Upcoming changes to CGTrader payout system - Why we're doing this and how it benefits you

I want to cry.... I will have less royalties now... :"(

8=э CGt. Lol.

Currently I have 75% earning rate, if this new fee is applied I will reduce 6% and get 69% money, I am thinking is this a way for cgtrader to increase the fee for using the service?. Let's give our opinion on this.

I must be honest, considering the fact that in the last years, the expantion of AI and its generating tools have decreased our sales (for many sellers for sure)
I feel not Happy.

this is just cruel, this means my payout rate will be reduced from 74% to 65 % smh

I’ve been on this platform since 2019 and have invested years into building a high-quality, real-time-ready asset library. In 2021, I reached my peak performance in sales that year. Since then, despite increasing my portfolio from 24 to 54 carefully crafted models, my sales have dropped by roughly 80%.

With this new payout system based only on the past 12 months, I’m being pushed down from an 80% royalty rate to under 70%, not because my content declined in quality or effort, but because the platform-wide visibility and sales have tanked. That’s deeply disheartening, especially when CGTrader’s competitive royalty model was one of the main reasons I stayed here instead of switching to marketplaces like TurboSquid.

It feels like long-time, dedicated sellers are being penalized for shifts we can’t control — from AI flood and batch uploads to algorithm changes and declining platform traffic. I will be increasing my prices to try and absorb the drop in royalties, but if that doesn't stabilize things, I’ll strongly consider moving my portfolio elsewhere.

I really hope CGTrader reconsiders how this change affects loyal contributors who helped shape the platform in the first place.

Thanks for your time,

Deeply disappointed with CGT!

AI expansion is just an excuse to introduce system new ways to take even more money from sellers. This is certainly enormous step back and all other platforms like this will surely be happy for these changes for many reasons.

1.) This will highly discourage all new sellers because nobody want to waste years and give you even more money (current system is also robbery, but new one takes it to another level). People should earn fortune for you first, just to be able to get more money for themselves.

2.) A lot of people will just abandon their accounts here and focus to other markets with better royalties. It's already happening but this will speed up process.

3.) Most of those who decide to stay will increase their selling price which will lead to less models sold and make other markets more affordable.

4.) Most pro designers are not using CGT anyway and you're just shutting the door for newcomers (so who will remain here).

5.) All this will drive traffic out of CGT and boost other selling platforms. I've seen a lot of sellers from here at TurboSquid and RenderHub.

---

CGT has a lot of problems that require urgent fixing, such as slow support, terrible discount system, confusing donation system, zero protection against scammers... and instead of fixing that, what you do CGT? - just casually making new ways to take even more money from sellers (like you don't take already huge portion). After June 2nd, we all can start pack our luggage and move on. Very soon this place will be like 3DExport, FlipNormals, CubeBrush and other platforms with low to zero traffic. There will be no reason for many to continue selling here, and for new ones to even start using this platform.

No pros, just cons! And remember shameful greed has destroyed many civilizations. Good luck gentlemen.

So, in some previous topic "15 models sold in 5 sec" cgtrader complain about selling stuff to "corporate cgt clients" who use it to train AI. Now they will fight with AI generated models by increasing their rates. Bravo !!!

CGTrader essentially states that if you don’t generate enough revenue for them, they will deduct the shortfall from your loyalty earnings.

Yes nice. So as a small seller with quality models that I have to offer cheaply to be able to compete, my earning rate will drop with 8 percent... Thanks cgt.

CGTrader always manages to present something negative for us in the most positive way! ;)

- They unilaterally changed the payment method to Hyperwallet.
- My "Settings" mysteriously reset to "Participate in promotions" last month, even though I had it set to "NOT participate" since I joined.
- A mysterious company buys tons of models within minutes, but I still can't see the payment on my dashboard even after a week.

And now, with the new earnings calculation system based on the past 12 months, am I supposed to just accept losing 10%?!

Good luck keeping your CG slaves, CGTrader!

To understand whether this decision benefits the sellers or CGTrader itself, it's enough to compare the old and new payout rates for the sellers.

In previous comments, everyone has complained about a significant drop in payout rates. While we don't have exact statistics, it's not hard to assume that this has been the case for the vast majority of sellers on CGTrader.

Of course, CGTrader is free to change its payout structure as it sees fit, but what's disappointing is the lack of honesty in the way it's being presented, as if it's somehow to the sellers' advantage.
I'd bet that the percentage of sellers whose payout rate has increased or even stayed the same doesn’t exceed one percent.

