GCU Forum - Has anyone been contacted by this person?

Naty_133468

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Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #30 - Jan 24^th, 2010, 6:10pm

I was contacted by Mike O. for my Spanish xmas designs. He pays a royalty of 3% and $200 in advance. I did my research and he sounds legit. I send him some of my designs to see what happens. I talked to him on the phone and he says there is a selective process and if my designs are selected he will pay for the designs and mail me a contract. I don't have any worries as he cannot duplicate my designs as they are all abstract. Will let you know what happens in the future!

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DENISE_132110

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Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #31 - Jan 24^th, 2010, 9:41pm

Quote from Naty_133468 on Jan 24^th, 2010, 6:10pm:

I don't have any worries as he cannot duplicate my designs as they are all abstract. Will let you know what happens in the future!

He may not be able to recreate them from scratch, but he certainly could duplicate them with any photo program without any problem. is the 200 dollar advance something you will be required to pay back if they do not sell their quota? is this considered payment for your design and now they own rights? the fact that he said if they are selected he will pay for the designs and mail you a contract is not clear enough to say for certain.

i would have a ton of questions for him if he ever picked my designs. i am just not sure how this works, will be curious to see how things go for you all.

personally, i do not think he should be fishing in the GCU pond if the contract is exclusive or if he plans to outright buy the designs they would then have to come off of GCU.

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Judy_139270 Gold Member artist Posts: 870	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #32 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 1:23am Hi Naty - thank you for posting the information we've all been waiting for! One further question though, would we need to send originals for the selection process? In my experience, that would be quite unusual.
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Josette_139119

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Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #33 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 3:04am

Hi to all of you,

Mike O. also contact me if I am interested to licening some of my designs.
I was very sceptic about it (still am) so I just wrote to him back a few minutes ago,
after reading this topic and after I've got a mail with some advice from a friend of mine.
I have asked him to tell me the terms and the rest of the details.
Now I will wait to see what he comes up with...
I am curious how this will work out for us Wink

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Josette_139119

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Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #34 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 3:06am

Quote from DENISE_132110 on Jan 24^th, 2010, 9:41pm:

Quote from Naty_133468 on Jan 24^th, 2010, 6:10pm:

I don't have any worries as he cannot duplicate my designs as they are all abstract. Will let you know what happens in the future!

He may not be able to recreate them from scratch, but he certainly could duplicate them with any photo program without any problem. is the 200 dollar advance something you will be required to pay back if they do not sell their quota? is this considered payment for your design and now they own rights? the fact that he said if they are selected he will pay for the designs and mail you a contract is not clear enough to say for certain.

i would have a ton of questions for him if he ever picked my designs. i am just not sure how this works, will be curious to see how things go for you all.

personally, i do not think he should be fishing in the GCU pond if the contract is exclusive or if he plans to outright buy the designs they would then have to come off of GCU.

I do agree with you...

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Kathy_131728

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Posts: 610

Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #35 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 5:02am

Quote from Naty_133468 on Jan 24^th, 2010, 6:10pm:

I was contacted by Mike O. for my Spanish xmas designs. He pays a royalty of 3% and $200 in advance. I did my research and he sounds legit. I send him some of my designs to see what happens. I talked to him on the phone and he says there is a selective process and if my designs are selected he will pay for the designs and mail me a contract. I don't have any worries as he cannot duplicate my designs as they are all abstract. Will let you know what happens in the future!

Naty, thank you for sharing the information you obtained. This is very interesting, but it does sound like there are lots of details to be revealed. When you say 3% it makes a huge difference if it is 3% right off of sales or 3% after all their expenses. Don't know which he is talking about--this is something to watch out for. Also, whenever sending someone a design be sure to send very low resolution images because people can take your work if you send high res images. I had a greeting card company that purchased from me tell me this a number of years ago. You can also send him copies of the pictures you have printed out on your own printer if he needs samples. Hopefully, you are aware of all these things, but I just wanted to let you know a few things I have learned.

By the way, has anyone who e-mailed Mike heard anything? I am still in wait mode and am curious if
others have heard anything?

Kathy

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Tammy_131374 Gold Member artist Posts: 630	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #36 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 7:44am Kathy I sent you a message!
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Kathy_131728 Gold Member artist Posts: 610	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #37 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 7:52am Hi Tammy, Got your message. I have sent you one back. Kathy
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Tammy_131374 Gold Member artist Posts: 630	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #38 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 8:05am Got it Kathy- thanks! Already replied back!
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Kathy_131728 Gold Member artist Posts: 610	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #39 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 8:21am Tammy, Just sent you two more messages. Kathy
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Naty_133468

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Posts: 161

Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #40 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 9:08am

Mike O. said I can continue to post my desgins anywhere I want so it is not exclusive. The $200 advance I don't have to pay back if they don't sell. It will be interesting to see what Mike O.'s contract looks like. I have done a lot of research on this and hopefully have a good understanding of what the contract should say.

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Kathy_131728 Gold Member artist Posts: 610	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #41 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 9:59am I just talked to Mike and got the same info others have about 2 year non-exclusive agreement with the same incentives for payment as others have mentioned. Good luck to everyone. Kathy
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Sue_132963

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Posts: 1224

Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person?
Reply #42 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 12:42pm

Hi folks,

This is all so cool!
I am getting ready to pack up my computer for the trip back to Maine from Georgia. We leave tomorrow. So this has all come at a rather inopportune time for me. I will check back in with all of you after we get home (hopefully by next week.) This is sounding like it might actually be something more than our offers have been in the past. As for GCU, I don't believe this is unfair to them as neither do they have an exclusive contract with us. We can still offer our images here while elsewhere too, just like always. I love GCU and would not easily jump ship, that's for sure.
Okay, so I'll check back in with you all next week. Meanwhile, God bless us all--everyone.

Sue

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barbara_133221 Gold Member artist Posts: 688	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #43 - Jan 25^th, 2010, 10:55pm Hello Martin and Amy and all, Thanks for your replies! Legalese has me baffled, your help is very much appreciated cheers, barbara
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Mindy GCU Administrator Community Manager Posts: 6567 Gender:	Re: Has anyone been contacted by this person? Reply #44 - Jan 26^th, 2010, 12:57pm 50+ GCU artists contacted by Mike O. We can't stop solicitations, nor do we want to as there may be valid opportunities for artists however as always do your due diligence, twice.
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