PSA: Don't accept lowball offers from Marketplace teams for your skins Minecraft Skin
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PSA: Don't accept lowball offers from Marketplace teams for your skins

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Auri's Avatar Auri
Retired Moderator
Level 71 : Legendary Skinner
1,270
Don't consider this proper counsel or whatever, just some handy personal advice.

The Marketplace is a nice way to earn money, but too often do I see lowball prices for skins offered by Marketplace teams. I'm tired of that and you should be too.

There's any number of reasons why these prices are so low in the first place. Maybe non-skinners underestimate the effort required to make skins, or maybe these teams have gotten greedy. Whatever the case may be, these offers continue to exist because other skinners accept them. That's bad business.

$10 per skin is okay (albeit low) for normal commissions from other PMC users or Minecraft players that want a custom skin for personal use.
$10 per skin is utterly unacceptable for commissions from a Marketplace team that wants to sell content for profit.

I can't stress this enough, Marketplace teams are businesses - they exist to make money from the Marketplace using content you create for them. Let's say you accept $10 per skin for a pack of 10-12 skins - you make $120. Sounds cool, but the Marketplace is a big place with a big audience. That team could make anywhere between $500 to $1500 in the first month of it being on the Marketplace.

That's a considerable amount of money they keep for themselves.

They may, however, tell you otherwise. Maybe they'll tell you that they make something around $250 at most. If that really is the case, they're running a terrible business and that's none of your concern. You should have your own interests in mind, not theirs. Be concerned with the money you make.

Either raise your asking price or ask for percentage of sales.
- Depending on your skill and level of effort per skin, don't go lower than $40 USD per skin.
- Personally I'd always take percentage over flat sum; percentage means you're owed a constant cut of the profits no matter how small or large.

Look after yourself gamers, the Marketplace should benefit us all.
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4
01/25/2020 12:20 am
Level 38 : Artisan Button Pusher
anekke
anekke's Avatar
This makes me feel so reassured, I recently received a low price for commissioning skins on market place and I didn't know what to do. They had originally offered only 5-7 dollars and I was surprised by the price, it would have been an overall gain of 210 dollars. I was debating whether to take it or not, I knew it would have been significant worth and I came to the decision to raise the initial price and ask for a percentage of the sales. They declined. I was so worried that I made a poor decision and it was a missed opportunity but thankfully this post actually cleared up a lot of my worries and regrets. I didn't even know this was happening till recently. This was actually really useful, thanks for enlightening us lolol.
3
01/21/2020 2:22 am
Level 68 : High Grandmaster Sweetheart
CaelChan
CaelChan's Avatar
Question: What percentage of sales rate do you recommend??
Also uh, any advice on how to to go about asking for percentages instead of a flat sum? Or just say it directly?



idk I’ve always taken a straight sum instead of percents but I’d like to change over
5
01/21/2020 6:03 amhistory
Level 71 : Legendary Skinner
Auri
Auri's Avatar
I got fortunate with 80% in my first offer, but I'm not sure what the norm is in terms of percentage across other teams. In terms of what we ought to receive, I wouldn't go any lower than 60%.

As for asking for percentage, you might have to negotiate a lil. I'm not a pro-negotiator at all, but decide on the minimum percentage you'd settle for and a aspirational starting point.

Let's say you'd settle for 70% but you want to start with 80%. Next time you go to discuss a new skin pack and come to pay, just be up-front about it and say you're interested in receiving pay as a percentage of the pack's revenue.
- You can state 80% initially and if you're lucky and they're nice, they might just accept.
- If they're not on board with 80% but still open to paying percentage, try 75%, then 70%.
- If they're not on board with percentage, you could return to straight sum but make sure the pay is worth your while

Also:
- bear in mind you don't have to rush to a deal as you negotiate, take a few pauses to think through what you'll say next or to consider what they've said thus far.
- your primary concern is finding pay for yourself, you don't need to be concerned with the marketplace team's wellbeing, etc.
- if marketplace money is something you're not dependent on, walking away from negotations and not doing the skin pack is always an option. Any money I make from skins just goes into saving up for a rainy day, so I'd rather take no offers than be paid horribly.

In the event that the team offers neither good percentage or a good sum, I'd take my business elsewhere. You don't have to break it off dramatically or burn any bridges, just state you're not interested in taking any offers right now.

Edit: seen a few peers discuss %, anything over majority (i.e. > 50%) is worthwhile, the more the better
3
01/21/2020 9:35 am
Level 68 : High Grandmaster Sweetheart
CaelChan
CaelChan's Avatar
Oh I see, thank you!
4
01/20/2020 1:12 pm
Level 60 : High Grandmaster Prince
fire emblem man yes
fire emblem man yes's Avatar
something else to consider is how much time you are spending making skins. If you're spending much more than an hour per skin then 10 dollars is basically minimum wage, which might be fine for fun, low-pressure commissions, but isn't very impressive at all for freelance skin work on the marketplace.
3
01/20/2020 11:49 am
Level 6 : Apprentice Explorer
zidders
zidders's Avatar
Yeah pretty much. I would even go so far as to suggest NOT working with a team and instead encouraging people to work for themselves. All teams are doing is taking the place of publishers which is ultimately going to dilute individual profit. Unless they're putting in real effort to promote your skins and compensate you with the lions share of profit they're not worth it.
2
01/21/2020 6:06 am
Level 71 : Legendary Skinner
Auri
Auri's Avatar
hell yeah

applying for individual partnerships is worth a shot for anyone imo - worst that can happen is getting declined and you go on with your life
2
01/19/2020 2:49 pm
Level 7 : Apprentice Miner
Jerwald
Jerwald's Avatar
I didn’t even know I could sell Minecraft skins.
2
01/19/2020 1:38 pm
Level 43 : Master Witch
dawnosaur
dawnosaur's Avatar
this is why I dont do commissions
3
01/19/2020 6:06 am
Level 69 : High Grandmaster Wizard
cheyko
cheyko's Avatar
i've gotten 150-200 for 12 skins, though i dont know if that's considered low compared to how good i am or not c,:
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