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I am manufacturing a game that has 14 pcs, 7 on each side. The key to my game is you (the customer) can pick famous artwork( Mona Lisa, Andy Warhol`s Campbell can of soup, etc,) as your game pieces.
The appeal to the game is you get to pick different pieces of art for each side. I haven`t decided yet whether you pick seven different pcs of artwork and I duplicate the other side with a different color for the opponent or you choose all 14 different pcs.
Well, to get the reproduction rights for just one piece of art costs about $900.00. I wanted to give my customers real variety, such as having at least three different choices for each piece on the game board. Twenty one choices (3 for each piece) would cost about $19,000.00.
Unacceptable as a cost for me, and only three choices doesn`t really fit the concept of really choosing that which moves you emotionally for art.
I would have to sell 2,000+ @ $100.00 just to break even for the cost of the licensing rights. I think the sets look so nice that many would pay that amount. I see my game as a decorative art and a game. Many agree how nice my prototype looks. Since I am not selling the prototype, I just copied the art I used. * I will destroy that set soon, I just wanted to see the finished product, so please put your lawyers away.*
Now once I get through that initial number, I can reproduce each image about 10,000+ times so it is profitable for every set I sell after that using those same images.
I believe in my idea.I just can`t spend $19,000. I just don`t have that. Credit has dried up and what reserves I have I can`t blow everything getting the licensing rights to all.
I originally wanted to sell them on my website (still in development) but I thought wholesale might be a better route. The one and only idea that seems slightly workable was to develop the game and sell to stores wholesale with the idea that the "official" release would be at some future date, using the income collected from purchases from sale to delivery to pay for the licenses and to manufacture.
The main problem as I see it with that idea is that most stores pay 30 days net which means after delivery and asking them to pay upfront seems an impossibility.
Will a bank lend on sales invoices collected?
Will showing my admittedly copyright infringed set get me in hot water before I even get out of the gate? The other alternative I have as far as a display set is to buy art books and cut out the images and jerry rig another prototype, but initial tests don`t look as good but is completely legal to do (derivative works).
Is there a cheaper outlet to buy licenses for fine art for a product distributed in North America?
Can anyone help?
Thanks in advance
