What is File Buy?
Freelancers often sell their art through insecure methods. Either the seller sends the file before accepting payment, or the buyer pays before receiving the file. This leaves room for one party to scam another, either by accepting payment and abandoning the project or by accepting the finished work and not paying.
File Buy resolves this problem by acting as a middle party between the buyer and seller. To list a file for sale, the seller simply uploads their file, receives a link to the listing, and sends that link to their buyer. Once the buyer has paid for the file, it becomes available for download. Before purchasing, the buyer only sees a preview of the file, which is a copy of the image at 5% of its original quality.
Another risk of selling art online occurs when a buyer makes a request for a commission and decides against purchasing the piece after the artist the artist has neared completion. To prevent this, File Buy also provides a commission system, which splits the purchasing of files into multiple “milestones”. The seller can decide how many milestones the project should contain, and assign a price to each milestone. The seller uploads a file for each milestone. After they have been paid, the next step becomes available. This way, artists can be sure they’re adequately compensated as they work on the project.
How much does it cost?
File Buy is 100% free. We cover PayPal's fees. If you list something at five dollars, your buyer will pay five dollars. If enough people use this, we'll likely set up a donation link so users who have the means can help us continue to offer this service for free.
How long do postings stay active?
After a commmission or listing has been completed (received all payments and all files have been made available for download), it will remain available for a week before closing. If you would like a posting to be active for longer, or if you would like to prematurely close an incomplete posting, please contact us.
How many listings or commissions can I have?
You may have up to five active postings at a time. In order to have more, you must close an incomplete posting or wait for a completed posting to become unavailable after a week.
Refund Policy
To inquire about a refund for a transaction, please send us a message describing your situation along with the associated commission ID or listing ID. If you are doing a commission, adding descriptive evidence will help make a refund more likely. In most cases, if the preview adequately matches the uploaded file, a refund will not be given.