Its been asked before but affordable sources for royalty free images?

I used to googlesource my textures (for personal/friends use only - never for retail) and I'm really pulling away from that, depending on royalty free images from flickr and wikipedia commons and a few other websites I have bookmarked - and I'm developing almost OK chops with GIMP, most of the textures I use in my Japanese house were created in powerpoint (too lazy to learn inkscape) and GIMP. My first set of Dover clipart CDs order from Amazon are in the mail, and yes, photographers do deserve just compensation for use of their images.

But please, do permit me just one moment for a small rant:

http://www.fotosearch.com/UNB103/u11033044/

$99 for a single low-resolution (72 dpi) picture of a Chinese gong you can buy on eBay for a $30 "buy it now" price??? $349 for a high resolution picture? I could buy the gong AND an OK digital camera for that kind of money. While I'm not expecting the free software or 99 cent music download models to apply in the photography field -- there's no cushy job or concert tour to subsidize those kind of prices -- but come on! That's robbery!

Alright, down to earth again. What are some of the better affordable sources for royalty free? I can afford to spend a little bit and maybe put out a couple hundred bucks a year - what I'd spend for CD's or some nice dinners over a few months - and I'd want something of usable quality from a hobbiest perspective, but don't need 18 Meg 300 dpi quality. Are any of the "clip art megapack" boxes from the local big box store worth anything? Does Adobe or Corel or whoever put anything out that's affordable? I know this topic has been covered before, but usually its "Where can I get the free stuff". I'm willing to spend just a little bit of coin to expand my options somewhat and make it less of a needle in the haystack event, searching for stuff to use.

Pretty tired right now -- hope this doesn't come out lame. Thanks much!

Is this kind of what you are looking for?

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php?gclid=CJ_Fzr_a_ZUCFQQCagodl0GdEQ

I found 3d.sk to be quite reasonable and well worth the price for my needs. A six month subscriptions is about $80 USD. Download as much as you want from their huge library. I got nude humans, clothed humans, clothes, uniforms, costumes, animals. They don't have much in the way of architectural textures tho.

/me raids his bookmarks...

http://www.morguefile.com/
http://www.imageafter.com/
http://www.pdphoto.org/
http://www.sxc.hu/
http://openclipart.org/
http://www.cgtextures.com/
http://www.cg-cars.com/forum/gallery/browseimages.php?c=23

All very affordable

I'll second 3d.sk For the money, it is probably the best deal out there. It's mostly people, but I've found plenty of clothing and animal photographs for my needs.

When I need something specific, I use Istock. They are fairly reasonable, and if you plan on using them regularly you can save a bit by buying credits "in bulk".

If all else fails, I trot over to Wikipedia Commons. It can take some searching, but they do have the occasional photo of the size and clarity one needs to create a good texture.

thanks much, everything I've checked out so far has been pretty amazing - can't wait to check it out some more over my staycation next week.

Also, not texture related, but here's a link for the Freesound project archive: http://www.freesound.org/index.php