I was all prepared to write a response that said something like "The old days of new uploads getting a big boost are gone, and new pics should sell in roughly the same proportion as old pics" but I decided to check my last few days of downloads to see if that's still the case.  (The last few times I checked, I think that was an accurate assessment.)

But looking at the past several days of downloads, now I'd say older uploads make up a disproportionately higher share of my total.  So in the last several months, we've gone from new uploads getting preferential treatment, to old and new being on par, to now older images getting preference. 

Anyone else seeing it this way?

My new uploads are selling the day after approval. It's always reassuring that I made the right call for what's in demand. 

That's definitely a nice feeling.  But what we're talking about here is a shift that began at SS earlier this year, when the huge boost that new images used to get suddenly stopped when they implemented a default best match shift.  There have been multiple threads here about it. 

My new stuff does sell, so I know it's in my port and available for sale, but when those new uploads are immediately buried, they're not going to sell anywhere near how new uploads performed a year ago.

What I'm wondering is whether we've seen another recent shift.  For a while I observed that old and new uploads sold at about the same rate.  Now it almost seems that older uploads are getting preferential treatment.  Anyone else have data to support this?

So 3 pages of christmas pictures were uploaded after your pictures in 10 hours.
So if there is a server lag or the pictures are not showing up relatively soon, the "newest first window" will close without having been opened much at all.
So then it depends on keywords, image quality, image relevancy and demand.
Thats healthy enough.
Just not for the contributor, who faces even more competition. Supercompetition as I use to call it, since he has to compete both with  quality and quantity. And noone can do that for ever. Everybody looses in the end since it is impossible to continuously improve both numbers and quality.
That is why ports mature, and income stabilizes at an equilibrium where, no matter what you do, you cannot get better sales.
The industry may thrive but every single contributor is doomed in the long run....it is impossible to compete with crowdsourcing.
Natures response to the same phenomenon over time is mutation and migration is the solution at the moment.

Translated to our world it means that you need to mutate your photography into something more competitive: that could be using new programs and techniques or it could be keywording or to be on the forefront with trends. In this case invent a new christmas something.
In nature species migrate to less suitable environment, exactly as we do here, when we begin to upload to the low earners.
Nature has examples on "continent jumping" where a species jumps into a completely new unused environment. Microstock as it started was exactly that. But when first equilibrium is met, its the same old story. That is where we are.

It is also why agencies can be very vulnerable, when they do not adapt their business model when the environment is not new and unused anymore, and which is why they should listen carefully when the contributors complain about reaching equilibrium, its an early warning so to speak.

Only just noticed this but ive discovered similar since the start of the year.

Previously for as long as ive used SS new stuff sold  - you could rely on probably 80-90% of new images selling at least a couple of times in the first few days of life.  This was pretty much always the case.

Since the new year here ive had NO new submission sales at all (out of 33 new images) - not a single one.  Every single sale has been of an image over 2 months old.

If i search via a keyword even just one in the list the new image appears normally on the first row or certainly first page after a few hours of being live (we're talking 1 common keyword here not concise phrases).
What i have noticed last week and again this week images i've had go live if you go to category view are starting life round about page 9 or 10 if they show at all.  Images which are older (ie were there before) are still showing several pages higher in the "new" order than a brand new image.
I've just verified it again today with my latest batch, live for 2hours, appear as first or second row of hits for a generic keyword search in "new" but on page 9 or lower in the category view despite images that were on the first page yesterday (therefore older) still being there.  Other newly approved ones i cant find at all after going through 30 pages of category.

The result is these images never get seen, bought hence the no new submissions sold problem.

We know SS has tinkered with popular again but i think they've done more than change popular.
Ive gone from new submissions (i class that as a week or so active) making up a fair percentage (60% or so) of sales to quite literally overnight 0% of sales!

My sales of new content from the last 3 months is the lowest it has ever been. (I did have a upload gap in the second half of Dec, but I also did in the previous years.)