Minimum price for offers (all offer forums)

I think this has been suggested before but i would like to refresh the subject at matter with creating a new one.

I'm seeing more often freelancers here trying to sell on templates, logos, domains, blog themes, fully grown websites and more for as little as $40, then decreasing the price again and again down to something like $15/$10 when there is no interest.

This isn't really a rant at those users but at the fact offers/requests plays a huge part in this freelance community and people are offering such amazing designs, coding positions available for very cheap prices, which bugs me.

Now i know there are some big freelancers here; in terms of regular posters, good designers and post their work for like $200 a piece and people pay for it. Now are people interested in paying such high prices because of their quality of work or because who they are in terms of being well known. Thoughts?

I think TFL should have a minimum price for posting offers, people in the marketplace are being ripped off. I know, i get ripped off too, where i could go to another marketsite and people would pay double the amount they would pay for here, why is that? Thoughts?

I really think this would be a benefit in how the Marketplace goes, when i hit new posts i see mostly the offers/requests forum in use.

I had another idea apart from the minimum price was that the marketplace was only activated every 3 or 4 days and only open for 1 day, where people can post their work in. I think it will reduce the amount of focusing people have towards the the marketplace and concentrate on freelance topics.


What's your thoughts? I just see lots of work being sold for much cheaper than i think it really could sell for.

This is a good idea although it would not work as the quality of work sold is not at the same level. so if you set a minimum price for 1 psd as $60 some people may find it hard to sell there psd at $60 as it may only be worth $50.

Although i do agree there is alot of people that have there prices below acceptable amounts.

I think a minimum price is a good idea, it probably shouldn't be $100 for a design though, but rather $40-$50, just to keep the price on a decent level so it won't drop to $10 for a design.

I try to sell all my stuff for $40 or so (my old stuff that is coded usually, I may add) but then when I drop down to $10 after a few weeks of non-stop attempts to sell, NO ONE still wants to buy. I could (haven't tried yet) sell it easily for $40 at other forums because they don't want to undersell their work.

We've actually been discussing this on the staff side.


I personally wanted a required min of $80 for a logo =p

Dont you start from $75 Bennet for logos ?

I hope that was a joke about $80 for a logo bennett, if it did happen to me that only be to push more business towards you.

this would just push away tons of people. no one wants a limit on how much they will sell their stuff

I don't think we should ever incorporate this. Besides the fact that designers should be able to price their work at whatever they feel it is worth, and what it will sell at, it is simple economics that if you incorporate something like this, it will fail.

This tactic is called a "Price Floor" - a set price by an overseeing organization that no business may price under. Governments have tried repeatedly to incorporate either a price floor, or a price ceiling in many situations that a market was failing in order to help it out. In almost every case, it has failed.

So if you set a price floor, you will end up getting something like this:



Now, for some of you guys who won't understand this, let me explain...

Right now, we have a decent price equilibrium - a normal price that is about an average of $40.00 (marked P(e)) per design sold. We have a decent number of buyers (marked Q(e)).

By messing with the pricing, and incorporating a price floor (to say $80.00) - marked P(1) - you will increase supply - more designers will want to sell. However, this will lower demand, and now no one will want to buy any designs - marked Q(1).

This will create what's called a "market failure" in which the only designers that prosper are the ones that are already in the market...or in our case, the good designers with a reputation. The little guys, or the ones that need money quick, or want to get rid of something, will never be able to make any money at all. Furthermore, you'll drive potential customers from all of us because no one wants to be forced to pay a minimum of $80.00.

Sorry to give you an essay, but I felt that I had to make a strong arguement before this rule was enacted. It'll kill the marketplace, and it'll make a lot of designers suffer.

Sorry, I took a couple courses in economics.

Good reply Bryan, here in New Zealand it is called Price Fixing.

Everyone, Bennett has said we have been discussing this in the staff forum.

There will be an interesting development in the marketplace that I am sure all of you will like.