I don't agree that the sites would be competing with customers. The sites would not be creating images or accepting/rejecting them. The images have already been accepted and are selling irrespective of who owns the image. It would be a service to photographers who could rely on a site to purchase the images at some predetermined price should they wish to sell through change in interest, retirement, death, etc.

but again, why invest capital in old images when you can get same product for free and only have to pay AFTER the sale is made;  maybe they'd have to decrease the rejects for a few wks on "too similar", 'already got enuf a thus'  but there's no financial reason to tie up yur own capital when others are begging you to take a % of ther sales.  there are very few portfolios that couldnt be replaced quickly.  the only way this might work is if the buy price were so low that the company was assured a profit in a very short time

s

With a bone-fide port like this, why dont you approach one of the leading Agencies for outright sale, they are then working on your port at 100% profit and exclusivity perhaps.

Here's an off-the-wall idea to see what the market value for your portfolio might be: Put it up for auction on eBay. You can even create a bit of a stir by starting the bidding at $0.99 with no minimum selling price.

Given that you'll be the very first person to ever do this, you'll be sure to get lots of publicity from the prominent blogs: Microsoft Diaries, Lookstat, PDN, Ellen Boughn, and Fast Media Magazine come immediately to mind. Go ahead, give it a try - you've got nothing to lose, and who knows, you might even find a buyer. And be sure to mention you got the idea on this forum if you do it!

Great idea, I'll certainly be putting a bid........ one of the very early ones though!

Your best bet might be to approach a few of the big agencies with the idea of them buying the collection and treating/promoting it as their "in-house" library. Although it definitely goes against the grain at iStock, I could see SS, DT and particulary FT being interested.

Good luck!

I would think that any site's offer would only take into account income from sales on that site.  An individual would base their offer on income from all sites the portfolio appears on.   Should mean a substantially lower offer from a site than an individual.

fred

I would think that any site's offer would only take into account income from sales on that site.  An individual would base their offer on income from all sites the portfolio appears on.   Should mean a substantially lower offer from a site than an individual.

Not necessarily. With Istock helping themselves to 80% of the sales revenue they actually make far more than I do each month from my portfolio, even with the contributions from other agencies. Having said that because they already get 80% of the revenue they haven't got much of an incentive to pay for the remaining 20%, other perhaps than denying the images to their competitors.

^^^ Stock images have little or nothing in common with the financial 'stock market'. You might just as well try to compare a portfolio's value with that of sheep, pigs and cattle in another 'stock market'. If pork futures are rising in price it doesn't mean the portfolio's value will be increasing too.

I think you are mistaken...

I am on financial stock market for a more than 6 years constantly...

Also, I am talking about average ratio (P/E) for all types of earnings through history...
All markets throughout history breathe about 15 earnings for the total value....
This refers to approach when each job is considered like a factory of money, regardless of the business sector.

But if you need better suggestion for right valuation, go to the Internet and find current P/E for Getty images... They have stocks on the financial stock market...

Then the value will be : Getty's P/E * Average annual earnings for portfolio...

What will be the annual average earnings for a portfolio, in which the period, depends on the assessment of the owner....
Yuri on his website has a good calculation for it ... From his experience ...

A business broker would have a struggle trying to put evaluations on micro stock images. You've got an extremely small supply of goods that are made much smaller as a percentage of the supply every day. You've got an increasing "decay" rate of effective sales due to those new competing images coming on line. I don't think the annual earnings evaluation method would mean much in this scenario. 

And you've got the mercurial nature of each site regarding pricing and business practices. That's a huge uncertainty factor that would further devalue such an evaluation. Add to that the fold rate of second and third tier sites with next to zero payout possibilities. And there doesn't seem to be any "comps" of earlier similar sales. Or, for that matter, any market at all if the major sites won't honor the copyright sale to another party.

If they came up with a value at all it would likely be a few cents per image. Still, sites could find it profitable at a low enough price to offer to buy them.  It wouldn't surprise me if some site isn't considering this method of supply already.

