Turbosquid cutting down on prices set by artists below what they set elsewhere

Discussion started by iterateCGI

Is Turbosquid forum still accessible?
Somehow not for me it seems after my recent contribution on some topic, wanted to follow up on latest discussion about Ts not only making price same but actually cut below the prices artist set on other selling locations. Anyways, my access to that forum seems redirected so cant follow up on that ongoing discussion.

The discussion stared with someone posting screenshots displaying prices he had set on Ts and here on CGt and it showed prices on Ts got cut below what he had set here. Obviously that artist was not ok with how his prices got managed and the topic exploded in over 1500 views and something like over 400 responses in record short time. Lots of people responded having noticed same activity on their account and also some responded with simply “just removed all my items”.

Anyways, I was amazed with some people coming in and still defending Ts actions with the weirdest arguments.

Isn't it obvious? Ts is trying to keep artists pay for its premium cost but not lose appeal to its customers that take notice of the more cost effective solutions out there, so what they do to achieve this is simply forbid artists to add the premium cost of the platform on top of “their products” (yes its actually a fight over who actually owns the product because if your not allowed to set price on it then who owns the product?).

But now things get even crazier, they also start to cut away on artists margins to get even lower then what they set on other more cost effective solutions.

It’s just insane and I can't get my head around people that still defend such measures, but anyways, if you think about it Ts can simply do this stuff, its not e legal right? In the end, if they find people crazy enough to cooperate with this madness then that's it right?

It seems the hunt is on for capturing the leftover weaklings in the exclusivity trap, because its obvious, if your not exclusive with them by now then your just basically letting yourself get ripped off with your own consent.

Anyways, if you do decide to go exclusive with them then think about the long run, yes indeed it can be hard in beginning to get good position on a new platform but know this, more cost effective solutions will keep coming and artist that use them can always set comparable items a bit sharper and not get hurt. It’s always wise to be early on a new platform that looks promising and has a good concept going and make no mistake, people do compare, its as simple as drag and drop an image in Google images to find all locations that same object exists and they have multiple accounts, they are not loyal to one platform.

Remember, no one is loyal to any service if he can get the same or better elsewhere and save some dollars. Probably some do and then lose twice, ones on missing out using the better service and twice on loosing competitive edge.

Answers

Posted almost 5 years ago
0

turbo squid weakens it is clearly noticeable

Posted about 5 years ago
0

My models have all been removed from TS since more than two years have not been a single sale. Even on the same 3Dexport they were available. Not that this would be my main income, but it’s still much nicer to get back and pay.

Posted over 5 years ago
0

Ah ok, sorry for the mistake.

Posted over 5 years ago
1

Well my numbers proved it to me.
And you remember that wrong. I reopened my account here in March 2017 and next month I already got more sales and royalties than at TS. And my account at TS was closed in August after the flame which started after I posted screenshot of my CGT Monthly Summary dashboard on their forums in a try to prove someone else how CGT was outperforming TS.

Posted over 5 years ago
0

@IndieArt, "Big portion of those sales will transfer to CGT", well that's a bold statement, but can you prove that? AFAIK, you (re)openned account here at the moment when your account at TS was closed, so you can't speak from experience. I don't believe that removing my models at TS would significantly affect my sales here. And even if i'd do such experiment, it would be very hard to read any definitive conclusion from it, because lately sales are jumping like crazy in both marketplaces. One month can differ from another as much as 5 times. I prefer to choose safer option and leave things like they are, i've done enough crazy experiments already.

iterateCGI wrote
iterateCGI
For me my sales started dropping gradually on Ts and was getting more on my CGt account, it almost looked like a one to one ratio so to me that looked like clear evidence people where comparing as my models where significantly cheaper here. So for me price guarantee was a big problem as I knew the people shopping on Ts where obviously last checking if they got best deal before proceeding to checkout. I’m convinced that in my case if I allowed to cut my prices those customers would indeed still check but not see difference and just proceed to checkout not taking effort to login with the CGt account. Do not believe that people just have one account ok that's not realistic, Ts and CGt are the two biggest 3D content repository's online and everybody knows that, also keep in mind Ts has content not present on CGt and vise versa CGt has also nice content not percent on Ts, everyone knows this and therefor search the two sites. Web statistics show average visits per month on Ts are 5.7 million and around 4.2 million on CGt, I believe those are just the same people not 10 million different ones. Ts has a small advantage because it was around longer but evidence show that people are not loyal to one platform and the ones that do are just a small percentage.
Posted over 5 years ago
0

Yes that Google part is correct. I would say there are probably more buyers coming from Google image search than from ordinary catalogue search in the shop. That is also the reason why old and outdated models sells better than the new ones.