Additionally, the rise in AI-generated models has been used as an excuse for this change. If AI models are truly that valuable to CGTrader, I’d love to see what happens if, after a large-scale boycott, the platform is left with nothing but AI-generated content.

Am I reading the new policy right? It sounds to me that it is basically increasing CG Trader cut across the board, with few extra steps to not sound as horrible as it is.

if a statement ends with "Thank you for your understanding" this is not good for you

This new payout rate is only going to harm new users (by taking upto 40% of the sale price) or lower the current royality rate to a point were you have to price yourself out of the market.

This isn't a fair and balanced solution for the users of this site, so I hope they will reconsider and re-evaluate this policy.

Rewarding sellers whose models are actually selling makes sense, and I'm glad the reputation system is going as it always promoted junk in volume over any kind of quality.

What this is missing entirely however, is HOW this is going to help increase sales. Is the search algorithm updating? How are you going to promote our work through marketing that you weren't doing before? Are sales numbers the ONLY variable that determines your royalty rate? There are some very niche areas that simply don't have a huge market, and this would quite literally penalize you for operating in it.

Right now this all reads like a fancy way of saying you want us to drive more traffic to our own models and in the end we get paid less for it.

And lastly, this is a monumental change with practically zero heads up. This is the type of thing that should have been brought up at least 6 months ago - not days before it rolls out.

Do better.

Well, i think that old payout system was really outdated and something had to be done about that. AI content generators were reaching top rank in less than a week just by uploading vast amounts of crap and cgtrader has to pay for hosting that shit even if 99% of it will probably never by sold. But if it really would be about AI content and batch uploads and fairness to sellers who are crafting high quality models, then it would very easy to resolve situation by removing reputation points for uploaded models, forum comments, likes and other crap. Count rep points for life-time sales and base royalty rate on that and everybody will be happy. I think that would be seen as fair system by most sellers.

A utopian payout system for creators... basically means “buy yourselves IV drips and work 24/7,” and maybe you'll reach 70% royalties. Earning $300,000 a year is unrealistic if you're doing everything alone — that’s probably an achievable number for just a few percent of people across all 3D stock platforms. And as we know, those people aren't on CGTrader. This isn’t a food market; it’s a niche product... Seems like CGTrader just decided to lower royalties and came up with this scheme to justify it))) Thanks, CGTrader.
I’m disappointed in you!

I think the new payout system is not that bad in principle, but the threshold is way too steep. If you want to keep 80% rate, you'd need to sell 30K per year. While we can't know real figures, i think it's safe to assume that very small number of sellers are reaching such numbers. It's quite cynical for cgtrader to say that the changes benefits most of the sellers, when it's clear that it really benefits, only cgtrader itself and top 1% All the others will be punished. Great move cgtrader, shareholders will be very happy with your move. You are truly NOT a community driven marketplace.

Hmm, CG Trader is effectively increasing their cut to 40% for most sellers... while Fab has 12%. Tho Fab has it's own set of problems too...

It's a meaningless decision and will completely harm the artists.
Looks like we are moving to the other platforms.
Sadly, this happened after spending so much time here for years.

> The current payout model was introduced over a decade ago and no longer reflects how the marketplace works today. It rewards various outdated metrics like the number of models uploaded (which is currently much easier to take advantage of with AI-generated models and batch uploads) as opposed to model quality and buyer appreciation. 

Am I only one that sees this as super hypocritical take as well? The easy way to fix the old system would be... banning AI generated models or removing them from reputation system.

The decision is understandable. You lost too much sellers after your "democratic" decisions to:
1. Ban the website in "non democratic" Russia and Belarus,
2. Introduce Hyperwallet system,
3. Decrease the projects royalty from 95% to 85%.
As a result, many people now migrated to other platforms and your earnings now are less than they were a year ago.
If you really want to help artists, please decrease the demands by 10 times, make the required top level sales $30,000 instead of $300,000. Otherwise, after year, you will lose more money and be forced to introduce another "important update". This will lead to bad future.

I guess a lot of companies have experience of recievieng - instead of small amount of something - 100% of nothing. Cgtrader on this way with a speed of light

This means that creators with small niches, who are already in a bad place to start with, especially if they create high quality models and do not focus on quantity, will be punished and all their hard work over the years will be erased.