Here's an off-the-wall idea to see what the market value for your portfolio might be: Put it up for auction on eBay. You can even create a bit of a stir by starting the bidding at $0.99 with no minimum selling price.

Given that you'll be the very first person to ever do this, you'll be sure to get lots of publicity from the prominent blogs: Microsoft Diaries, Lookstat, PDN, Ellen Boughn, and Fast Media Magazine come immediately to mind. Go ahead, give it a try - you've got nothing to lose, and who knows, you might even find a buyer. And be sure to mention you got the idea on this forum if you do it!

I would go this way

Unless the new owner contacts the sites about allowing the existing account to continue under new ownership. As it's a partnership it is a business account rather than an individual's.

You all talk about the risks, I am talking about the averages and the current state ...When you buy business or stocks, you buying it at the current state of the economy and markets...The current state is that RPI increase, price increases, growth in the number of customers that still exceeds the growth in the number of photos ...What will be tomorrow, or for a couple of years, who knows....

I did some digging and at least one site responded that they don't allow portfolio transfers. If all of them have the same policy this is a huge risk.

The seller would need to take down all of the images, they would need to transfer copyright, and then the buyer would upload those images to their portfolio.

You would be starting from scratch. Your RPI is zero. Your current state is zero. You no longer would have the same search placement as the images had before. It could take months to start seeing stable income and get a feel for what kind of income the portfolio would generate.

If I were considering buying a portfolio this issue just dropped my perception of value by quite a bit. It's not like taking over a restaurant that has stable and predictable income and things just continue as normal. You're closing the restaurant down and starting it over without knowing how business will be.

Quote from: borg on May 29, 2010, 07:37

You all talk about the risks, I am talking about the averages and the current state ...When you buy business or stocks, you buying it at the current state of the economy and markets...The current state is that RPI increase, price increases, growth in the number of customers that still exceeds the growth in the number of photos ...What will be tomorrow, or for a couple of years, who knows....

I did some digging and at least one site responded that they don't allow portfolio transfers. If all of them have the same policy this is a huge risk.

The seller would need to take down all of the images, they would need to transfer copyright, and then the buyer would upload those images to their portfolio.

You would be starting from scratch. Your RPI is zero. Your current state is zero. You no longer would have the same search placement as the images had before. It could take months to start seeing stable income and get a feel for what kind of income the portfolio would generate.

If I were considering buying a portfolio this issue just dropped my perception of value by quite a bit. It's not like taking over a restaurant that has stable and predictable income and things just continue as normal. You're closing the restaurant down and starting it over without knowing how business will be.

Seems to me the smart way to get around this is to incorporate and list the portfolio and accounts at the micros as assets of the corporation.  Give the micros the corporate tax id # rather than your personal SS# and have them pay earnings to the corporation.  Then you sell the corporation and the accounts should stay open and continue as usual. 

Quote from: borg on May 29, 2010, 07:37

You all talk about the risks, I am talking about the averages and the current state ...When you buy business or stocks, you buying it at the current state of the economy and markets...The current state is that RPI increase, price increases, growth in the number of customers that still exceeds the growth in the number of photos ...What will be tomorrow, or for a couple of years, who knows....

I did some digging and at least one site responded that they don't allow portfolio transfers. If all of them have the same policy this is a huge risk.

The seller would need to take down all of the images, they would need to transfer copyright, and then the buyer would upload those images to their portfolio.

You would be starting from scratch. Your RPI is zero. Your current state is zero. You no longer would have the same search placement as the images had before. It could take months to start seeing stable income and get a feel for what kind of income the portfolio would generate.

If I were considering buying a portfolio this issue just dropped my perception of value by quite a bit. It's not like taking over a restaurant that has stable and predictable income and things just continue as normal. You're closing the restaurant down and starting it over without knowing how business will be.

you are right Paulie,

to add on to this...what about the model and the property release, "you" as the buyer do not have the right to sell images without those.
You can't just transfer the Copyright, the Copyright is for the buyer to use the image, not to resell it.