Have I understood you right in that you want to essentially offer an escrow service between art creators and art buyers?
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.I might, but I might be confusing my priorities.Have I understood you right in that you want to essentially offer an escrow service between art creators and art buyers?
Hmm... enlightening stuff, just what I asked for thank you. This is to say, I'm not discouraged to know there is an existing model akin to what I'm talking about... though there are key differences that make 99designs exploitive, I see that now. (Definitely an opportunity to innovate, huh?)Ok, so you are making something like Logos, Web, Graphic Design & More. | 99designs.
A buyer posts a brief to your website and artists reply with a price, some sketches maybe and a portfolio of their work. The buyer chooses to proceed with one of them.
Sites like this are classed a spec work and there is a lot of pushback against it eg 99designs sucks - How spec work ruins not just the design industry
I'm not hating, just saying. I have used 99designs several times and always been very pleased with the results.
I think your main issue is a chicken and egg thing, how do you get artists onboard without buyers and vice versa. I'd start this process researching how I would deal with this. It's safe to assume that all the technical stuff is achieveable (budget willing). A lot of etsy sellers will do custom work, maybe start by reaching out to them, getting their opinions on your idea. Good luck!
Well I am not an escrow officer, so how do I hire out those services? In the case of digital art for example, wouldn't it be rather easy to examine a contested case and see if the creator delivered or not (keeping all communication in house to ensure this for example)?That's where you would be the escrow. Once the spec is agreed on and the artist has been commissioned to do the work, you would take payment from the buyer. You would make your money charging a fee for ensuring both parties were happy, dealing with any disputes and generally assisting in any way needed. Once the artwork/piece is finished & delivered you would release the payment.
Sounds simple, but I think of eBay. If I tell eBay I bought a laptop from an eBay seller and the only thing I recieved in the delivery was a potato, how does eBay decide who is lying, me or the seller? That would be your job to figure out in this venture...
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