How CGTrader Stole Our Money and Deleted Our Account (Patreon)

Hey friends!

Des here. I apologize in advance for posting a flaming text such as this, but I believe it would benefit some people to know which platform to avoid whenever there's an alternative.

As you surely know, our team creates 3D printable models that we share on our Patreon and then post them on other platforms for a bit of future passive income. Over the past few months, a number of fellow creators told me stories of how CGTrader contacted them and demanded to remove links to their Patreon and portfolio sites from renders and model descriptions. All of them mentioned how rude and disrespectful CGTrader representatives were in every case.

So, when the same thing happened to us, I wasn't shocked.

Apparently, the "website" field under profile is meant strictly for internal use and not for artists to share their portfolios with other users. Alright, feels weird, but let's go with that and move on to a more important topic.

The section they refer to says the following:

I'm no lawyer, but the wording is extremely vague and doesn't expressly forbid artists from sharing their portfolio sites. Especially considering how it refers to internal communications and not user profile or listing descriptions. If they really had a clause about that, I would probably just grit my teeth and did as they said. But I didn't feel like following unreasonable demands about something that was just their interpretation of their own rules. Obviously, that didn't help my case.

At this point I was blamed for "disregarding the authority" and "demonstrating the lack of respect" to bully me into feeling bad about my behavior and giving me the last chance to comply. When I suggested we could discuss this matter in legal ways, they simply stopped responding. Three days later, my account was deleted and I didn't even get an email informing me about this decision.

Honestly, this was well within my expectations and I expected them to do just that. I didn't care too much because CGTrader featured the worst sales for us among all other platforms (and I hear the same thing from other creators), so I was prepared to let it go. However, in order to add insult to injury, they decided to steal all the money we made on their site over the last 30 days. The account was deleted presicely on our monthly payday, and they didn't think I needed to be paid before doing that, instead choosing to keep ~$200 worth of sales for themselves. Is that really how the company does things and easily gets away with it?

Now, since I began talking about CGTrader, let me add some more information why I didn't want to just shut up and do what they say. First of all, for all their talk about "caring about our comminity", they run year-round sales.

The thing is, as soon as a sale ends, another one begins immediately within a day. If you ever open a site and don't see an ongoing sale, you must've won the lottery! Some may wonder "Why is it bad?", so let me explain. Those sales are complete fake. Because artists know the sales are going to be year-round, their only real choice is to raise the prices across their stock, so whatever passes for 30% off on CGTrader is exactly the same (or even a bit higher) than the price of this exact model on another platforms. Well, there is also the choice of opting out from sales completely, but let's be honest: how many artits would willingly choose to not be featured on the "find deals" page when it is the most obvious place people are going to look? So, there you have it, CGTrader cares about their users so much, yet they are not above tricking them into getting "limited deals" year round.

Next, let's discuss my favorite topic, the "highest royalty rate" in the market that they boast about on their site.

In fact, all new artists start at 70% royalty rate and have to work their way up through their points system to cap at 80% after a virtually unreachable amount of sales. Seriously, 3D sculpting has been our primary business for more than a year and we hardly reached 73% royalties. Any artists who reached the top level are veterans from 2021 and (much) earlier, back when the platform was thriving and people actually cared about leaving likes and reviews, which is the main source of new points. Sadly, almost nobody knows about it because CGTrader doesn't exactly let people know that they can help their favorite artists earn more from their sales.

But what about other platforms? Surely, their royalties are even lower, otherwise CGTrader wouldn't boast about offering "the highest royalty rate in the market", right? Let's see:

• Cults3D - 80%
• MyMiniFactory - 92% (but they take an extra $25/month for hosting your store)
• Gumroad - 90%

And those are just the ones I know and use. In fact, the only platform I know with worse royalty rates than CGTrader is Gambody (50% + exclusive rights, and I honestly don't know who would agree to that).

Now, where do you think the money come from to cover lower royalty rates and never-ending sales? Obviously, it's from users that CGTrader is so lovingly worried about. At the end of the day, users will have to pay more than they would on any other platform for the artist to earn the same amount. And that's how CGTrader cares about you!

To be perfectly clear, I don't really expect CGTrader to give our money back, neither do I want our store page restored. I simply want people to to be aware of what platform to avoid if there is an alternative way of buying a model you like!

Cheers!
Des