Its bad enough when new contributors copy your sound ( literally in some cases) with exact titles, but when they price it at $1 they are not only destroying your sales but bringing the market down to a race to the bottom. Buyers will , and do pay for sounds at higher prices. If we all did this it would boost revenue and everyone will be a winner.
On another topic, a good way to stop rogue sellers here ( and I have had dealings with stolen sounds re-sold here as their own work) would be for AJ to introduce a validation of your ID like a photo of you holding your passport or driving licence. This is what some agencies do to stop theft, fraud etc. If only they had that here it would filter out the cheats who steal your hard work.
I definitely agree with you about the ridiculous pricing strategies some authors are practicing. I don’t sell much, but even so, I wouldn’t even think of setting any of my tracks at $1. There isn’t even any kind of certainty that the sales numbers would increase significantly enough to justify earning 50% of a dollar, or even less if I sell to the U.S. Or, even if I manage to get more sales for a $1 track than usual, it migh end up only matching the revenue of one or two full-price track sales, and nothing more. In short, with such a low price, you have to sell a lot more to make it worthwhile, and that might not work as expected.
As for ID validation, I think Audiojungle should take that step. For a long time I was opposed to the idea because I’m paranoid about uploading my ID online where we all know nothing is 100% safe. But, I’ve come across it so many times, it feels like the norm these days. However, it’s not a universal fix for all fraudulent behavior. You can bet we’ll see these guys find new ways to circumvent the rules.
I can’t find it at the moment, but wasn’t there a post by Envato about a coming ID verification system? I seem to remember they touched this subject in a post about a future approval system soon to be implemented at AudioJungle (with upload limits based on rejection rates, portfolio submissions for newcomers before they can enter the market and sell, etc).