So this dude got ripped off for supporting a group.
2
Cinia Pacifica
Ojou-sama Writer
So this one night I was enjoying a nice cup of coffee when I hear from a friend about his Singaporean friend getting rekt by a group he literally loved and wanted to support.
To start, if you've heard of CDS, that's the group we're speaking of.
It's a studio that evolved some time ago from being some random circle, apparently. I'm not too privy to the details, but they are an official company now, and not some doujin circle anymore. An indie studio of sorts, but still a studio. Not that many would care about Singaporean shit, but it's sad to see shit like this happen regardless, and I simply want people to know about it. CDS is a pretty popular group even outside that country apparently, having even the official backing of Microsoft and Anime Festival Asia.
Now they're on Patreon, wanting people to back up the artist of the studio, GreenTeaNeko, for reasons you can see outlined in the hyperlink provided. The art seems fine for the comics displayed there, and I can sort of see why the person who loved this group may have wanted to support it.
So moving on, this aforementioned dude decided not to simply donate his cash via Patreon, but wanted to get something out of it instead. He made a personal commission for a dakimakura. You know, those pillows that the weebs love so much. You can check out for yourself the quality of the art of their dakis here.
I don't know about you, but the quality of the art isn't that appealing to me. You can see here that the dakis are being charged for 100 Singapore dollars, which is roughly 80 US dollars. So, he commissioned them for a slime girl daki ('ya know, Monster Girls). There's one daki of slime girl in the above linked site that I'm not really a fan of. But here's the real gripe, what he was going to get was a single-sided dakis, meaning that the other side of the daki would be blank or something.
What's worse here is that they quoted the price and this dude paid... 300 US dollars. He only got the preliminary art on Friday, and not even the line-art. Again (and if you still care enough to be reading), note that he could get some Japanese group to work on it and could save a lot more cash, but he wanted THIS company to make a custom daki for him.
Since the 300 US dollars he said was for one side, he basically had to take out another cool 300 US dollars to cover for both sides. Great.
My friend talks to this guy, and says that he should pull out and cut the losses while he can, and got him to ask for a refund of the 300 US dollars. Some hours ago, he decided to do just that, here is his mail:
"Sorry for causing trouble but I would like to cancel this commission due to financial constraints. I will pay for the work done thus far but is it possible to refund the rest?"
Sounds about right? Okay. What did he get as a reply?
"I'm sorry but we do not accept refunds. We will cancel the second image but send you the completed first one."
So basically, they give him a prelim sketch, which means they're basically about 5-10% done, and tells him that they'll keep the cash.
After he paid 300 bucks for this one-sided daki art, their reason for the amount of price was described by their statement in the following:
"Due to Singapore Laws, we cannot sell explicit material commercially."
It's a goddamned personal request, a commission that was clearly not meant for commercial sale. They pretty much trampled on his love for the studio real good.
I can bet it's nice to commission an artist you love, especially for the first time at that. This guy here found out that he paid the money, only to find out that it was more than double the rate anywhere else. I hear that it is generally 250-300 US dollars for a daki, and bear in mind that this does not include shipping or printing at all; just the art itself. He is now sad, but still loves them, even after he got shat on for some quick cash.
This is how the story went. I don't know the current situation now, but it seems like he'll have to live with that one-side art they'll produce for him.
To start, if you've heard of CDS, that's the group we're speaking of.
It's a studio that evolved some time ago from being some random circle, apparently. I'm not too privy to the details, but they are an official company now, and not some doujin circle anymore. An indie studio of sorts, but still a studio. Not that many would care about Singaporean shit, but it's sad to see shit like this happen regardless, and I simply want people to know about it. CDS is a pretty popular group even outside that country apparently, having even the official backing of Microsoft and Anime Festival Asia.
Now they're on Patreon, wanting people to back up the artist of the studio, GreenTeaNeko, for reasons you can see outlined in the hyperlink provided. The art seems fine for the comics displayed there, and I can sort of see why the person who loved this group may have wanted to support it.
So moving on, this aforementioned dude decided not to simply donate his cash via Patreon, but wanted to get something out of it instead. He made a personal commission for a dakimakura. You know, those pillows that the weebs love so much. You can check out for yourself the quality of the art of their dakis here.
I don't know about you, but the quality of the art isn't that appealing to me. You can see here that the dakis are being charged for 100 Singapore dollars, which is roughly 80 US dollars. So, he commissioned them for a slime girl daki ('ya know, Monster Girls). There's one daki of slime girl in the above linked site that I'm not really a fan of. But here's the real gripe, what he was going to get was a single-sided dakis, meaning that the other side of the daki would be blank or something.
What's worse here is that they quoted the price and this dude paid... 300 US dollars. He only got the preliminary art on Friday, and not even the line-art. Again (and if you still care enough to be reading), note that he could get some Japanese group to work on it and could save a lot more cash, but he wanted THIS company to make a custom daki for him.
Since the 300 US dollars he said was for one side, he basically had to take out another cool 300 US dollars to cover for both sides. Great.
My friend talks to this guy, and says that he should pull out and cut the losses while he can, and got him to ask for a refund of the 300 US dollars. Some hours ago, he decided to do just that, here is his mail:
"Sorry for causing trouble but I would like to cancel this commission due to financial constraints. I will pay for the work done thus far but is it possible to refund the rest?"
Sounds about right? Okay. What did he get as a reply?
"I'm sorry but we do not accept refunds. We will cancel the second image but send you the completed first one."
So basically, they give him a prelim sketch, which means they're basically about 5-10% done, and tells him that they'll keep the cash.
After he paid 300 bucks for this one-sided daki art, their reason for the amount of price was described by their statement in the following:
"Due to Singapore Laws, we cannot sell explicit material commercially."
It's a goddamned personal request, a commission that was clearly not meant for commercial sale. They pretty much trampled on his love for the studio real good.
I can bet it's nice to commission an artist you love, especially for the first time at that. This guy here found out that he paid the money, only to find out that it was more than double the rate anywhere else. I hear that it is generally 250-300 US dollars for a daki, and bear in mind that this does not include shipping or printing at all; just the art itself. He is now sad, but still loves them, even after he got shat on for some quick cash.
This is how the story went. I don't know the current situation now, but it seems like he'll have to live with that one-side art they'll produce for him.
0
Dashiell
DirtyDeedsDunDirtCheap
Well there's few holes in the story, notably did 2 sides agree to create 2 sided dakimakura? Looking at their shop it seems like all their pillows are one sided.
Did they talk about details, doesn't seems like so.
Why did he pay before receiving anything? He could pay some in advance as insurance for artist but paying whole is just asking for trouble.
Why he didn't make contract for work? Personal requests are good for people you know not monetary transactions.
Overall for me it's: They're dicks and he's an idiot.
Did they talk about details, doesn't seems like so.
Why did he pay before receiving anything? He could pay some in advance as insurance for artist but paying whole is just asking for trouble.
Why he didn't make contract for work? Personal requests are good for people you know not monetary transactions.
Overall for me it's: They're dicks and he's an idiot.
0
Romana
FAKKU Letterer
If money is exchanged it's still a commercial sale. Albeit a very small one, but artist have to pay taxes on stuff like this if any profit is made. Non-commercial would be if there was no profit made.
But yeah, sounds like your friend was ripped off. Sorry.
But yeah, sounds like your friend was ripped off. Sorry.