I don't have sets of business cards on SS, but I can see where helix7 is coming from. More than likely a buyer would buy a set of these cards rather than individual cards. It doesn't take a whole lot of work to create them either. I don't think these sets are taking money out of the other contributors pockets either. I think if the buyer sees a design he likes in a set he'll buy it rather it was a single design or multiple. It still adds up to one sale and if the contributor is happy with that then so be it.

I'm not worried whether it's one business card, eight business cards or thirty-two business cards; I'm worried that it's business cards.

Selling business cards under the microstock model is as dumb as selling ready-made, made-to-measure suits by mail order.

How is selling ready-made business cards any worse than selling ready-made photos or illustrations? Sure a custom-designed business card is always ideal, but so is a custom-made illustration or photo. Microstock fulfills the need to get these things cheaper, so ready-made and royalty-free is the way this all works.

It may be dumb to you, but these images don't take much time to make and they sell. It may seem ridiculous that they sell, but for whatever reason, they do. Should I care that they completely miss the mark in terms of design utility for many of the people who download them? Maybe. But it's not my job to care. I have to create images that sell, specifically images that don't take very long to make and will generate a few hundred dollars per year for me, and these business cards satisfy those requirements.

I wish you the very best of luck with your future endeavours.

I'm still hoping you might care to explain to me how you figure that selling business card templates (even single business card templates) is any worse for the microstock business than selling photographs.

This is terrible and it absolutely devalues the creative industry. Designers, illustrators, photographers are all artists. I cant see how much cheaper you can whore your (mediocre) talents out for. I dont even agree to the SS subscription model and seeing this makes me angry.  Never mind that the samples shown are quick simple to make designs thats probably ripped off from somewhere else online. What it does is to increase general perception that creativity isnt worth much. The untrained eye which is the general public cant tell the difference between a good business card and a great business card. Same thing goes for a logo.. its branding.. its thought... creativity... now packaged up in 32 pieces for a couple of cents...

Who buys all this anyway??? people who will sell it somewhere else

end rant...

Maybe I was misinterpreting the original post.  I assumed that microbius' complaint wasn't just about business card sets (although that's what was linked).  

My comments were directed more generally at the trend I see on ALL the sites for people to combine many images into one.  These include food shots, objects on white, portrait sets, etc.  I have seen many of these collages on DT, Istock, and Fotolia, as well as SS. 

No not a misinterpretation, spot on. That is what I was referring to.
All the examples I used happened to be business cards because I clicked on one then the similars came up at the bottom of the page.

It is a lot worse on Shutterstock, because they want to minimise the number of downloads a buyer uses.
Sites that make most of their income on PPD will want the buyer to make more purchases.

I wonder how many hours there is in those images, and what are the returns... sigh

How many hours on an image that never sells?  How many of us have portfolios with lots and lots of submissions that never sell once?  Were they a waste of time and effort?

The sad fact is that this industry is all about individual artists... Almost nobody makes any 'business decision' based on what's best for everyone.  Otherwise iStock couldn't get away with what they are doing... And no agency would have a sustainable subscription model, because artists would have quit them the instant their subscriptions programs started.  The fact is, artists are doing whatever they feel is necessary to sell their images.  Very few (if any) are taking other artists into account in their decisions.

The whole industry is going to crap and we (myself included) are all whining about it, but we're still contributing and still following trends that sell, even if it's another trend that makes things worse for artists as a group.  All we can do is vent in threads like this one and move on...

It seems that some people actually enjoy degrading their work. Those guys could upload those cards to printbusinesscards.com and really earn some nice money. Minimum sale for 1 card there is $5, and with only 40-something cards I had several sales. One of the sales was for $25.

Quote

Quote from: ThomasAmby on November 10, 2010, 04:35

Would you rather have three sets that sell for $60 in total in a year, or would you rather have $500 in a year by putting them in one?
That's how the SS machine works. If you get a lot of downloads within the first week, your image shows up among the most popular and that's critical for its longevity.
You don't have to put 100 business cards in a set, but if you want to compete with the rest of the industry it's a good idea to do so

And I just found large sets at Fotolia and BigStock as well.

Hi Thomas, Think your statement through. What is a business card? What does it do? Who is likely to need one? How many do they need? Would you want your business card to be the same as someone else's? Who are likely to be the biggest buyers of microstock? How will they react to seeing these files at this price point?

No, I wouldn't want my business cards to be the same as someone else's. If others can accept that, they can go to Shutterstock and buy a collection for pennies, while being aware that it's a non-exclusive collection. Otherwise, they'll have to pay for a custom design. What's the problem?
How will they react to seeing these files at this price point ? I don't know, what is your point? Will they explode? Close their accounts and blog about it? I don't know, do you have a theory ?