuy.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

I've made some mistakes. I'll be the first to admit that. I like to think I have some experience under my belt, but even after doing commissions and other business about my art for all this time, there are still some ways in which I am imperfect.

I have only just discovered this thread as of this moment, and although I have not had time to read the volume of posts, I can scan how it has played out. I want to thank everyone who's defended me (especially on issues of copyright, ownership as per contracts, etc). and again, I want to publicly acknowledge that I have made a mistake.

You know what they say about the road to hell, but I can only claim that I had the best intentions with all of this.

[co-nutcase.livejournal.com]

I feel this is a good thing to do for the artist. Selling a picture of someone elses character and not only that but a commission.

but wow $300+ for the picture