Quote from: arkadia56 on January 27, 2014, 14:08

Quote from: ShadySue on January 27, 2014, 14:03

Quote from: arkadia56 on January 27, 2014, 13:44

I agree with Ron, if they are so well know, why don't they appear nowhere ?

That's not what Ron said.
Ron said, specifically,  "If AGE is this amazing selling agency why are they not even on the poll on the right?"
and the answer is because they're not a micro agency.
No mystery there. There are any number of macro agencies not on the micro list.

ShaddySue,

Alamy is also a "macro" and they are in the list. Maybe because there are sales to report at Alamy contrary to Age ?

Btw: Macro and micro doesn't mean anything anymore in the case of agencies doing both RM and RF..

I know almost nothing of Agefotostock, but I know that a lot of people on msg are on Alamy and asked specifically for it to be added to the poll results.

Note what I said about many other macro agencies not being on the poll. Some people make plenty of sales from Getty, but it's not in the poll.

NB: RF doesn't necessarily mean 'micro'. E.g. on Alamy, RF files often sell for larger amounts than non-exclusive RM files, which is logical.

Alamy sells RF as low as any other Istock or Shutterstock. They sell RM also at lower prices like 15 $. And yes, the term microstock comes form the agencies who started to sell only RF at low prices.

Again, in 2014, the terms micro and macro don't make sense anymore. If you know almost nothing about age, what exactly is the purpose of your comments ?

You are right for one things: Ron said "If AGE is this amazing selling agency why are they not even on the poll on the right?" and I totally agree with him. And Getty should be on the list as well to be sure.

Quote from: luissantos84 on January 25, 2014, 07:54

curiously!

Curiously what?
You think to become a milionaire with other photographic agencies?
You can if you have a stunning 4-digit portfolio probably but if you have only few pics you won't sale anything in any agency.
Anyway, if you don't sale you are not a good photographer ;-)

"Anyway, if you don't sale you are not a good photographer ;-)".

What a definitive affirmation from a seasoned and international recognized award winning top notch photographer ! 

I hope you realise how wrong and comical your sentence is 

Quote from: stefano on January 25, 2014, 07:52

Quote from: grey1 on January 25, 2014, 07:42

I have a few friends here in England who signed up with AGE and they tell me its the biggest waste of time ever. No sales at all, nothing.

Probably they are not good photographers or they uploaded few dozens of photos so far and pretend to sale them after 2 minutes!
If you carefully see what a photographic agency wants and sells before complaining, you will discover that selling pics is not the most difficult job in the world!

No. One of these photographers have over 1900 images in files and he is in the process of leaving right now. Not one sale in over a year and he has also a very special portfolio. AGE can not sell, they have no self-promotion and they are stuck back in the 1980s.

It is the reason why I wouldn't recommend them besides their other bizarre and archaic ways of doing business...

Quote from: Ron on January 25, 2014, 03:09

If AGE is this amazing selling agency why are they not even on the poll on the right? It cant be that 30k members of MSG dont know about AGE or it must be the best hidden gem on the planet.

It's been around for almost 40 years, that should tell you something. No hidden secret. Been around since before Getty Images. You just need to get out of the microstock bubble.

I know some old fashion boutiques that have been in the village for 50 years, they sell outdated clothes to a handful of grandmothers and are still opened. Everybody in town wonder how they have survived so long until one day they are replaced by a grocery shop. 

Ok, they are not associated with microstock, while like all the others, they do microstock as well at the same level of pricing, but even then you can't compare them with Alamy, Corbis or Getty...

Why the regret? An archaic 3 years contract (hard copy to send by post to Spain like in the 19th century), no possibility to remove pictures by the contributor from his own page, no exposure, no sales and a  messy and not very nice agency.

Better make money with exclusives than nothing with non exclusive in my opinion. 

For example, I can't take my image to Getty from them (as Getty wants only exclusive)  as I have to wait the end of the contract to do so.   

Fortunately, I haven't sent too much pictures and I haven't sent the best ones there...

It looks like Alamy main clients are UK newspapers (like the Guardian) and that the main sales are electronic ones for few $, even for RM collections.

Occasionally, you'd get higher sales over 50 or 100$ but it become rarer. The competition is really tough and the world is saturated with images for sale. Bigger players get bigger shares of the market although asking for exclusivity (Getty) or with unacceptable T&C sometimes (Corbis). 

My guess is that the best photographers don't sell well,  the connected ones do, in stock as in other areas. If you know what the editor wants next month it's suddenly more easy to produce the right shot.

Today, these agencies are at 50% commissions, what for next year ? 60% for them, 40 for contributors ? This is the way it goes...

Hi Ed,

Sorry but, well, when you explain how the upload works there, it looks even more complicated  Who needs to download filezilla or use its website to upload pictures to a stock agency website in  2014 (except small Austrian agencies of course) ?

Welcome to the 21st century and electronic forms and contracts like other do (Alamy, Getty, Shutterstock etc...).

besides, how many "occasional" sales have you made compared to the time you have been with them and number of images online ?

Also, sales with other agencies who have a little more exposure are more around 50 to 300 $ than 38 cents, but again we have to compare apples with apples.

The only qualities they have are: they do RM, they don't ask for exclusivity (how could they, nobody know them). It's not a lot.

Agefotostock is an old, small, inefficient, badly managed and not very nice stock agency.
Same here, no sales compared to others (micro and macro with RF and RM stocks).

Not a wonder, the only thing they seem to want is to grab your pictures to increase their collections. They have been there since quite a long time, a bit like these old fashion shops that are completely outdated, they never make any sales. Everybody wonders how they survive....

The uploading is horrible. The contract binds you for 3 years (and under Spanish law...!), plus you have to send it by post to Spain (great). And you have to send a formal letter by snail post to make sure this contract is not renewed automatically for 3 years !! Again, the goal seems to be to grab your pictures.

To top it all, you can't remove your pictures once they are uploaded, there is no online mechanism for it (the website is archaic at best). When you ask them to remove pictures, the invoke the contract not to do it (nothing mentionned in this very dubious contract about images removal).

In short, if you make the mistake to sign with them, not only you'll sell nothing but you will have to check thoroughly what they really do with your images. Avoid the trap 

Have you signed with them or are you another victim of copyright violation ? Wouldn't be a surprised coming from them...

When the  time spent to shoot, prepare and upload your images is high and the returns on your investment are so low that you can't help but conclude that you have just lost your time, like thousands of others, to the only benefit of stock agencies...

If you think about it, you represent the unhappy majority