Hello,

One guy just emailed me about one of my photos. He would like to buy all rights of my images (one of my bestsellers) for a $500. It means, he could use this photo as he wants and he could resell it as well and I will no longer be the author of that image.
In one hand it's a bit pitty to refuse my own work forever, but in second hand the concrete sum of cash right now is very fine.

What do you think about that kind of resellers? About selling of all portfolio? Maybe someone already did (bought or sell) similar things?
What can be prices of all rights of image in the market?

Sorry my English and thaks to all.

ONE image, not all. If he would like to buy all my portfolio, he must multiply ~800 x 500 = $400.000 

This image has over 50 downloads on Dreamstime only and is worthy $5000 with Full Ownership rights (Dreamstime License).
Had anyone such a sells with Full Ownership License?

Its really up to you.  Just figure out how long it would take at the current selling rate for that image to reach $500.  If it would take more than 5 years it might be worth it.  In 5 years the microstock market might change quite a bit.  My guess is it will get harder and harder to make money through microstocks because the quality and number of available images is only going up.  Good luck,

Mark

That's weird ... and not a bit suspicious.

I assume that you have been selling the image Royalty Free. That means all the other people who have bought it (dozens? hundreds?) have the legal right to use it for certain specified purposes for as long as they want. So why should someone then want to pay $500 for 'all rights'? They certainly won't be able to have exclusive rights any more, and they can have no idea where the image may pop up.

On the other hand, if you have been selling it 'Rights Managed' then $500 is rather low. Just today I heard of someone who sold one of his Rights Managed images, through Alamy, for a mouth-watering $6'800.

I have sold a few images on Alamy and from what I can gather the average is below $500.  More than likely the $6,800 was for exlusive rights, meaning the photographer no longer has rights to sell the image.  From what I understand that is what FourSeasons is asking about.  If he sells the image he will no longer have the right to sell it or use it.  He is essentially giving up ownership to the image.  So the buyer can sell the image if wants as if it was his own.  Traditionally $500 is a low price to ask for those kind of rights, but in this time of change with microstocks I'm guessing it will become more common.  Only FourSeasons can decide if it is worth it.

Mark

It's not necessarily a financial issue.  The way I read this (and I could be terribly, horribly wrong . . .) is that Dreamstime allows you to claim the image copyright--your name is attached to the creation of the image.  However, I think that the Lucky Oliver contract separates your name from the creation of the image, in essence giving someone else the right to claim the image as their own intellectual brainchild.  But, as I said I'm probably wrong.

I think it's a very bad idea to sell away all your rights, including your ownership of the image.  An image so good that someone wants to purchase it in perpetuity is an excellent advertising tool.  Others who see such an excellent image may wish to contact you for other, fine images.  Why would you want someone to have your image and not give you credit as the source of that image?  It would have to be one heck of a high price to entice me to divorce my name from my images.

I don't understand the distinction between selling an image outright and selling the rights.

For example, Dreamstime allows you to "Sell the Rights".  You still own the copyright and the buyer can't resell the image, but neither can you.  So essentially, the image is sold for the last time.  See http://www.dreamstime.com/sellimages for the details.

LuckyOliver allows you to sell an image outright and allows the buyer to resell the image.  See http://www.luckyoliver.com/guide/buyout_price for the details.

Either way, you can't resell your own image, so what is the difference to the seller (from a financial perspective)?

That may be true, but I could still put that image in my portfolio and claim it as mine.  I could display it on my web page and use it to advertise my services.  The Dreamstime contract would simply prohibit me from selling the image again.  At least, that's the way it appears.

Yes, but even if your image is technically attached to the image (via copyright), I highly doubt that they would print your name next to the image when they publish it somewhere.

In my case it's all about money and some ethics or even psichology question. On that point, if I'm not longer the author of my, let's say, bestseller, my own "child", than I must get enough money to compensate my loss. And I think $500 is not that sum. There must be at least several thousands.

Thank you guys for answers and help

You will always be the photographer, you just lose the copyright on it.

Set a price you want considering you are giving away copyright. If they say no, then no real loss as the photo will keep earning