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Platuan4th wrote:

Sirius42 wrote:I have to say that that is my numer one pet hate for ebay, people should learn the meaning of pro painting.

Actually, by a technicality, they HAVE learned the meaning of pro-painted: if painting is how they make money, they can indeed be called a professional painter, even if they're not that good. Professional is a loaded word when you think about it. Shaq isn't technically that good at basketball, just very tall, but he's still a pro-basketball player. We just assume that pro-painted = well painted.

True but the term professional implies a certain level of quality in the work provided, which in some cases is severely lacking. At least in my opinion, I mean I don't even mind people whom paint well or above average claiming it, but it seems that if you look on ebay at a painted model, regardless of the quality of the paint job, most people will claim that its pro. Now just to shoot my own point in the face i justsearched for 'pro painted' on ebay and for the first time in a while I was very impressed with the standard present overall. Back on topic I justsaw a lone plastic Night Goblin spearman on sale, in rave colours, priple cloak, grey/white hat and turquoise spearbinding, its quite odd but i kinda like it.

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Imply: Transitive Verb
2: to involve or indicate by inference, association, or necessary consequence rather than by direct statement.

Pro: Noun or adjective
1: Professional

Professional: adjective
2 a: participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs.

So in the end, if something is implied, it isn't necessairly true and a pro is someone who gets paid to do things others often do for free (or for fun). So technicaly anyone who's ever sold something they painted for the purpose of selling is a pro. Not exactly what you might think, but it is what it is.

In order for someone to make their livelihood painting warhammer figurines, they would have to have achieved a certain painting skill in order for the models to sell for the level that would account for their time and effort. For instance, 80 dollars for a fully assembled and painted master of the ravenwing may seem like a lot, but that guy costs 56 dollars, meaning that the painter is only being paid 24 dollars for all of his time assembling and painting it. Unless he was able to do it in 3 hours, he would be making less than the $8/hour minimum wage in Canada, which is what our government determines the minimum possible wage that someone can make and achieve a reasonable standard of living.

Therefore, someone who is not able to paint to a standard that allows their models to fetch a high enough price to pay for the cost of their time, it is not reasonable to assume that they are a professional painter, as there is no way that they could possible make a living doing so.

/rant

Except that Phoenix's definition of professional, and dictionary.com's version (following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.) does not state that you need to make your livelihood from painting, just that you need to gain from it. So whilst we generally use the word to state that someone makes their living from an activity, it only really means that you make money from them.