Unscrupulous people

[Todd Shogun]

The following is an eBay auction of one of Stan's free convention sketches.

eBay Auction

Initial bid price of $10. There was a discussion about this over on the UYD Mailing List. Very unscrupulous...

[morna-san]

I don't know how this "comicmonster" guy got ahold of so many of these but I seem to get notification every other day for one going up on e-bay. It irks me to think some goof is making money from Stan's generosity. I wish there was a way to stop this kind of reprehensible activity. I guess if our society condones it and people will buy them, what can you do?

sigh

[Ca7nk]

Not to take away from the seriousness of the topic but did anybody else find that particular sketch as amuseing as much as I did. It looks like he's being blown to the wayside by a strong gust of wind and the expression is just priceless.

I'm still slightly outraged at this kind of thing though. Such things should be treasured.

[Ben]

It's heartwarming to know there are always guys out there willing to make comic creators more wary and suspicious of their fans.

Geez-louise. The douche gets the sketch for free, and I'd have to pay $200-300 smackeroos for the same sketch on ebay.

[Thomas Froehling]

The things that really make me angry are:

A) That he calls it "Original Art"; I mean, ok, it's a piece of art, and it was originally sketched by Stan Sakai. But the important word here is "sketched".

B) That sketch is personalized "To Jim", it was Stans equivalent of a personal gift;
Now, dear Jim, there are always very good reasons to get rid of some gifts, they might not fit in the little space you've got, their color might not fit in the living room, they might be downright hideously ugly... you get the picture.
But when you get rid of uncle Stans boring pencil scribblings, don't go around being proud of it!! Next time, uncle Stan may be wary about giving you any other gift. He may even change his last will, and where would that leave you?!



Selling a gift means bad luck, is my belief; rather look out for someone in need and share the gift.
There's always a charity organisation willing to accept donations...

[Stan Sakai]

This one just ended with a $40 + postage winning bid:

eBay Auction

A bunch of us artists have been trying to solve this e-bay thing for years. Some have stopped drawing free sketches completely. Another will do them only for those 12 and under. Those who do draw these freebies will only do so if it is personalized. But even that does not stop it from showing up on e-bay.

Right now, there are four conditions for one of my sketches in the US: 1-supply your own paper; 2-it has to be personalized; 3-I do not do requests; and 4-one per person.

[Colin Solan]

"Comic Monster" is infamous enough in the sketchhound community that the name has become synonomous with any flippers, whether they pay for the art or not.

[Leonardo-san]

Sad...a couple bad people mess it up for all the good ones out there....

If any UY fans want something from Stan at a convention, they just have to ask nicely in the thread where it's being discussed. I've picked things up for fans before--just cover the cost of the item and postage, and be sure I know how you want it personalized....don't support those jerks on Ebay.

[Todd Shogun]

A bunch of us artists have been trying to solve this e-bay thing for years. Some have stopped drawing free sketches completely. Another will do them only for those 12 and under. Those who do draw these freebies will only do so if it is personalized. But even that does not stop it from showing up on e-bay.

I've been thinking about how to stop this myself. Other than the obvious -- stop doing them, there's not much you can do. Not doing them will hurt existing and new fans, who far outnumber the parasites who exploit the art and generosity of talented creators.

The only thing I could come up with is the old "fight fire with fire" solution. You see a sketch up for auction on eBay, you turn around, do some very similar sketches, and post them on eBay as a buy-it-now for $0.01 plus postage, essentially offering it for free, then personalizing it for the buyer. The problem with this method is that it of course is time-consuming and there's no guarantee that the parasites themselves won't buy them then turn around and resell them!

Then I thought of another method -- contact the bidders during the auction and offer them free sketches to retract their bid and deter them from further bidding. All they pay is postage. Again, time-consuming, but if you were to delegate the duties to certain Dojo Members (hint, hint), I am sure they'd be willing to help out. This might dissuade the parasites from bothering to put their sketches up for auction...if they start seeing bid retractions, they might get the message and stop this madness. The thing about this method is they'll never even know what's happening, and you don't run the risk of being bombarded with requests for free sketches...you just focus on the actual bidders.

Everytime I think of this it really gets to me. I'd really like to wage war on these people. This is all I could come up with.

Has anyone contacted the winner of this auction (the one that sold for $40)? Thinking about doing it myself. Not to chastise them, but just to get an idea what prompted them to bid, and if offering them a free sketch if they retracted their bid would be of interest. What do you all think about contacting eBay members in this manner?

