Author Topic: iStock XSmall price is a joke (Read 6788 times)

vphoto · « **on:** February 27, 2008, 13:54 »

Today i had 4 XSmall sells and the result is less than $1. that is where 20% shows its unfairness.

sharply_done · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2008, 15:24 »

My record low XS price is 10 cents.
I had to look twice just to be sure.

madelaide · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2008, 17:44 »

The lowest I got was 19c, and gladly that was unusual. Most of my XS are getting me now about 24c.

Regards,
Adelaide

louoates · « **Reply #3 on:** March 02, 2008, 10:42 »

Quote from: vphoto on February 27, 2008, 13:54

Today i had 4 XSmall sells and the result is less than $1. that is where 20% shows its unfairness.

I don't see anything as "unfair." We upload. The site does their marketing to maximize their profits. Our percentage is dependent on how well they do their job. If we don't like their results we can upload elsewhere. I can't see how they established xsmall to minimize their (and our) profits.

As an aside, I've seen many times where a xsmall of a seldom downloaded image is followed up by a xlarge shortly thereafter. I suspect that the xsmall is used for presentation use and the production size is then downloaded.

thesentinel · « **Reply #4 on:** March 02, 2008, 13:38 »

Quote from: vphoto on February 27, 2008, 13:54

Today i had 4 XSmall sells and the result is less than $1. that is where 20% shows its unfairness.

If there hadn't been people that had been happy to make less than that on full size images five years ago you wouldn't even be here complaining !

vphoto · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2008, 14:22 »

blind loyalty of iStock exclusive photographers disgusts me even more than Xsize prices.

sharply_done · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2008, 15:16 »

Quote from: vphoto on March 02, 2008, 14:22

blind loyalty of iStock exclusive photographers disgusts me even more than Xsize prices.

You're calling thesentinel blindly loyal to IS? Hardly!

If you think IS is unfair, why do you continue to sell your images there?

vphoto · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2008, 15:32 »

because i am stubborn and intend to make iStock work for me even though not everything there pleases me.

RT · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2008, 18:36 »

If every image in your portfolio sold every day for 24 cents would you be unhappy?

digitalfood · « **Reply #9 on:** March 03, 2008, 06:46 »

Quote from: vphoto on March 02, 2008, 14:22

blind loyalty of iStock exclusive photographers disgusts me even more than Xsize prices.

AGREED

rene · « **Reply #10 on:** March 03, 2008, 08:13 »

I have no problem with selling 400px x 300px images for $0.20-0.25 at IS.
Selling 10-12MP for 0.25-0.30 at all subscription sites (especially level 3 at DT) make me sick.

HughStoneIan · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2008, 13:16 »

Quote from: vphoto on March 02, 2008, 14:22

blind loyalty of iStock exclusive photographers disgusts me even more than Xsize prices.

Why let that bother you? If they want to be blindly loyal that's their problem, not mine. I don't give them a second thought and really couldn't care less.

On the subject of XS sales: Unfortunately I don't have the time to keep up with technology like I want to. What's the latest in upsizing (a.k.a. uprezzing) technology? If it's much better than the past, then wouldn't it make sense that buyers would buy the smallest usable sizes and then just uprez them themselves, in spite of the time factor? I guess batch processing would make it a breeze. Perhaps right now the money/cost factor is more important than it was in the recent past and would outweigh the time involved in buyer post-editing. Any thoughts?

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** March 03, 2008, 14:43 »

Quote from: HughStoneIan on March 03, 2008, 13:16

What's the latest in upsizing (a.k.a. uprezzing) technology? If it's much better than the past, then wouldn't it make sense that buyers would buy the smallest usable sizes and then just uprez them themselves, in spite of the time factor?

I don't think prices justify the time and maybe final quality. Through FT's sales report I was able to find many of my images in websites, and only one was large enough for S size. If you see any website that is heavily built on microstock images (sometimes designers give the URL in the site forums), you will see that smaller images are the rule.

Regards,
Adelaide

yingyang0 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 03, 2008, 19:36 »

Quote from: vphoto on February 27, 2008, 13:54

Today i had 4 XSmall sells and the result is less than $1. that is where 20% shows its unfairness.

Since you're new to istock I'm sure that you'd be surprised that x-small is a new thing. Before "small" was the smallest and the commission was $0.20 on a small sale in 2006. Now it's 2008 and a small sale has a commission of about $1.06.

What bugs me is when people enter into a contract knowing what they're agreeing too and then turn around and complain about the terms.