So if you think removing your products from TS you are going to lose TS sales you are wrong. Big portion of those sales will transfer to CGT and combined with doubled royalties you will end up with more money.

Posted over 5 years ago
2

@ LemonadeCG I do not have statistical evidence to back up my following statement but I would argue you most likely lose money if your content is on Turbosquid (if you also have it on other places for same price).

For me I actually make more money now after putting offline my models on Ts, however, my case is probably isolated as my content is very specific and sales is in part driven trough Google search and social media discovery. For example if you enter alien plants in Google and go to images you immediately find my plants on pinterest where they point to my CGt account, a little bit lower you also immediately come across links directly to my CGt account. Previously that was Ts so I was actually driving traffic to my stuff on Ts.

Same thing for motion graphics elements, 3D neurons and 3D forklift, my CGt and pinterest entry's are on first page on Google images. I spend descent amount of time on pinterest and was able to get over 1800 followers on it, that contributes in getting more views and better position/sales, etc.

So my focus is also on getting the traffic and views to influence the Google ranking as I believe that is what eventually counts the most and not specifically what transaction platform you use. Everything that can help to up-rank the accounts you have on those popular media has value regarding the visibility and sales of your stuff.

To that end Ts is actually the worst partner you can work with because they are only out to use your stuff to up-rank its own brand and so you basically become completely dependent on them in time. In time they will use this dominant position to get more ownership over the content (not your content anymore, that will have no value on its own) and they will sell it to all the other platforms and take biggest cut (like unity store, etc.) If you don't believe me its actually happening right now, they are making deals with unity store to hand them over Ts content (yes, they call it Ts content).

And don't forget, they set the price on your stuff right now, try complain about it, so who owns the stuff then?

They basically harvest the artists at all levels at all times to lift the big brand and the artists that work for them will just become powerless slaves of this brand, so know that if you work with them it will make you weak in time and the artists that see all this happen just work a bit harder now and get stronger positions elsewhere and overtake those Ts artists with ease.

So note my warning, for those hoe linger to go exclusive with them, don't do it, you will regret it in time.

Invest in other platforms and secure your own good positions on them and work your channels, in return help and support your best partners you know they also have a good future for you in mind.

For those who doubt CGt has good future for you in mind, take notice CGt allows you to up-rank your channels, Ts not. CGt allows direct communications with clients, Ts not. CGt delivers you lots of views for your Vimeo videos and in return you get better position on Vimeo to direct traffic back to your account here.

Ts will never allow this sort of things to happen because of its mindless obsessions with itself and for that reason it will get weaker in time.

Its strategies like Tim Sweeney of epic games talks about that work best, they simply say “we help you to get better and in return we get better”.

So ask this, what is Ts actually doing for you?

Posted over 5 years ago
0

I don't have access to their forum either - they ban everyone who disagrees with their policy. Is this a real scam or just a rumours? I mean, sometimes one or few of my models are too incorrectly underpriced by their automatic system, but when i contact TS support and report the situation, they apologise and corrects their mistake. I didn't notice deliberate price cutting apart from their "lowest price guarante" program. Sure, i'm not happy with TS policy and would remove all my content from there if i could, sadly that's not an option for me right now.

Posted over 5 years ago
0

If there are problems with the property, there is a real problem, for security reasons, better to stay away , it seems to me.

Posted over 5 years ago
2

My 2 cents:

TS has the same problem as the highest business and political class in the US.
TS reacted the same way to the changing market and World as the highest business and political class in the US.
TS got the same result as the highest business and political class in the US: decline.

Either they change their behavior to match to their current status on the market and in the World,
or
the market and the World will change their status to match to their current behavior.

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”
(Albert Einstein)

Posted over 5 years ago
0

TS is dying. Their best price guarantee and cutting prices even below what other websites sell may bring them some increase for a while, but in a long run it is just a dead cat bounce.

I maybe a bit paranoind here, but I am telling you, when day they will disappear with all of our models.

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