Do buyers take contributor's profiles into consideration when buying an image?

As an example, will they skip over a newbie profile ("I just started taking pictures with my point & shoot") to try and find a more experienced photograher ("20 years in the business, studio, multiple Canon pro DSLRs"). Or is it the individual image that matters most?

I'd agree with that. I'd go so far to say that your bio doesn't even really matter in the 'real' photography world, where who you know is very important.

I think they do take a contributers profile into consideration when buying images.
Not necessarily each time they download an image. But i think at some point, buyers who download on a regular basis may feel the need to investigate the status of a certain photographer.

Its the same principle when you buy a bag of chips, you don`t really pay attention to the ingredients right...
But some do.

I guess to me, if i was a buyer, i think i would check beforehand on who took the image etc...
Just for the sake of knowing who took the picture and if the photographer is selling a lot.

Its hard to tell really.

Good question by the way!

I buy a small number of photos, and I only look at the contributor's profile when I notice that I'm buying from the one contributor many times. This has happened a few times, and I still 'watch' those contributors.

I too have heard of photographers getting offline work through their profiles. iStockphoto push this fact in their publicity.

I also know that many buyers who buy similar themed images over and over, will often have their favourite photographers whose portfolio they'll search through first.

This leads into the branding exercise. Yuri, Andres & Ron sell a lot more than anyone else because they're high profile and product consistent quality. Many buyers have a short list of trusted contributors who seldom let them down.