Yuri's case illustrates the issue. Buyers are becoming more and more aware of the fact that the same images could be available at micros and macros. Some even are talking about designer/buyer groups having compilations of "blacklisted" photographers that do this. I don't know if it is true, but seems reasonable, since even being RF you don´t want to have an image that has sold hundreds (or thousand) of times as the image for your big campaign. Yuri's case is particularly interesting since his images have the so called "micro look" (happy business people all dressed up shaking hands) and that usually has not sold well at Alamy and even tells the buyer to look at the micros for the same image.
There is no justification to have the same image at such different prices. The argument made by Karimala would seem to be valid, but still it is very unlikely that it is a usual or widespread situation to justify it. I just don´t see it being "the reason" to shell out 200 times more money for an image that can be shoped around from 10 micros with wide licences available at very low prices. And once they see that the image has been sold around at many places at micros (since many allow us to see how many dl's an image has), do you still think they will pay big bucks for it, or just go for a similar that hasn´t been downloaded a lot. Big bucks are expected to buy you two things, usage and a certain degree of knowledge that the image is not going to pop all around (even with your competition). The fact is that buyers are aware and those who are not are disappearing really fast.
I understand that it is easier to upload micro images to Alamy rather than taking new ones. For me a separate portfolio has worked and it has shown me that it is worth the effort.
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