Secondary Market + Artist Royalties
MakersPlace is a premier market for truly rare digital artworks — digital art where its authenticity and rarity is guaranteed by blockchain technology.
Since the moment we launched our open marketplace in April 2019, one of the most asked for features has been the ability to resell artworks directly through MakersPlace. But when we started to think about offering a secondary market, the immediate question we asked was “what would that mean for artists?”
It’s an all too familiar story. An artist creates a significant body of work without understanding how to market or value their works. Their immediate goal might be to gain visibility, sell as many works, or one day get picked up by a gallery, an institution or gain social media fame. Good fortunes align and their works go on to sell for 2x or even 100x its original value on the secondary market, but no monetary value flows back to them. It’s estimated that more than half of the art market is driven by secondary sales, which is a major loss for both artists and creativity as a whole.
At MakersPlace we want to empower creatives and build a vibrant future for digital creativity, so we want to do things differently. So today, we’re excited to announce our secondary market along with our new artist royalty program, where 5% of every secondary sale will be paid to the original creator in perpetuity.
Browse our Secondary Market >>
Introducing the “Market” — Our Curated Secondary Market
Starting today, when you go to the discover section, you’ll see a new link to the “Market” — a place to browse and discover all the artworks that have been purchased through MakersPlace and available for bidding. Just like our primary market, you can make an offer on any artwork using Ether or a Credit Card.
The new Market feed also features the most recently collected artworks right at the top, so be sure to check back often to keep up with all the action.
Selling on the Secondary Market
If you’ve purchased an artwork through MakersPlace and you wish to sell your artworks on the secondary market, it’s simple. We now provide a complete suite of tools for collectors to manage their artworks, set prices and accept offers.
Setting a Price
To sell your artworks, start by clicking the Manage Collection link in the header, which will take you to your collection manager. From there, you can set a price on any of the artworks connected to your digital wallet. You can also accept any live offers here.
Providing Transfer Permissions
Before selling or accept offers on MakersPlace, we require giving transfer permissions to our smart contract in order to transfer your artwork to the buyer upon purchase. For security purposes, our smart contract can only transfer your artworks upon successful sale (learn more).
Once approved, you can now set prices and accept offers, all without paying any gas fees. We only require your signature for any sale-related action.
Selling Through your Personal Gallery
When ready, you can sell your artworks directly through your personal gallery or through our secondary market. From your personal gallery, you can rearrange and organize your artworks into categories to best present your collection.
Receiving Royalties
Finally, whenever an artwork sells on the secondary market, 5% of the total sale amount will go directly to the original creator. As our secondary market grows, this is our commitment to ensure that artists continue to benefit, which we strongly believe will lead to increased creativity and artistic output across the community.
As a creator you’ll receive notifications whenever your artworks sell on the secondary market, and you can view all your royalty payments from within your store manager.
In Closing
A secondary market and artist royalties is part of the commitment we made earlier this year to build more tools to empower artists and make it more fun and engaging for collectors. We’re excited to say that this is just the start. We’re currently working on making it easier for artists to collaborate and providing more ways for collectors to experience their artworks and collections in their personal space. Stay tuned!
