[nerdponx]

I don't understand this post.

It's worth $30 to you, so offer some amount above $0 and below $30. If the core developer won't do it for less than $30, find someone who will, or use a different tool, or live with the deficiency.

This is literally how all other markets work, or are supposed to work. Imagine having a completely unrelated market in which you are totally free to negotiate, and then complaining that it's too hard to settle on a price.

[michaelt]

I think what AdmiralAsshat means is: There's a gigantic gap between typical market prices for retail computer software and the hourly wage of computer programmers

When you buy a $70 AAA game, you pay what, 1/100,000 of the development cost? 1/1,000,000?

So when you try to directly fund the development of almost anything, it's gonna seem real expensive, because you're paying 100% of the cost when you're used to paying 0.001%.