"hard to believe the guys at automattic are stupid so if it doesn't exist already, there is probably a reason"
Well, exactly. They have had the idea before, as mentioned in the post, but didn't act on it. They probably did a simple cost/benefit analysis and decided it would be more trouble than it's worth.
Once you start taking money and acting like a shop, everything changes. It's not just the implementation, although that would be significant. But suddenly it's your problem if X breaks on IE8 or Y doesn't work with a new version and the developer is on holiday or Z said it would do this but doesn't and the customer demands a refund, etc etc etc. "But I bought it from you!" comes the flood of email. So you'd probably need support staff too.
Well, all of this might be worthwhile if it's a big, rich market. But I doubt it is. How many people actually buy premade WP themes? I would have thought the number is miniscule. Same with plugins. I didn't even realise you could buy WP plugins, actually, until I read that. The idea sounds like a joke. You'd have to be nuts to try and build a business on that.
Anyway I'm sure Automattic thought about it for a while, then realised what a distracting, unremunerative hassle it would be and rightfully canned the idea.
There is a market for premium WP themes and plugins. And, now that people are using WP as a CMS more and more and not just blog software it will grow even faster. Take a look at themeforest.net or go to elance.com and see how many people are hiring plugin developers.
Well, exactly. They have had the idea before, as mentioned in the post, but didn't act on it. They probably did a simple cost/benefit analysis and decided it would be more trouble than it's worth.
Once you start taking money and acting like a shop, everything changes. It's not just the implementation, although that would be significant. But suddenly it's your problem if X breaks on IE8 or Y doesn't work with a new version and the developer is on holiday or Z said it would do this but doesn't and the customer demands a refund, etc etc etc. "But I bought it from you!" comes the flood of email. So you'd probably need support staff too.
Well, all of this might be worthwhile if it's a big, rich market. But I doubt it is. How many people actually buy premade WP themes? I would have thought the number is miniscule. Same with plugins. I didn't even realise you could buy WP plugins, actually, until I read that. The idea sounds like a joke. You'd have to be nuts to try and build a business on that.
Anyway I'm sure Automattic thought about it for a while, then realised what a distracting, unremunerative hassle it would be and rightfully canned the idea.