At the beginning of February this announcement about Stockxpert hit my (and with me many others) mailbox.

We are sorry to announce that beginning today, Stockxpert will no longer sell new credits or accept new members. On February 11, 2010, searching and downloading at StockXpert will cease. This will be the end of image sales at Stockxpert.

All SXP members have the opportunity to transfer their remaining credits to iStockphoto. iStock offers the highest quality affordable microstock imagery in the industry. Come and see for yourself. SXP credits will be honored 1 for 1 at iStockphoto. If you aren’t already an iStock member, we encourage you to sign up now. Your credits will be transferred on February 11. If you miss that date, you will still be able to transfer your credits anytime over the next 6 months, until August 11, 2010.

It was somewhat expected that after Getty’s purchase of Stockxpert things would change, but total closure of Stockxpert has been the end result. I have mixed feelings about the closure as this was the agency that got me interested in the whole microstock adventure. However things change, so we got to go with the flow.

Stockxpert contributors who opted-in to selling their images on a subscription basis will have their portfolio transferred to Getty’s new subscription site Thinkstock.com (rivaling Shutterstock?). As I have a nearly identical portfolio on Istockphoto and Stockxpert I have decided to totally cancel my account on Stockxpert and have my images transferred to Thinkstock via Istock.

However, now I was down one agency in my list. So after doing some research, I have chosen to go with the up and coming agency Can Stock Photo. With a little over 2.2 million images on offer Can Stock Photo is not one of the biggest players on the market, but I think they hold potential for the future.