MicrostockGroup

Obviously there has been a lot of speculation going on in the last few weeks and now with the latest StockXpert site mail announcement things haven't gotten any clearer.

I haven't been following all the latest threads (if there were any about this specifically) but does anyone know more detailed info about StockXpert's future?

StockXpert does generate an important amount of sales for me even without JIU and PHotos.com so this would be quite a hard hit for me and possibly for some others as well if they would (be) shut down.

http://www.stockxpert.com/forum/show_messages/27171
Well, no one can tell.

I hope they don't close either. They still sell well for me and they tend not to reject my images. They definitely seem to have a lot of underdog support from contributors and possibly buyers as well. Hopefully, that support will jeep them going.

Makes sense.

But how is it with the big mess there regarding footage?

I haven't been up to speed what's happening since I can't get my photo-jpg movs accepted there. For some reason my files (and other contributors' files) keep getting refused by the server.

Also the rare sales are often returned. It used to be a big problem.

Since they are going to cut down on personnel I wonder how they can keep this ship on course...

Or will they drop footage? HD is almost half price compared to iStockphoto - I'm curious how good that is for them...

I wouldn't mind seeing it going back to being a "small guy". I really liked them when they were independent.

I went ahead and removed my StockXpert portfolio.  It was doing decently well before the whole subscription thing, then it tanked until I added subscriptions, now its lost both subscription services, and I'm suspecting they lost their audience with it.  I don't think the buyers have much incentive to come back to StockXpert when they've obviously been doing a lot of buying through the other sites, especially since many of the images are going to be on those same sites through iStock.

Next step from Greed(t)y images it sounds to bee as(s) they previous from JI. "From now you commissions at Stockexpert will bee 20% bla bla because of our selfish greedness.... bla bla..."
If it is really going too bee I am really turn myself inside out of puking on them...

I've never understood why contributors remove portfolios from micro sites, unless going exclusive on another, or as a sign of protest against new policies.

Why remove your port if it's selling even a little bit?  Seems like you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Sure, stop contributing to a site if you feel it's a waste of time, but what's it hurting to keep it there? (Again, if you're taking a stand against a site, I sort of understand... but unless contributors do it in a big organized fashion, the micro will not notice or care about your sudden absence.)

Myself, I've seen a pretty nice spike in StockXpert sales this month after two months of slow decline.  Really hoping it's allowed to live on, even if it gets no future development.

Most probably not. Those sites are on death row by some early technical flaws that were corrected too late, and they don't offer real subs. If the photos.com and JIU buyers will find out that they can't access a large part of the previous content, they will probably (hopefully) move over to the first and genuine subscription site with loads of content (over 9M images, an offer that the new Getty site can't match in the begin), and which is ShutterStock.

I might be wrong, but it sounds like StockXpert might be closing down after the end of the year.  They are probably only keeping the doors open until the end of the year for tax purposes.

Is it time to cash out?

I went to the site sharpshot posted above, www.dreamcsoport.hu to sign up to keep in touch with what Peter Hamza and partner are doing now that they've sold 100% to Getty.

I think it interesting to note that on that splash page, at the bottom, are some urls listed, one of which is stockxpert.com. Does anyone think that maybe Peter & co. retained that site name, since Getty is obviously merging their stockxpert business in with istock? If they sold, I would imagine they signed some sort of no-compete, but I'm wondering why that url is on that page.

Why? They are owned by Getty. I don't think it is realistic to think Getty won't finish payouts.

In terms of getting your payout - Yes. Much better than small standalone company about to go bankrupt or about to terminate their business.