CGTrader says that old system rewards quantity of models over quality and long term consistency in sales. Okay ditch all the nonsense points for comments, likes, and even model uploads. For creators who have 50-100 quality models uploaded and have reached higher status levels and royalty %, most of their points came from sales, and not from other factors anyway.

With this new system, only thing I can think of doing to increase my sales is pumping tons of low effort models and hope they sell out, and that is something I've been avoiding for last 5 years.

Alao they really chose perfect time to implement this change. Last year has been worst year for me and I guess many other creators in terms of sales, probably due to surgence of AI generated models and decline in general industry needs for 3D models. So yeah lets just go with worst year our creators had and take big chunk of their income to punish them even more.

Discarding all previous achievements and history will not benefit long time and loyal cgtrader creators in any shape or form.

And this puts me in a situation to either take selling models on CGTrader as a full time job, and not a side thing and additional income source, or completely abandon the platform since my royalty rate will decrease for almost a 10% based on last 12 months and erase 5 years of work.

Also If I am understanding this correctly, they are not calculating full amount that our models were sold for but just the revenue we creators got after platform already took their cut into that 12 month period. So that means if you have sold models for total of 2800$ during last year, which is threshold for 70% payout rate in new system, your annual sales will not be 2800$ but actually somewhere around 2000-2100$ if you were in between 70-75% royalties during past year and that will land you into 68% payout rate under a new system...

Well done CGTrader, it would be better if you just stated that you are raising your cut and gave zero explanation then pretending that you care about your so called community and creators...

"For many users, the payout rate will remain the same or at a similar level. You can check your past 12 months of sales directly in your My Sales>Monthly Summary."

This was the funniest joke I’ve heard in a long time.

By the way, will this be applied only to model sales? Or also to the projects?

In this case, the most practical step sellers can take to protect themselves is to reflect the rate cut applied by CGTrader onto their model prices by at least the same proportion.

For example, if your previous earning rate was 80%, you used to earn $7.50 from a $10 model. Now, in order to make the same amount, you need to price your model at at least $11.50 (assuming the payment processing fee and tax deduction remain constant).

Yes, this method means shifting the damage caused by CGTrader directly onto the customer and sales might get even worse. But since this is a problem that doesn't originate from the seller, the seller shouldn't be the only one bearing the responsibility.

From 73% to 61%. Okay this is one of the worst royalties on the market for me.

The gaslighting has reached points of truly legendary status.

Do they really think anyone here is buying what they are shoveling?

I keep reading solutions or complaints about what is, without question, utterly UNACCEPTABLE.

Probable next move of CGTaders to quell the wave of disagreement:
=> "We care deeply about you and your invaluable feedback. As an exceptionally NICE company, we believe it’s absolutely crucial to listen to our partners. So, in a truly magnanimous display of generosity, we’ve decided not to implement this ‘more profit solution,’ even though, of course, we’re not going to make more money off your hard work."

Reading between the lines:
=> "We tried to pull a fast one on you, but you saw right through it! Now, we’ll have to graciously ‘adjust’ our plan."

How many of us think it’s impossible to work with this kind of absolutely brilliant and transparent behavior from people who, let’s not forget, ALREADY make more than enough money off our work?
Tell me I’m not the only one who sees through this masterpiece of corporate logic...

Also, a cgtrader client bought 115 of my models, and for example, for model Price of 8$ i Got less Than 2$. That Is OK i Guess, because of agreemet that CG trader have with their costumers, and we as designers agree with that in Our agreement with CG trader. But thing that bothers me Is that status of payout for that 115 models Is still avaiting costumers to pay it. And it was a week
ago. Gosh!
And in the end i read this post for changes. Great Times.

Those sales thresholds are ridiculously high for the royalties provided and the statement that many sellers will remain at the same rates is more than obviously a blatant lie and it is insulting for artists to even suggest that.
CGT is basically lowering the royalties for 99% of sellers and there is no way this will lead to "a fairer, more sustainable environment for all designers".
The significant drop in sales over the years made me reconsider investing time in creating models for sale and I'm sure this new move will make a lot of designers to make the same thing.
That will also increase the quantity of AI generated crap, as less people will be willing to spend the time making a high quality models.
This is a bad move CGT.
It may have been a good system with a more fair rates and already implemented features that help the artists, but now you only take from us and make us even less motivated to create models for you.

