MicrostockGroup

Indeed. When a picture has been sold hundreds of times - whether on one site or many - exclusivity doesn't mean a lot from a buyer's point of you.

Most buyers I know could care less about that. Like microstock said, if it's been sold 100 times on iStock or across multiple sites, it doesn't mean much to buyers.

That applies only if item X is special.

The reason high-priced agency sales have been hit by the micros is that they had a lot of items that weren't particularly special or had similars available on the micros.

Right now, IS has collections/price points for less than ordinary, ordinary, special, very special and super special, which is overdoing things somewhat.

Well, sure, there are buyers who will just pay the price for whatever they want. But there will also be others who will look for cheaper options. So a unique expensive image may perform better than a commonplace expensive one.

Several people have said that exclusive-+ works best for more unique images and that run-of-the-mill stuff can die when promoted to that level.

I might add that your track record shows that your work is not generally run-of-the-mill, so premium collections may well work better for you than for lesser lights.