[morna-san]

I kinda think ebay frowns on that sort of thing. They seem to be taking steps to make it more difficult for anyone other that the winning bidder or the seller to be contacted by anyone not involved in the actual sale. I kinda think the best option is education! Perhaps a modified version of your first proposal Todd.
If Stan or someone were to put one of the drawings up from time to time with information clearly displayed saying something like : please do not purchase drawings like this they were done as a gift and personalized to the recipient from the artist. Commerce involving these free sketches is unethical. blah blah blah... and a blurb telling people exactly how to get the free sketches legitimately.

I dunno - I feel a lot of frustration about this too and they turn up SO regularly.

[Maka]

Hello UY Fans,

Not doing them will hurt existing and new fans, who far outnumber the parasites who exploit the art and generosity of talented creators.

True. The top bidders are willing to pay that much because:

1) They are a UY/Sakai fan and liked the sketch enough to pay $ for it
2) They may NEVER see Mr. Sakai in person and want a "one-of-a-kind" UY piece of art.
3) They think it's an investment and hope to resell in the future.
4) Any combination of the above or other unknown reasons

The only thing I could come up with is the old "fight fire with fire" solution. . . . The problem with this method is that it of course is time-consuming and there's no guarantee that the parasites themselves won't buy them then turn around and resell them!

Exactly.

But what if Mr. Sakai modified your idea a little bit like this:

Once a year, Mr. Sakai or someone (i.e. Go or Steve or Todd or me or FanFan for those international fans, or even Dark Horse Comics.) representing him holds a Usagi Yojimbo CHARITY auction of some rare UY items: sketches, convention drawings, individually signed comics, graphic novels, and promotional pieces on eBay.

The auctions description it spells out:

1) This is raise money for Mr. Sakai’s Charity of Choice (link to the Charity’s website).
2) Give UY fans (including those who aren't able to see Mr. Sakai) a chance to own a rare UY collectable.
3) This UY Charity auction happens once a year, so if you don’t win this time, there will be next year. (this is optional. Mr. Sakai could do just one year to see how it goes).

This would give Mr. Sakai a tax write-off (a little economic reward for his generosity, work, and time). Mr. Sakai’s charity of choice gains $ and publicity for their cause. Mr. Sakai gain’s publicity for UY comics and books (I’m sure the PR department in DHC would be able to market this charity auction well. Other artist “who have been trying to solve this ebay thing for years” could join too if they agreed on the charity). And if successful, it becomes an annual event that let’s people know they will have an opportunity to buy “rare” UY items for a good cause.

There will always be supply and demand economics on eBay for rare UY stuff. Fans are willing to pay $ for rare stuff, me included. I don’t believe we can stop those who want to make a quick buck off of Mr. Sakai’s generosity.

This charity auction idea will not solve that problem but addresses indirectly. A charity benefits. It doesn’t make Mr. Sakai appear like he is being petty/vindictive for trying to shut down the few who are abusing the system. It demostrates that Mr. Sakai as a person who cares about his community and fans.

<b>What do others on this Dojo think? Would you support this Usagi Yojimbo Charity Auction with your hard earned cash? </b>

Everytime I think of this it really gets to me. I'd really like to wage war on these people.

I hear you Todd. Those Bastards!

Peace,

maka

[go]

eBay Auction

[shaxper]

eBay Auction

Holy geez.


So Stan, do you ever figure out who some of these people are? If so, what do you do when they come back for another sketch?

[Stan Sakai]

The problem did diminish by a lot when I started personaliizing the drawings. I noticed one seller had cut off my signature from the posted image because the person's name was right above my signature.

A deterent, though not a solution, might be to make the receiver's name a lot more prominent such as:

to MOE SCHULTZ, from stan sakai

[Todd Shogun]

<b>What do others on this Dojo think? Would you support this Usagi Yojimbo Charity Auction with your hard earned cash? </b>

I like it. Assuming Stan is willing to participate. The only problem I see is that having it annually could be too infrequent, and allows fairly large windows for the parasites to do their dirty work, namely making money off Stan and dedicated UY fans. Perhaps a standing auction of various things, including personalized sketches. Maybe offering up about 20 sketches at a time, drowning out the parasites like Comic Book Monster. I like your supply/demand analogy. The idea is to decrease demand by making these easy and cheap for fans to obtain. That will piss off the parasites because they'll no longer be able to reap in the huge profits. Plus you can also post an announcement in each charity auction about the activities of the parasites, how it is pure exploitation and greed, and appeal to potential bidders' honorable sides.

Unfortunately there are no laws against this type of unscrupulous activity. But the fundamental laws of economics can be a powerful weapon...

eBay Auction

Thing about this, it's for a signed sketchbook, not just the sketch. But dang, that's a lot of money for a sketchbook!!!!!