I have noticed a large amount of new for sale posts. I wonder what the cause of this is. Market shrinking, moving to cheaper solutions? I have a personal theory that iGuide needs to better differentiate their offering with unique features that add perceived additional value to our customers.
This is not helping those of us still invested when it comes to resale value.
Anyone else have a theory?
Ken
I think people buy these thinking they’ll automatically have a business and revenue stream. I talk to clients everyday about the benefits of 3d tours. most don’t realize it. I will say I didn’t buy the systems I have for resale value. I could care less about that. technology depreciates never appreciates.
As stated above, technology is not an asset that appreciates over time, so worrying about resale seems odd to me. Like my other photo equipment I use it to generate income.
At the end of the day you need to hustle yourself to make it successful. It’s not like you buy a camera and they come knocking.
It’s up to us to expand the market and show value in what you can deliver.
Resale does not matter to me either. This is typically indicative of a saturated market or folks moving to better or cheaper technology. You may be correct in that all of a sudden a bunch of people bought cameras that can not generate sales. What I found strange is this seems to a recent trend. In the past you would see one come up for sale rarely.
Sorry folks. I tried to delete the thread and can’t for some reason. I feel I asked the question in the wrong way.
I love my iGuide IMS-5 and so do my clients when I deliver the jobs.
My question was simply do the experienced amongst us think this is a trend that we should learn something from? I have learned after being in the photo business for many 
that sitting back on your laurels is the fastest way to go out of business. We need to be ahead of our customers. Having that insight requires always looking at things that look odd and asking yourself “does this give me a hint of what is to come”?. Most times the answer is no it does not matter. But when you do your do-diligence and you find out something that could positively (or negatively) impact your business, you have insight now you never had before. Asking people their educated opinion on the subject can help you make that determination more quickly.
I am not an iGuide hater. Far from it. I am also very proud of the work I have won through hard work.
Ken
I just performed an iGUIDE tutorial for two other photographers in my market who have recently purchased new iGUIDE cameras and have not used them yet. One bought in January and one a couple of weeks ago.
(Now referring to those selling caneras…) When they realize that there’s work involved to not only to produce iGUIDEs but also to promote it in their market; all of a sudden it’s not as easy as they thought. I’ve put a lot of work into promoting iGUIDE and I’m up to over 350 jobs (including maybe 5% photo-only packages) in less than a year. Maybe the “shoot a 3,000 sq ft home in 15 minutes” message has helped over-sell the ease of this opportunity?
I have a few thoughts about this:
A chef doesn’t buy a kitchen knife for its resale value. Likewise (although my cooking is mediocre at best 
), I didn’t buy my iGuide cameras for their resale value. I bought them as tools to generate revenue by providing services to clients, and I’ve been very pleased with the results.
It sounds like there’s been a vast increase in the sheer number of iGuide operators in the last year. (Possibly because of increased demand for virtual tours during the pandemic, because of the introduction of the PLANIX technology, because of increasing market presence, because of marketing efforts, or any number of other potential reasons.) Much as seeing more cars on the road correlates to seeing more flat tires, I don’t see this as a cause for alarm.
People sell gear for piles of reasons. I’m the admin of used photography gear Facebook group in my area and you frequently see nearly brand new, state-of-the-art gear being sold at steep discounts. It could be that the seller is moving, lost interest, needs to the money for something else, their partner is forcing them to 
, they are downsizing, or _____.
Much like others here have noted, it takes time and effort to make a sustainable business out of this technology. It’s not an instant, pop-up tent. It’s possible that someone buys a camera and decides that the industry is not for them, and sells the gear to recoup part of the investment.
These are all just guesses, since we don’t know the circumstances and reality of the sellers here. But I can tell you that my numbers are up substantially over last year (which, in turn, were up substantially over the year before), I’ve expanded to add a second shooter, and as much as I’m wary about whatever is on the horizon, I’m also pleased with the increasing demand for iGuide shoots.
Great to hear Larry and Todd that your business is growing despite my observation. My personal biz for the virtual tours is down but the need for video and stills has risen a lot. The video requests I have been getting are up the most which is ironic because my background is stills and 3D imagery. Personally, I don’t want to learn to be a great video editor:)
Video has been a thorn in my side. Every time I’m tempted to learn video and start offering it, I get busy again with iGuide shoots
I hear you Leroy on the video. I made the mistake of telling one of my biggest clients that I could handle the video shoot they had coming up when asked. How hard could it be right? That was late last year. YTD I have shot almost 3-TB of video and needed to make some major investments in video kit along the way. Would much rather be focusing on the Virtual Tours.
needed to make some major investments in video kit along the way. Would much rather be focusing on the Virtual Tours.
Ditto on both points. It takes wherewithal to do video on top of everything else. Despite investing in video gear and software and training, I’d rather be doing something else.
The selling point of a virtual tour over video is that during a video, the viewer only has a few seconds to see a room, unless they pause the video. Even then, they might have to watching the video a few times. With the virtual tour, they can spend as much time as they want viewing every detail of the house AND take measurements. With video, they’re also not getting a floor plan and room measurements.
Probably has a lot to do with the lack of listings just about everywhere.
Yep, a virtual tour is a self-directed, active way to explore a space.
A video is passive. You see what someone wants you to see, for the duration that they want you to see it.
IMO, they both have a place, but they aren’t direct replacements for each another.
It’s a pet peeve of mine when a realtor tries to pass off a video walk through as a virtual tour. The same they are not.