Quandary

Well, not ACTUALLY a quandary, as Tanja and I talked it out, but here goes:

Tanja and I were wandering Newtown after lunch and looked in at a store called Made590 (http://www.made590.com.au/), which does all sorts of interesting stuff. I was looking through there shirts and I spotted this one. I went "hey! I know that shirt! That's from Threadless!" I was outraged that this store had stolen the design. Then I looked at the tag, and lo! It was a Threadless tag.

So my quandary compounded. Threadless is a retail site, not a wholesale site. THey sell their shirts for $10-$20 dollars. If this store purchases them, and pays shipping, is it okay for them to mark the price up to $45 and sell the shirt on?

Tanja and I talked it out (see?) and she said that Threadless pays the artist for the design, then makes the shirt at their cost. Once they sell the shirt, what the buyer does with it is their business, as long as they don't claim it for themselves. This made sense to me. I then brought up that I'd seen Jinx WoW shirts being sold at Minotaur in Melbourne for exhorbitant prices, so it's not just these guys.

My main thought was that the shirt was being sold twice, but the artist was only paid once. The other reason that this was on my mind is that I've been communicated (well, sort of) with Ian Leino (www.ianleino.com), an artist from the states, whose shirts I've bought several times from TeeFury and whose work I admire. My first (admittedly selfish) thought, upon viewing his store was "Wow! I'd love to make shirts with these designs!" which I instantly chided myself for. That thought's now developed to "Well, if I do go to the markets with my shirts, I might buy some of his from TeeFury or something and sell them on. Or maybe inquire as to how much he's paid by TeeFury for his designs."

So yeah.