The Origami Forum

For me, origami is only for fun. I have never even thought about selling any of it. A freind of a freind, however, would like to buy one of my models (a Lang panda that took me about 45 minutes. She actually wants a smaller version, which will be harder.) What is a reasonable price? Am I even allowed to sell it, since I am not the designer?

There was a brief discussion before:
viewtopic.php?t=2475&highlight=selling+origami
You can find some others with the search function.

It's kind of a controversial issue... I've sold only one model and it was totally involuntary since the man I was giving a Kawahata Yoda insisted on paying me. There's always the theory that you can get paid by the hour as long as there's no charge for the design itself... but what's an appropraite wage? Minimum? There's another point of controversy.

But if I were you, I would try my best to contact the artist and ask 1) if selling is appropraite and 2) what they consider a fair price. If the models are copyrighted you MUST get consent from the author. I've been requested to make a few models but since I'm too lazy to contact the designer I just give it away for free. But whether or not I'm selling or giving away a model, I always give credit. If you're like me, just give it away and don't take their money.

JeossMayhem wrote: If you're like me, just give it away and don't take their money.[/url]

That sounds like the best solution, especially since this is a one-off thing.
I can't see ever going commercial with it unless I get to the point of creating original designs (and even then, selling the designs might make more sense than selling the models.) Of course, this brings up the issueof how much different a design has to be before one can call it "original".

I'm not a fan of just modifying designs... But designing and selling your own original models is the easiest way to make money. Though it takes much time to do so, you never have to worry about copyright.

JeossMayhem wrote:I'm not a fan of just modifying designs... But designing and selling your own original models is the easiest way to make money. Though it takes much time to do so, you never have to worry about copyright.

Designing from scratch is something I don't expect to be talented enough to do anytime soon, maybe ever. Lang does a good job of explaining how to design at the crease-pattern level, but I have no clue how to get from there to a folding sequence. (Nor have I gained any insight into that here or anywhere else on the web so far.) Also, so many designs exist already that it is tough to even think up something new.

Sometimes I make origami in a Restaurant and I fold cranes that I give as a gift to customers. I also show some model folded by me with a card telling the name of model and author. Two day ago I received a phone call from the restaurant owner telling me that one of his customers wants me to fold 20 pigs for decorating an event. What do I have to do, selling or give them as a gift? If I sell them the price will be 2 dolar each and it means 40 dolars all, using colored bond paper. What if they ask me to fold with mulberry paper or orgamido paper?

Hah, I tried to get a job doing that this summer.

But besides the time and effort put into a model, materials should also be a factor. If they want quality paper, they should pay more. But I guess your options are:
1) Contact the designer of the pig ASAP and talk to him from there
2) Design your own pig ASAP
3) If worse comes to worse, I guess what I would do is go ahead with the plan but I'd do something to give credit to the designer... Write his/her name on the inside of each model? Just don't give anyone the impression you created them.

How about asking for non-monetary compensation...like... lunch for instance?

If possible, I think it would be important to offer to teach the model to an interested party. Then you're expanding the hobby while also possibly saving yourself a lot of work.

I tend to calculate prices on an hourly basis.
Let's take the pig example.
If it takes you maybe 15 minutes to fold one, that makes 4 pigs in an hour.
So if you sell a pig for 2 dollars that would mean 8 dollars for the hour.
You would have to add the price for the material if it's more expensive paper of course.

You will have to decide yourself if you are willing to work for as little as that, but I would go for at least twice that price. People asking for folded models are usually business people who don't know about the time involved in folding a model, so explaining it to them that way will help them understand why you can't sell the models under a certain price.

As for the copyright question, you should definitely ask the author for permission before selling something. So the easiest way would be to either design your own model or go for a traditional model. There's a rather nice traditional pig

Daydreamer wrote: There's a rather nice traditional pig

Wow, that pig is simple! I could fold one of those in under two minutes (and $1.00/min is not bad.)