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But many manufacturers that are not much bigger than cottage industries manage to photograph -even paint!- most of their ranges. I am thinking of Aventine Miniatures, Footsore Miniatures (well, they have grown a lot in last couple of years!), Steel Fist Miniatures, ecc... Agreed that their ranges are not that big, but each new release is photographed before uploading in the website. Also, not always a great pro-photography is necessary; look at Iron Duke Miniature's photos of the Indian Mutiny range, at Empress Miniatures; many of them are photos that even with the best will can't be considered as professional, and yet they convene enough information to decide their customers to buy (my credit card knows!)Of course, everyone manages his business as he feels right. I believe that photos are vital part of making business on-line, but that's me.
Good grief at the low quality apologetics:it's too much of work to cast all the pieces – no it isn't, it's called YOUR JOB! it's too much of work to photograph all the pieces – firstly it's called YOUR JOB; secondly eBayers and online auctioners routinely take hundreds and thousands of unique photos in improvised conditions in addition to their day jobs, family life and other daily chores, whereas sellers would need to take the stock photos only once per item type, would do it during their work hours and could arrange for a dedicated photo setup at their non-residential work placefulfilling orders takes all the time – if the amount of gold and silver coming through doors and windows is felt overwhelming, a cheapo teen/summer help assistant or two will relieve one of physical work while not impacting too much the money flow (or perhaps even allowing for doubling or tripling the income).
My new ranges through Imperial Miniatures have no photos (last on the market in 2007 with minimal website) and there are 3-4,000 54mm figures to cast, assemble, paint and photograph - that is going to take a while...
But I fear it has a lot to do with taxes - in some countries, if you get less than X money from your small, secondary business you don't get to pay any taxes. Expanding may become a tax management nightmare and a lot of work some people don't want because of age or any other considerations (I know for sure Navwar's owner is in that club). Yeah, they could try to scale up the business, but not everybody is willing to sacrifice a comfortable, stable job for the excitements of becoming a business-owner.
Unfortunately, as owners of wargames businesses we can't comment on what we think about the quality of pictures on other wargames businesses' websites - it's unprofessional. However, in general, I think it's important for the style of the photographs within a range to be consistent otherwise a site starts to look a bit of a mess.I don't actually need convincing that photos are an important part of trading online, but customer satisfaction about their orders (i.e. speed of processing and delivery) comes first. When news that I was taking over Gladiator broke, I wasn't asked when I would have new photographs of the miniatures, I was asked how long it would be before customers would be able to buy the figures again. Similarly, if there are new releases from Eureka or AB without pictures, I don't get asked whether I have pictures: I get asked when they will be in stock and how soon can customers buy them.
@Captain Harlock - you are obliquely hitting one of the points.Twenty years ago it cost money to get stuff professionally photographed, now anyone can point an autofocus camera at at a figure, slap it on a e-commerce site and think job done.And it shows. Geocities may be gone, by the echoes linger like a bad meal.I suspect a number of vendors spent a lot of money on the original sites, and are probably stuck with them and the arcane workings involved.Fighting15s' demonstration above shows how difficult it is to get a good shot, and most people looking for some ancient relic item for their collection probably have the paper catalogue with the line drawings anyway.I think I resyked all my GZG catalogues.New stuff, not much excuse (a bare metal shot and preferably a painted one).