I periodically check my iStock account and this morning noticed that I'd had a sale May 29th that netted me 63 cents for an XXXL image.

I'm paid at 18% which means the buyer would have paid $3.50 for that credit which seems impossibly low.

Looking at the current packs, 300 credits can be purchased at $8 each - more than twice the amount in my case.

Is there some new pricing scheme I'm not aware of? This was a blue bar - i.e. not subscription or partner program. Royalties have typically been $1.40 - $1.60 ish.

What is the lowest buyer price per credit people are seeing now?

I had a sale 10 days ago where the credits worked out to be $4.33 each. Not as bad as $3.50, but still pretty low.

Thanks for the replies. It really doesn't matter except that I was curious as to whether there was some new program - the big deals for large customers are at every agency. I'm not at iStock for the money any more (I only have those files shot at iStockalypse online there as i couldn't sell them anywhere else); I can better keep an eye on what's going on with an account, but I don't upload there.