Selling for pennies

[William Caram]

 Yes these $0.15 sale commissions are a joke....but we the image suppliers  are not laughing all the way to the bank 🙄

😀

Edited January 2, 2022 by William Caram
You Gotta Laugh

[TeleMakro]

On my side 6 of those ridiculous China sales until now.

[timo]

This really pisses me off. It is an insult to all contributers.

 

Who knows how these images will be used?

 

Alamy says: "You can opt out again in April."

 

I WANT OUT NOW!

[erinaceus]

Five for me - random stuff (skink, termite, spoonbill, people on a beach)

[Pancaketom]

came back from the weekend to see that I got more of these, 38 total to be exact, for which I might make a whole $1.52. 

 

You only need 1334 of these sales to get out of the 20% basement when it comes. 

 

Can I just opt out of China distributor sales? and will Alamy actually honor this before I die?

 

 

[Gumpanat]

Same problem. I had 29 sales to China  0.15 net each. What's happen Alamy? Waiting for answer.

 

4 MB
1005 x 1506 pixels
122KB compressed
China
$ 0.15

 

6 MB
1728 x 1152 pixels
140KB compressed
China
$ 0.15

[Betty LaRue]

On 01/01/2022 at 05:31, Joseph Clemson said:

I  hardly know whether to laugh or cry that I haven't seen even one of these impossibly cheap Chinese licences. I'm sure that all my images being RM is affording some protection against this onslaught, notwithstanding some contributors having seen some RM images licensed in this way.

 

For those who have had a RM licence sold in this way, on what terms was the licence purchased? I can  understand RF licences being purchased in bulk as they can be used over and over again - a fatal flaw in the RF licence model from the contributor's point of view, but what kind of RM licence would be sold to a Chinese buyer at such a low price?

This is what my RM license to China says.

Country: China
Start: 01 January 1900
China

Now, exactly what does that tell me???

[Ger Bosma]

It would be nice to get an update from Alamy staff.

 

As said, in my case there were a whopping 121 Chinese distributor sales.

 

The total number of images 'purchased' (I use the word in the loosest way possible LOL)  must therefore run in the tens/hundreds of thousands.

 

The only possible upside is that lots of thus far anonymous images may end up higher in search results from now on, as a result of having been.... bought (-;

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Ger Bosma

[Joseph Clemson]

52 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

This is what my RM license to China says.

Country: China
Start: 01 January 1900
China

Now, exactly what does that tell me???

 

It tells me that that you, your images and your instructions on how those images should be licenced have been treated with blatant disrespect by Alamy. They might at least have the humility to offer an explanation for this dismal action.

[Ger Bosma]

Looking at  a breakdown of which of my images were in fact sold under this bargain-licence:

 

Over a third ( 41 of 121) were pictures of (Siberian) tigers, some sold  multiple times.

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said:

This is what my RM license to China says.

Country: China
Start: 01 January 1900
China

Now, exactly what does that tell me???

 

Not a heck of a lot. The licensing terms for my $8.82 RM China distro sale were more complete.

Interesting that there is a start but no end date. The start date of January 1900 in your sale is intriguing as well. 🙃

 

Country: China
Usage: Editorial
Media: Magazine - print, digital and electronic
Print run: up to 10,000
Placement: Inside
Image Size: 1 page
Start: 01 May 2021
China, Magazine - print, digital and electronic;

Edited January 3, 2022 by John Mitchell

[Thomas Kyhn]

I received a reply from support; they say that to avoid these sales, you need to opt out of "novel use" (in April).

 

Where do you see if a sale is "novel use" (I looked at the sales report and the sales history, but it doesn't say "novel use" anywhere), and are "novel use" all novel use prices this low?

[Dcd]

Anyone know who this china company is that is buying.

[Michael Ventura]

26 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

I received a reply from support; they say that to avoid these sales, you need to opt out of "novel use" (in April).

 

Where do you see if a sale is "novel use" (I looked at the sales report and the sales history, but it doesn't say "novel use" anywhere), and are "novel use" all novel use prices this low?

I have never been in Novel Use and just checked, I am still not.  But I did get 8 of these micro priced sales from China, last Friday.

 

Something ain’t right.

[imageplotter]

30 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

I received a reply from support; they say that to avoid these sales, you need to opt out of "novel use" (in April).

 

Where do you see if a sale is "novel use" (I looked at the sales report and the sales history, but it doesn't say "novel use" anywhere), and are "novel use" all novel use prices this low?

I'm opted out of novelty use, and I am also opted out of China in the distributor regions, but still had several of those lucrative $0.15 gross sales.

