As others said, you shouldn't expect revenue for an OP variety. Saving seeds is far too ingrained in people's minds.
If you were to set a high price like was done with a variety like Marianna's Peace (I think it was $20/pack) , then an industrious individual out there will do the world a favor, buy a few packets of your seeds, grow a hundred plants, and then give the seeds away for free. I just don't see any money in OP breeding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heritage
3. You have made a cross and carried it through to stability at F8. Along the way you have freely distributed seed of various generations. This season, several vendors will be offering your variety for sale. What percentage of gross sales would you expect from each vendor?
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This to me is the worst case scenario as you have created a tremendous amount of confusion and dilution of the "brand". You would also completely invalidate any trademark/copyright/plant patent/whatever you try to apply by unrestricted distribution.
If you called your variety "Steve's San Diego Cropper" and you distributed F2-F6 seeds to random people, then by the time you get to F8, there will be dozens of different strains of it with varying degrees of quality and traits out there. Who has the "real" one? Some of the recipients of your seeds may widely distribute their own strain of your variety and overshadow your work.
It's a fine line allowing or disallowing distribution of F2-F6 seeds while a variety is segregating out. On the plus side, varieties that may fall outside the focus of the project organizer would have a chance to continue developing. On the negative side, you have the potential for dilution and confusion as mentioned above.