RMweb Gold DaveF Posted November 26, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 26, 2010 Hi All, As many of you know I have a lot of my images on fotopic and have made them available for individuals to purchase using the fotopic print service. Recently I have started to receive e mails asking me to sell prints direct, as users are telling me they cannot buy from fotopic any more. Upon investigation I have found that clicking on "Buy Me" takes the user back to the gallery index page. This is not restricted to my own galleries but applies to every gallery I where have tried the "Buy Print" button. I can find nothing in the fotopic Help section about this, nor have they e mailed me (or others I have contacted) saying this was happening. I have asked them through their "Help Ticket" system but have received no answer. Does anyone know what is going on? Please do not let this become a general moan about photo hosting on the web, I know there are other companies out there and do use them in other contexts! David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudley Posted November 29, 2010 Share Posted November 29, 2010 I'd write/ email Fotopic and ask them directly. Dudley http://www.dudleys-photos.co.uk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted November 29, 2010 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted November 29, 2010 I'd write/ email Fotopic and ask them directly. Dudley Many thanks for the advice. I have done that as well as via their help system, still no reply. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 Just looking and there is no mention anymore of a print shop, apart from the remaining "buy" icons on individuals photo's....looks to me like they have got out of that game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted December 3, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 3, 2010 I'd imagine that the 'print screen' button may have led to a dwindling market. I can well understand the temptations for home use, easier to take a low res pic up to the workbench than build the model next to the PC, but I've arranged in the past to use illustrations to accompany articles I've written with the fees going to the photographer or group and it would be a shame if this meant less sharing of resources. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Nevard Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 But would you really want to sell prints from web sized images on a Fotopic site? They'f be very pixelated. Better off setting up a proper gallery on something like Photobox and get prints made from the full res files. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 Not understanding you Chris, you could sell images from full res files on Fotopic as well? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted December 4, 2010 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted December 4, 2010 As far as I know when the fotopic print system worked they produced the prints from the original file uploaded, not the web resized version. So the print quality depended on what the user originally uploaded - in my case they were sized to produce good prints up to about 8"x6". I've certainly never had complaints about pixellation from anyone who bought my prints from fotopic. I am also slightly surprised that they have given up on a source of income for themselves, as they took the lion's share of the price charged, fotopic gallery owners only received a commission. What I do now if anyone asks me about about prints from my site is to offer them copies of the image files on CD from my own files (at a sensible price), as I find it too expensive and time consuming to do one off prints to order. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishswissernie Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 Fotopic owe me some £57-41 in commission, I have been trying to obtain the initial lot since August. Dave F and I have e-mailed them several times regarding commission owed to us but e-mails are just ignored. They have always been slow payers; I think I have only had one payment in over 4 years where I did not have to make several 'chasers'. Unfortunately over the last few months I have had several e-mails from Buyers who have not had their prints, the situation got so bad that in October I withdrew the sale facility on my Gallery and requested prospective purchasers to contact me direct. People who have paid by Paypal only have 45 days to raise a dispute and get their money back so if there is anyone out there still hanging on for either their prints or their money back I regret that you are probably going to be out of luck. Since October I have supplied over 300 scans either by e-mail or on CD at a fraction of Fotopics charges and the service must have been very profitable for them if only they had organised themselves adequately. We are looking for an alternative but with around 17000 images on fotopic between us this is going to take some doing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugsley Posted December 5, 2010 Share Posted December 5, 2010 Have you considered using the small claims court to get what Fotopic owe you? As far as I'm aware the fees a relatively cheap, and if the court finds in you favour, which I'm sure they would, you'd get the fee back as well. Of course, the threat might just be sufficient Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishswissernie Posted December 6, 2010 Share Posted December 6, 2010 Have you considered using the small claims court to get what Fotopic owe you? As far as I'm aware the fees a relatively cheap, and if the court finds in you favour, which I'm sure they would, you'd get the fee back as well. Of course, the threat might just be sufficient The small claims court is an option; but I think we are both loth to follow this path; as we may end up shooting ourselves in the foot. Fotopic could remove our Galleries or it might force them over the edge into Liquidation, if they are not stable financially and there are a lot more Gallery Owners/ Buyers in the same predicament. Its not really about the money, Dave and I started the Galleries as a source to facilitate the spreading of information for modellers and also for enthusiasts to re-live their past etc. Selling prints helped to cover the Annual Fee. Until we come up with an altenative we are stuck with it; but I, and I'm sure Dave F would like it put on record that if you have paid Fotopic and not received any photos then unfortunately it is beyond our control; however please e-mail us and we will see what we can do to 'make amends'. regards Ernie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted January 29, 2011 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted January 29, 2011 Just a quick update. Today fotopic have paid me the outstanding money owed. David Couldn't spell my own name! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 An alternative method that I'm considering would be to put the photos onto your own website. If you use active server pages (ASP) it is possible to write code so that it will generate the page based upon the files that are in a folder. You could have a thumbnail folder and say a 640x480 version. Anyone that wants to buy a hi-res version could add these into a basket - if you are like me I label my (electronic) photos so that I can find them quickly. So the shopping list might say 110101 001 & 071214 124 which I know as photos taken on 1/1/2011 and 14/12/2007. With ASP you could FTP the images as and when and the page would update automatically. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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