A fun side-effect of my crochet skills getting better and being dumb enough to make stuff for people for various occasions is that now people think I can turn out intricate items like highly detailed plushies in hours. These people think it is perfectly acceptable to find a pattern of something they think is cool and then ask me - or ask a friend I've made something for to ask me - to quote a price.
Completely ignoring the copywrite/rules-of-use for the pattern and/or bypassing the person who came up with the thing in the first place, who may be selling items or the pattern for profit.
WTF. I am not a one-person sweatshop for people to get cheap knock-off toys.
Hahaha seriously! Being generally crafty, I get that shit all the time. People want me to sew them custom Santa costumes and alter their clothes or make random crap for them for free. Or for "a couple of drinks", as if $12 even comes close to covering my time.
A good answer, BTW, is "Hmmm, that would take me at least a couple of days to learn the pattern and make, so even if you only paid me minimum wage it would probably be cheaper to buy the original".
They can't really argue with that without making it sound like they aren't even willing to pay you minimum wage for your time.
My reply was "You're a god damn moron." And then I laid the math out for the first fellow. Afterwords I proceeded to tell folks they were cordially invited to choke on a bag of dicks and there was a $20 dollar charge for asking me to make anything to do with fucking Pokemon.
ETA: In retrospect, your way might have been the right response. My knee-jerk anger at stupidity is a flaw. Sorta. Also the chip on my shoulder regarding being told I'm wasting my time if I'm not taking up hobbies specifically for making cash in the long run.
Why does everything have to be about how much money it can make you? Fucking hell.
I hate that, and I also hate people's completely uninformed opinions about how I could make more money.
Here is a thing about topics people know shit about: they always come up with some boneheadedly stupid suggestion and preface it with words like "I bet you would sell a lot of", "you should", and "can't you just..."
"I bet you would sell a lot of snowglobe earrings!"
"You should get a table at the street fair."
"Can't you just hire people to make your beads for you?"
And they always seem to think they have come up with something amazing and revolutionary, which clearly I have never thought of and certainly haven't thought through and rejected for reasons that are painfully obvious to anyone who actually knows what they're doing.
One of my favorite recurring ones is "You should teach". Another is "You should do trade shows". OH HOLY SHIT, I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT, LET ALONE TRIED IT YEARS AGO AND REJECTED IT FOR LOGISTICAL AND FINANCIAL REASONS.