P.S. I'm not a blind loyalist. I'm pretty upset about the spring sale price drop that came out of no where. I also don't like the dramatic shifts in best match that happen monthly.

vphoto · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2008, 20:38 »

signing the contract did not imply that I should be dancing cheek to cheek with iStock to the rest of my microstok life. I may disagree with them, may I ?

yingyang0 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 04, 2008, 00:23 »

Quote from: vphoto on March 03, 2008, 20:38

signing the contract did not imply that I should be dancing cheek to cheek with iStock to the rest of my microstok [sic] life. I may disagree with them, may I ?

You joined six months ago, hardly a lifetime (even in "microstock years"). It is fine to disagree with them, but I found it weird that you were complaining about a few .20 commissions when you're also on at least one other site where they are all .25-.30 commissions.

sensovision · « **Reply #16 on:** March 04, 2008, 01:50 »

Quote from: madelaide on February 27, 2008, 17:44

The lowest I got was 19c, and gladly that was unusual. Most of my XS are getting me now about 24c

So is price of XSmall image is fluctuating all the time or they simply pay different percentage each time, or maybe there some sort of discounts for customers?

I also got one image sold two times with period in few days with different price:

Quote

Sunday March 02, 2008, 12:57 PM XSmall Regular 0.18
Wednesday February 27, 2008, 07:41 AM XSmall Regular 0.23

madelaide · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2008, 16:33 »

Quote from: sensovision on March 04, 2008, 01:50

So is price of XSmall image is fluctuating all the time or they simply pay different percentage each time, or maybe there some sort of discounts for customers?

The % is always the same (20%), but prices vary with credits packages. If I remember it right, one credit can cost from 95c to $1.30, depending on the amount of credits purchased (more credits, cheaper $/credit). Therefore a XS pays like 19c to 26c.

Regards,
Adelaide

sensovision · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2008, 16:38 »

Quote from: madelaide on March 04, 2008, 16:33

Quote from: sensovision on March 04, 2008, 01:50
So is price of XSmall image is fluctuating all the time or they simply pay different percentage each time, or maybe there some sort of discounts for customers?

The % is always the same (20%), but prices vary with credits packages. If I remember it right, one credit can cost from 95c to $1.30, depending on the amount of credits purchased (more credits, cheaper $/credit). Therefore a XS pays like 19c to 26c.

Thanks, Adelaide, you're 100% right, soon after posting this I've checked IStock forums and saw this thread which confirm your what you just said.
Thanks for response!

lisafx · « **Reply #19 on:** March 04, 2008, 17:18 »

Quote from: yingyang0 on March 03, 2008, 19:36

Since you're new to istock I'm sure that you'd be surprised that x-small is a new thing. Before "small" was the smallest and the commission was $0.20 on a small sale in 2006. Now it's 2008 and a small sale has a commission of about $1.06.

I believe you are comparing apples to oranges here. The commission a few years ago on a small was indeed .20 for non-exclusive, and now it is about .60-.70.

I believe the 1.06 commission for a small must be with an exclusive bonus included because I have never gotten that much for a small.

However now with XS available I have gotten commissions as low as .16

I am not one of the ones you will find regularly complaining about istock's XS commissions because usually they are offset by the lucrative large and XL sales, but not as much with this current sale going on.

yingyang0 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 04, 2008, 19:38 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 04, 2008, 17:18

I believe you are comparing apples to oranges here. The commission a few years ago on a small was indeed .20 for non-exclusive, and now it is about .60-.70.

I'm not sure I'm comparing apples to oranges. The commission for a small has indeed gone up exclusive or not, No? Now, comparing the commission on an x-small to a small, that is more like comparing apples to oranges.

Did you contact IS about getting .16? From what I've seen the worst possible commission you can receive is .97x.2= $0.19

I'm not a fan of the sale either.

lisafx · « **Reply #21 on:** March 05, 2008, 11:08 »

Quote from: yingyang0 on March 04, 2008, 19:38

Did you contact IS about getting .16? From what I've seen the worst possible commission you can receive is .97x.2= $0.19

It has happened more than once, so I assume it is a legitimate royalty amount under some discount or other.

But no, I don't see any reason to bother support with piddly stuff like that. It's a very disappointing commission, but from what I have seen it is not a mistake.

jcphoto · « **Reply #22 on:** March 05, 2008, 12:38 »

Could it be Old credits still hanging around out there?
That has happened to me over the last couple of years, I assume it is a correct amount and agree that it is not worth bothering support with.