I was about to upload 20+ high quality models that took over 4 months to make and was expecting to earn reputation points from these uploads and thus increase my loyalty rate to 73%, but now with this new change my rate will drop to 64%. That's less than the default 70% we got right from the start before this ridiculous change. Now, uploading these models is no longer very stimulating.

''The payout system offers a clear and motivating pathway for designers to grow their earnings in tandem with their sales. As success builds, so do the rewards.'' Well, this new payout system was just the opposite of motivating for me, it was one of the most depressing bad news I've read recently.

If CGTrader's intention is to reward high-quality models with higher payout rates, then a more fair and accurate approach would be to use the positive-to-negative rating ratio as a performance metric. That would actually reflect model quality—not just total sale.
I'm very disappointed as long-term user of this platform.

This new payout rate that will start on June 2nd totally discourages new and small sellers. The rate is very low and to compensate for the ~10% increase in the fee, there will have to be an increase in the price of the products sold. And with the increase in the price of the products, there will be fewer sales. The previous percentage of net profit was already low, now it will be practically unfeasible. This is quite sad.

Isn't it funny when 3D stock marketplace introduce AI model generator and then few months later uses AI generated models influx as an excuse to slack everyone's payouts? Bloody brilliant move!
https://cgdream.ai/features/ai-3d-model-generator-image-to-3d

What is odd, is that in the past there were members threatening to quit CGT based on other policy changes. I don't see that here...yet. It was obvious that members didn't like the automatic enrollment into sales discounts. When that didn't work for CGT to generate more income, they resorted to this!

Great way to alienate your users even more.

Once, CGTrader was the go-to site for selling 3D models, but that hasn’t been the case for quite some time now.

In the short term, you might increase your revenue by taking an additional 5–15% from 99.9% of your users. But in the long run, I don’t see anything good coming from this—for your users or for CGTrader itself.

New users won’t be inclined to join when the base percentage has been slashed to just 60%, and current users won’t be happy about having their payouts cut significantly. Many will look for alternative platforms to sell their models.

Let’s compare CGTrader and Cults3D, where I also sell my models for the same prices: $29.90 USD and €29.90, respectively.

CGTrader (before): $29.90 – $1.23 (processing) × 0.76 = $21.78 USD

Cults3D: €29.90 × 0.80 = €23.92 ≈ $27.12 USD

CGTrader (after change): $29.90 – $1.23 (processing) × 0.70 = $20.07 USD

I'm actively losing money when selling on CGTrader compared to Cults3D. Even so, I used to direct people to CGTrader whenever they asked where to purchase my models. Sadly, I don’t see myself doing that anymore—not when I can earn 35% more elsewhere.

Super disappointed in CGTrader once again.

I have been working with microstocks for photography for over 10 years. They all introduced a similar system, that we lower the percentage of payments for you, and we will do something cool there that as a result you will earn more. In practice, this always cuts the income of authors, I have repeatedly experienced all this on different sites. Moreover, 3D models are not sold often like photographs, and if a 3D model is bought once, then it is already good, it rarely happens that one 3D model is bought 100 or more times. We will simply receive less for the sale, a small percentage plus discounts ..

We will increase the price of our work by 20 percent, and as a result - we will get fewer sales, both for the site and for ourselves. We are very upset about this news today, disgusting news and it is clearly not suitable for the 3D model market, this is not a microstock of photographs, do not follow their example, this path is only a minus for authors.

Specifically, we are engaged in photogrammetry, and spend dozens of hours calculating a high-quality 3D model on powerful computers. As a result, the model will no longer cover the cost of electricity and we simply will not do it. Not to mention the shooting, the cost of cameras, light sources, etc.

I don't think anything good will come out of this idea.
Efficient managers are so efficient.

Just goes to show they talk out of both sides of their mouth.

I wonder where that "Ukraine Donation" money really went? Like most charities sadly, the money goes into some oneelses pockets.

The results of this new system will definitely be bad. They are reducing the profit margins of us sellers. As a result, the prices of the models will increase and this will reduce the sales. So, as a result, both we and CGTrader will lose. They just don't realize it yet.