 

So presumably, the deal is not just novelty use, but includes direct, non-distributor, non novelty-use sales to China. Mine were all RF (I have since switched all my RF to RM as there is no longer any point, frankly, in RF on Alamy), but others have said that some RM were also purchased for that $0.15 deal. Can anyone confirm the latter?

 

Ps. Sorry, Michael, looks like I typed whilst you also responded with similar. So I guess there are quite a few of us opted out, it clearly isn't affecting novelty use only, and it is not just distributor sales, but direct sales to a Chinese customer?

Edited January 4, 2022 by imageplotter

[Thomas Kyhn]

48 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

I received a reply from support; they say that to avoid these sales, you need to opt out of "novel use" (in April).

 

Where do you see if a sale is "novel use" (I looked at the sales report and the sales history, but it doesn't say "novel use" anywhere), and are "novel use" all novel use prices this low?

 

I got a clarification now. The part about "novel use" was a mistake (on the side of support), apparently you need to opt out of distributor sales to avoid these sales. Strange, though, that opting out of sales to China isn't enough.

[meanderingemu]

5 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

 

I got a clarification now. The part about "novel use" was a mistake (on the side of support), apparently you need to opt out of distributor sales to avoid these sales. Strange, though, that opting out of sales to China isn't enough.

 

 

So because i allow Distributor sales in France, where fees have historically been OK, a Chinese distributor come sell my images?  That pretty much negates the reasoning of having a check list of markets. 

[Michael Ventura]

9 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

 

I got a clarification now. The part about "novel use" was a mistake (on the side of support), apparently you need to opt out of distributor sales to avoid these sales. Strange, though, that opting out of sales to China isn't enough.

 

Got it. I am in the distributor scheme.

[meanderingemu]

30 minutes ago, imageplotter said:

I'm opted out of novelty use, and I am also opted out of China in the distributor regions, but still had several of those lucrative $0.15 gross sales.

 

So presumably, the deal is not just novelty use, but includes direct, non-distributor, non novelty-use sales to China. Mine were all RF (I have since switched all my RF to RM as there is no longer any point, frankly, in RF on Alamy), but others have said that some RM were also purchased for that $0.15 deal. Can anyone confirm the latter?

 

Ps. Sorry, Michael, looks like I typed whilst you also responded with similar. So I guess there are quite a few of us opted out, it clearly isn't affecting novelty use only, and it is not just distributor sales, but direct sales to a Chinese customer?

 

 

All mine have distributor commission charges, so no indication that there was any direct sale.  I did opt out of China distribution under the new contract, as allowed by Alamy in the 45 day implementation period, and documented on this forum.   So it seems these opt-out are not enforced uniformly 

[Allan Bell]

Going to check how many "distributor" sales I have had and if not many and poor return then I may duck out of it.

 

Allan

 

[Thomas Kyhn]

3 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

Got it. I am in the distributor scheme.

 

So this means that deselecting China under Distribution will not prevent distributor sales to China, only sales through Chinese distributors?

[meanderingemu]

4 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

 

So this means that deselecting China under Distribution will not prevent distributor sales to China, only sales through Chinese distributors?

 

so did Alamy confirm where this distributor was, and why they only sold to China?  this seems odd.  

 

 

also weird that they only sold in December

Edited January 4, 2022 by meanderingemu

[Thomas Kyhn]

15 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

so did Alamy confirm where this distributor was, and why they only sold to China?

 

No, I'm just trying to understand how this works, and why deselecting China doesn't prevent such sales, but opting out of distributor sales altogether does.

[meanderingemu]

4 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

 

No, I'm just trying to understand how this works, and why deselecting China doesn't prevent such sales, but opting out of distributor sales altogether does.

 

maybe i'm sarcastic but i'll go with "canned answer from direction hoping you will just go away, and not try to put holes through their answer".

 

Note that the multi territory issue is an issue, and were told before it was based on country of the distributor's registration with Alamy- there is a known overlap with one who distribute in 3-4 countries (former Yugoslavia).  

 

I actually would expect the opt-out to be based on country of the Distributor, and if Alamy came out now and told us, in writing "This was our French distributor, selling only in China, and only in December", i would be OK fair game, lesson learned, opting out of all remaining next April.  

[Allan Bell]

43 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Going to check how many "distributor" sales I have had and if not many and poor return then I may duck out of it.

 

Allan

 

 

I must be getting old.  I opted OUT of "Distribution" sales back in May 2021.

 

I am also out of "Novel use" (left back in 2013) and "Image options" (left in 2017).

 

Allan