Personally I think you did the right thing in declining - if that client wants a picture like that they should find others who will be willing to split the costs and commission you for that piece. YCH's in my experience are usually ideas that an artist wants to do and has done work on / is interested in making already and therefore may sell for a different price to fully commissioned work where the idea is fully the client's (hope that makes sense!)

You're taking a risk on auctioning off the other slots and the fact that they approached you with this kind of request seems really off to me. I don't think they appreciate the time and work it takes in gathering people for that kind of picture (or they do and did not want to do the work themselves, so asked you to).

I don't think that you were wrong at all. What they asked for was unreasonable for you to accept based on your circumstances.

I also don't find it wrong that they asked to do a YCH of it. I've seen it done and some artists are happy to do so. Because it varies between artists the only way to know is to ask.

An option on how to handle it if you want to say yes could be:
Charge the person ordering it for a sketch of the scene (modify cost based on how close your normal sketch would be to what you are putting up for the YCH). Or charge the full amount and do a proper sketch of that character and only rough in the rest.

They only pay the difference between sketch and a final 1 character image of the type they want when all slots are filled.

Put the minimum bid at a cost where you don't do it any cheaper than if 1 person paid. I'd advice setting it a bit higher because of having to deal with more people and multiple paypal fees to absorb.

Put in rules for the YCH that you only wait X long for a reply before a given draft is set. This protects you from folks who pay and then just never reply.

Make sure the original customer understands that if the slots aren't all paid for it won't be finished, but they'll still get the sketch they paid for.

I think it'd be a headache but no more so than any multi-buyer YCH.

I think you did right solely on the wrist issue. That sort of deadline is a bit much in my opinion if they're trying something like this.

As for the YCH idea itself, not so bad of them to try to get it, and gatekat already gave a really good idea on how to handle this in the future when you want to take it. Personally, if someone with some popularity offers to do a YCH with me, normally in exchange for their slot being free, I'm pretty open so long as they aren't rude about it. I've done this before with a friend's rather popular character and ended up with a much bigger bid than I would have by auctioning his slot as well!

Yeah, you made the right call considering everything. Just giving a different perspective on when it could work well.

What that is, is what I call a 'sponsored ych'. I do them often.

But, they arent for everything, and it sounds like they just wanted to get cheaper art from you, so I would have probably turned them down too.

I think you were in the right, if you don't want to / can't do it (especially if commissions are a side thing in addition to your main job) then it's absolutely within your right to turn them away.

It's one thing to ask for a group comm, it's another to ask the artist to do a YCH which rides on finding 5 other people who are willing to / will actually pay you for their slots. What happens if 4 people bid but not the 5th? Just a waste of time.

Declining work is an artist's right, if it's not a fit.

I have turned a few of these down. My reasoning for this is both I have limited time to work on NORMAL commissions so having multiple people is very stressful. Yes there is a chance to make alot more money but you need to ask yourself.

Are you OKAY with doing a big project like that for (What I will assume have 5 clients you have never worked with prior to this.) that many people WITH a deadline?
Cuz let me tell you that is why I stopped unless they are for people I HAVE worked with often.

1. Too many times people win a slot and then give a ref of a character that is extremely detailed. Has so many features that just doing that OC alone might take about half the time it would take to draw the orgy/ych theme in its entirety.

2. With 6 people there are 6 different opinions. 6 different people that may or may not be perfectionists. Wanting EVERY tiny detail of their OC be 1000% correct. Is there anything wrong with that? No however, if you ARE that person then please research the artist BEFORE you purchase. As for the artist you need to stand by your own personal policy of what you will or will not accept out of clients.

If the commissioner is like that please inform the artist first. They are already going to be putting alot of work into something for you and giving you alot of their time. If an artist misses something or messed something up then be respectful and be kind. Let them know they missed something politely, NEVER assume they skipped something on purpose.

For the artist, if you have a hard time fitting in those type of details then tell your client. Alot of times your client is OKAY if you missed something. Also never be afraid to ask them "Is it okay if I leave out -insert feature here- as it would block out this part of the position. Just always TALK to each other and get on the same page.

3. If you are not comfortable/unsure of working for these users then like how I said the commissioner should research you. YOU should research them too. All the years I have been taking commissions I began looking through the galleries of the potential client.
If they have OC's you know you will have a hard time drawing then don't be afraid to inform the user.

People rather you be honest vs taking the come and butchering their OC.

4. If deadlines make you nervous or cause you any anxiety then don't do it.
If they get upset that's on them. You don't have to explain yourself, but if you do and they still act upset then that is all the reason you need to not do business with them.

I hope this helps you out. You did the right thing in my opinion. Everything I said here came from my own personal experiences by both as the artist and a commissioner. Put simply, never be afraid to talk it out and express your concerns.

you absolutely had the right to refuse to take on that much work if you felt you wouldn't be able to complete it - as the artist, you have the last word.

i do these types of YCHs pretty often, but i would never allow someone to impose a deadline on me when i couldn't even guarantee every slot would be bought up in time. that's too hard - and especially since you have wrist troubles and a full time job.

i hope the client didn't give you too much trouble about it!

"Thing is: did i do the right thing declining the offer?"
Yes.

"Was it right for the person to coke to me asking for such a piece only to pay such a small percentage and ask me to auction off the rest and risk it falling through?"
No.

Really nothing else needs to be said here, but I will expand anyway:

You didn't want to do the art, and you knew you wouldn't be able to finish it in the time the customer wanted. That right there is more than enough reason to say no to the commission. Art you don't want to do is almost always going to end up of a lesser quality than art you do want to do. Just decline these commissions politely and move on. Protect yourself. There will be mad customers everywhere but there's just as many customers who will be thankful you didn't waste their time if you end up taking the commission anyway and either delivering an unsatisfactory product or waiting a long time if you end up putting it off forever because you don't want to do it (Not saying you specifically WOULD do this, but it's a common thing a lot of artists end up doing). Everyone is must better off if you decline the commission and move on. So yes, you did the right thing by declining.

Others have thrown in their opinion on the asking for a YCH thing, and i guess given the contexts they described, doing so isn't wrong. But in YOUR situation, the person requesting the YCH was in the wrong and should not have asked. From what you've given, it sounds like they didn't actually have all the people on board and so wanted to offset that risk by giving it to you instead, making it a YCH instead of a group commission. And as you said, YCHs are more effort for you due to marketing. That is time the commissioner should've used to organize and collect everyone's refs and stuff... They offset that by dropping it all on you instead. In this way, the YCH is actually MORE work for you than if you had just taken the group commission.

So, again, the commissioner was in the wrong there (especially with the deadline... and I wouldn't be surprised if they demanded the YCH be done if not all slots were filled, too).

In conclusion, Yes, you are 300% right in your decision.
Don't doubt yourself so much. Artists have every right to protect themselves and choose who they work with and what they work on.

If someone already stated this above I'm sorry but I only skimmed through the comics. If people want you to do a YCH the only way I think works for both the commissioner and the artist is if a commissioner wants a YCH and to auction off the other slot they should be willing to pay for the entire piece so if the auction doesn't get any bites the artist doesn't lose out. This is what I'd offer if I ever wanted a "win a night with x" piece.

You declining his offer not to do work on only faith and half-payment sounds perfectly acceptable.

That's unfair. You did the right thing, i'd do the same!