I am a new author on CGTrader, I have made 260 models in a year. Yesterday I did not plan to change 3D stock, and today I am planning to study other trading platforms. It seems that this is not exactly what CGTrader planned? Lol. This is a strange and stupid decision. Now all authors will raise prices for their goods. Sales will fall. Authors will go to competitors, or stop developing their portfolio. CGTrader wants to get money, but instead they will get problems. CGTrader decided to repeat the experience of Getty and Shutterstock, but he forgot that 3D stocks do not have a fixed price. And CGTrader is not a huge corporation, but a small company. And this decision can destroy this company. In general, I like it here, I am used to it and feel comfortable. Therefore, I hope that CGTrader will cancel this illogical decision and I will stay here

Yeah, no thanks.
I will simply be closing my shop if this shameless cash grab goes through.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the thoughtful and passionate feedback regarding the upcoming changes to our payout system. We understand this is a significant shift, and your input, especially from our long-time loyal contributors and new creators alike, is incredibly important to us.

We are currently reviewing all of your feedback carefully. While the new structure is scheduled to go into effect on June 2, 2025, we want to assure you that this is not the end of the conversation.

We are actively exploring adjustments - if not immediately on day one, then very shortly thereafter - to ensure the new system better reflects the value brought by our long-term loyal sellers who placed their trust in CGTrader from the early days, as well as new sellers who are just beginning their 3D selling journey.

Your voice matters, and our team is committed to finding the right balance. Please continue sharing your insights - they will directly influence how we move forward.

Thank you for helping shape CGTrader into a better, fairer marketplace for everyone.

CGTrader Team

Of course It would be awesome if old users could keep their "earned" royalties... But at least, i think cgtrader should lower the maximum 1 year profit criteria for the new royalties. They are way too High. Especially for Mid and High tier. That's my 2 cents

I worked honestly for a year to get 75 percent. I did not use AI, I did not advertise myself on other platforms. My rating is absolutely honest and transparent. Yes, I am a new user, but I also deserve attention and respect, like other new sellers

Nah, enough is enough.
This site still had potential to be no. 1 but this management is totally clueless a killed it with a series of greedy, gimmicky decisions.
Even if they roll it back I'm moving to other platforms and raising prices here. It will slowly die anyway.

So, on your first page you invite to join the community
https://www.cgtrader.com/. And we joined. Many of us joined many years ago. Joined and trusted you with what we worked hard for many years. For many years, we, with our work, actually created your reputation in the digital products market. We created with our work traffic for you and... profit for this platform. And that is why now there are more than 2 million 3D models on this platform. And we all believed that this was a partnership.
But let me take you on a historical journey into the recent past and share with the CGTrader community the experience from the TurboSquid platform, where we, 3D creators, post our models. Perhaps this will give you the correct idea that Partnership is something that should work properly in both directions! So, February 2022. It was the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The TurboSquid platform transferred $250 in aid to each Ukrainian 3D creator, regardless of the number of models each. To each Ukrainian 3D creator, I repeat! None of us knows what TurboSquid's economic situation was at that time. But they did it, understanding the full severity of the situation of people who are suffering all the hardships of war. Respect to them and enormous gratitude for this act of goodwill and mercy. And we remembered it. And now let me ask you, dear CGTrader team, a question: What has the CGTrader team done for us, Ukrainian creators on your platform, as partners? Maybe you sent at least one of us targeted aid? No. Or maybe you distributed the aid that the CGTrader community donated to you? Or at least the CGTrader team was interested in how, literally, each Ukrainian 3D creator goes through a "survival quest" in the conditions of constant shelling and bombing, with destroyed houses, hiding in basements, without water and food, with no electricity and other human conditions in order to create 3D and bring it here to earn some money for survival? What exactly did CGTrader do and what are you interested in at all? Where do you put this money that the authors deducted from sales? .... And now you are unilaterally, without prior discussion (simply treacherously) going to take away from the authors YEARS and hard-earned ratings, literally snatching bread crumbs from our mouths? That is, presented us with a fait accompli? ... Returning to the question of partnership, of course, about FAIR partnership, today we see that CGTrader violates the BASIC PRINCIPLES of fair partnership. And now it turns out that we all lived for many years under the illusion that this was a partnership. In what part of the universe is your corporate ethics, dignity, honor and conscience now located?

I want to add to you: Shutterstock, which is also part of the common team together with turbosquid, also paid financial assistance to Ukrainian authors. We received $ 250 from Shutterstock in 2022. Indeed, it is logical to send assistance directly to Ukrainian authors, and not give it to the pockets of corrupt officials in Ukraine. I understand and support your pain. It was very difficult for me to work without electricity, under shelling and under severe stress

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1895752927991792126
In such conditions, designers from Ukraine are trying to make 3D models.

