Being new to quilting, I need a pattern to go by as I am not yet confident enough to try to design my own yet and figure out the yardages, etc.. I have bought a couple of these on ebay. I guess I viewed it as the ebay seller purchased the magazine, and was just trying to make some of their money back. The prices ($6 or so) seems comparable to prices I see for patterns on etsy, pintrest, etc. One time I did feel I got ripped off a little, however, as the 'pattern' was literally printed on one side of a post card--not nearly enough detail for me--didn't even have the yardage amounts for binding, backing, etc. and the assembly directions were quite sparse. So now I request more detail about the detailed directions before buying. I have since started subscribing to some quilting magazines and have purchased a couple of quilting books, so feel I have my next few quilt patterns selected. Maybe by the time I get them done I will feel more confident about branching out on my own! But to address the main question, my opinion is the quilt designer received her desired compensation and publicity by getting her designs selected and published in the magazine, and once it is published in the public domain there is not any further compensation due on the resale of the magazines. It is just like buying used books--the author doesn't get any royalties other than on the first, original sale of that edition of the book, the rights to that book are to the person who purchased it.