Sorry, no explanation from me.  I sell the same mix of files on BigStock that sell elsewhere, just in lower volumes.

With the "bridge" it is zero effort to keep feeding them but they've failed to make any progress since being taken over  - quite the reverse really. It amazes me that when a successfup stock company buys a lesser one none of the "magic" seems to rub off on the poor performer.

With the "bridge" it is zero effort to keep feeding them but they've failed to make any progress since being taken over  - quite the reverse really. It amazes me that when a successfup stock company buys a lesser one none of the "magic" seems to rub off on the poor performer.

YEP!!!!!! Tim and Dawn were the best.

I happened upon this comment in a blog post about the Getty "free" images for bloggers

Quote

"Try Compfight (free) or BigStock or iStock. With BigStock, you can sign up for a month, buy 5 images a day and start creating your own library, then use those images as you need them and ditch the monthly fee."

From this article:

http://www.v3im.com/2014/03/getty-images-sets-35-million-images-free-but-theres-a-catch/

So if this blogger is at all typical, they want to spend $69 and grab all 150 images and then leave. Can't be good for Bigstock because they depend on buyers not purchasing everything, but the price is such that even at 46 cents an image they still don't lose. The problem is the low volume - SS is doing well because of the non-subs sales as well as the volume of subs sales.

That's no different from SS, TS or DT, is it? Anyone can buy a subscription and download to the maximum, but I assume they all have a condition making it illegal to continue using the images once you terminate your subscription. Here is the Bigstock legalese:
"If you fail to make any payment to Bigstock when due, or if any check is dishonored or credit card charge refused or charged back, your account will be deemed to be delinquent. If your account becomes delinquent, your right to use any Images downloaded at any time shall automatically terminate unless all payments together with any interest thereon and Bigstock's costs of collection, bank charges and credit card processing fees are received by Bigstock no later than fifteen (15) days from the date that your account became delinquent. "
So the blogger would be liable to prosecution for continued use of those images (though I don't suppose any of us expect that to actually happen). I'm not sure if the terms mean that you couldn't continue displaying the image on your website or that you couldn't reprint an existing job, but it certainly means you couldn't put it into a new project.