TO EVERYONE.

Did you saw the 26 steps? Its fucking hilarious.
300.000$ MONTHLY to get 80% Are you fucking idiots or what?

Look at ArtStation Marketplace 95% PAYOUT!!!! 95 fucking %
You all here in the system of CGTRADER are insane.
60% payout is where you SELLERS are all gonna be for the couple of years or more.

Lets assume: from 2mln models available here
the average monthly sales on all the platform is roughly 250.000$
(from which CG Trader grabs to itself and ASTONISHING amount of money!!! 40% is 100.000$ to the pocket

I'm sorry to say this but, did you looked at your site from 2005?
With such an amount of income monthly you doing ASTONISHINGLY BAD JOB and you want MORE MONEY!

Your payout rate must be AT LEAST 85% to 95% to all of the USERS PERIOD!
USERS.... LETS VOTE FOR THIS!!!!!!!! 85 to 95 or we just QUIT to any other available place with better %

Otherwise its not a platform its a fucking robbery. Are you a TAX 40% system on which we pay another fucking 40% tax on top? GET OUT!

I don't get it. I have almost 4000 reputation points and would get an earning rate of 74% soon.
With the new payout rate system I would only get 65%. How is this supposed to be fair? Now i will get less than when I started selling on CGTrader. That's a big step backwards.
Look, if I want to achive 74% in the new system, I would have to sell products for 8000$ per year instead of getting 4000 points one time, as it was before. Same for the other rates.
And then they say "For many users, the payout rate will remain the same or at a similar level". That's just hilarious. But in a bad way.

"We are expanding the payout rate range to 60%-85%, making it easier and
more transparent to advance through levels as your sales grow"
Wow, they expend from 70%-80% to 60%-85%, which means CGTrader can get up to 10% more but the artists can only get up to 5% more. And that's only the case if you make between 50k and 300k per year.
But all the new and small artists and artists from niches will get significantly less money.

In comparisment, as a non-pro-member on the Artstation Marketplace you only have to pay a 12% fee plus a small transaction fee. No mater what, even as a new seller.
As a pro-member you can even get 95% of the earnings.
So in this example, CGTrader will give me up to 30% less? For the same model? Why?

I also wrote two mails to the support, hoping they might rethink the new payout rate system. But all I got were the same copy-pasted informations from the original mail.

Why not simply keep the old payout rate system but try it without any extra points on new model uploads?
This way it gets harder to take advantage of with AI-generated models and batch uploads. But at least current sellers would still get the same payout rate. And new sellers would still rise.

One more thing which totally displeases me. Giving such informations only 13 days prior to the change itself has nothing to do with a "fairer and more transparent system".

The change introduced by CGTrader is not neutral – it clearly disadvantages small and mid-level sellers. And that’s a problem.

Why this can rightfully be called a rip-off:
The standard payout rate used to be 70% – now it’s only 60%.
→ That’s a real loss for everyone who doesn’t sell at high volume.

The tiered reward system claims to be “fair,” but in reality it punishes smaller creators.
→ You need to generate hundreds or even thousands of dollars in sales just to get back to the previous standard rates.

CGTrader benefits greatly from this change.
→ The platform keeps a larger share of the revenue without doing any extra work – especially from those who already earn the least.

The introduction of Hyperwallet means:

Additional fees

Less control

Problems in many countries
→ This is not user-friendly – it’s profit maximization at the expense of creatives.

Personally?
When a system is changed in a way that worsens the conditions for the same work, without giving users a real choice, it can rightfully be called a rip-off. And morally, it’s highly questionable.

As long as there are artists that are willing to work for crumbs, this situation ripping off artists, will continue.

I have decided not to upload models for now and wait for changes. I have two folders, the first one is stocks that are going down, the second one is stocks that are going up. Stocks that are going down are divided into those that do not bring anything at all, those that bring something but rarely, and those that take a huge percentage, sometimes the entire income for their services. Normal stocks are those that bring 75 + percent of payments and often sell works, and also inspire and motivate to do this direction in work. If they start paying 60 percent to authors, as once pond5, for me this is immediately a sign that it is time to move all this to one folder with Squid, because over 10 years I have seen something similar on different sites many times and it always led to the same result - the stock closed over time. So, I will wait and see what happens next, and for now I will do other things.