The good old days

[geogphotos]

before the race to the bottom..............and before commission reductions

 

 

[wiskerke]

When were these good old days?

 

wim

[geogphotos]

My first sale was October 2003.

 

Being RM the same image sold twice for 2 CDs/DVDs to the same education client one for $202, and the other for $150

 

I danced around the room that after 9 months of scanning my old slides the first sales appeared😀

 

( bought my film scanner in Feb 2003). Original sub of 10 pic in Dec 2002 were done by somebody else I paid - interestingly I told the person doing it that it was for Alamy and he told me back that Alamy would never succeed....

Edited January 22 by geogphotos

[Mr Standfast]

https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Tony-Capstick/Capstick-Comes-Home

[Chris Burrows]

I remember it well....

Started with Alamy Jan 2004 as somewhere to put the pictures that my main library did not want and sold 4 pictures in that year for gross of $1048  One picture grossed $549.14

In 2006 sold 54 pictures and grossed $5855

Downhill from then on.

Edited January 22 by Chris Burrows
small correction

[John Mitchell]

I signed up for the Alamy army in 2003 but didn't begin active duty until mid-2007 for various reasons. Consequently, I missed the really good ol' days. Prices and commission rates were still good, though. I made more from 55 sales in 2009 than I did from 186 in 2023. That said, the ship is continuing to weather the storm much better than I thought it would. 🚢

 

 

Edited January 23 by John Mitchell

[Tony]

 

 

A snippet of some sales from 2005 when it was actually worth going out to shoot new images, I hardly upload anything to alamy anymore the rewards are just not worth the effort.

[MariaJ]

Impressive numbers!  So Alamy kept only 35% of the sale price back then?

[Tony]

I thought the split was 60/40 in favour of the photographer back then, I remember Alamy saying they wanted to give us the lion's share.

 

But that dosn't seem to compute with some of those figures, don't know why.

 

I just copied and pasted a small section from 2005

[John Mitchell]

7 hours ago, MariaJ said:

Impressive numbers!  So Alamy kept only 35% of the sale price back then?

 

Yes, that was the case when I started submitting in 2007.

 

Can't remember when the 60/40 split (in favour of contributors) kicked in.

 

Then, 50/50, now...

[Ed Rooney]

This was my first sale in 2008 -- $168

 

 

The second was of wooden shoes in Amsterdam -- $365

 

Memories of real money.

 

 

[John Mitchell]

I remember that escalator image, Edo. It's very striking.

 

Not sure I could afford wooden shoes now... 😆

[Ed Rooney]

 

That's a repeat seller, John -- just across the water from you in Seattle.

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

That's a repeat seller, John -- just across the water from you in Seattle.

 

Yes, the Seattle library is very photogenic. I have a few images of the library that have licensed. Here's that same escalator (not nearly as good a composition as yours). Can't recall if it has sold. I'm a terrible record-keeper.

 

[Michael Ventura]

 

[wiskerke]

That yellow escalator. Licensed only once: $190 gross. Not that long ago. Summer 2019 - nice dps.

 

2005-2006

 

171.48

142.18

105.88

52.94

220.00

-52.94

200.00

330.40

101.01

92.59

320.00

114.48

105.88

165.00

72.49

462.18

 

Almost immediately had a refund. They had licensed it twice: the other for double the price. Not sure if my mail alerting MS prompted the refund.

 

wim

 

 

 

[Chris Burrows]

16 hours ago, Tony said:

I thought the split was 60/40 in favour of the photographer back then, I remember Alamy saying they wanted to give us the lion's share.

 

But that dosn't seem to compute with some of those figures, don't know why.

 

I just copied and pasted a small section from 2005

When I started the split was 70/30 but when payment was made there was a fixed cheque fee and a small percentage foreign exchange fee so roughly a 3 to 4 percent deduction.

Early 2009 went to a 60/40 split and the extra fees at payment were dropped.

The 50/50 came in early 2013

[Ed Rooney]

 

Seattle is one of my favorite American cities. The disappointment for me on that 2008 trip was the Mariners were out of town and I didn't get to see Ichiro.

[Avpics]

As a late starter, even my first year of sales from as recent as the latter half of 2013 were for $111, $35 and $90. The following year saw values at $260, $150, $204 and $110, from a small and unvaried portfolio. My highest licence came in 2017 at $854, shortly followed by one at $400. Nothing has come close since then.

[John Mitchell]

10 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Seattle is one of my favorite American cities. The disappointment for me on that 2008 trip was the Mariners were out of town and I didn't get to see Ichiro.

 

I too have always liked like Seattle, especially in the good old days. However, it has gotten very expensive for Canucks due to the unfavourable (for us) exchange rate and high cost of accommodations. The city has changed considerably as well, perhaps not for the better, but you could say that about a lot of places. My best-selling Seattle image is of a Nordstrom department store sign. 🥱

 

 

Edited January 26 by John Mitchell

[Ed Rooney]

 

I've done well with my snaps of Seattle. In the past, of course.

 

The weather god is not smiling today in Montreal, your old hometown. I hope you are well, John. So many seniors I know are not.

[John Mitchell]

43 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I've done well with my snaps of Seattle. In the past, of course.

 

The weather god is not smiling today in Montreal, your old hometown. I hope you are well, John. So many seniors I know are not.

 

I don't have a lot of Seattle images, but they do reasonably well. I'm feeling pretty good these days. Thanks for asking. I turn LXXV next month, which I guess means that I'm still a bit of a youngster. The weather gods can be fickle, especially in Montreal. I miss the city sometimes but not the winters. ☃️