With the V3 and M3 in my grasps, I'm ready to go crazy and buy a whole lot of stuff for Poser. First, there was something on the information page that said you get 10 free items from their store after joining for the first time. Now, am I correct in believing that I could pay $30 to join, and get something like the V3 or M3 Body Morph back for free, as well as 8 other items? And there was this line: "Each Platinum Club Membership allows for one purchase of each Platinum Club product at the Platinum Club price." This doesn't mean you can only buy ONE Platinum Club product at once/for a while, does it? Thanks for your help.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=catmain&cat=142

Okay, here is the way it was last month. $30 gave you a monthly membership which you could keep on a month to month basis for an additional $8 a month. For joining you got a $5 Voucher which expires at the end of each month (Vouchers are good 100% on DAZ Originals, and up to 50% on Published Artist Items and can not be used for PC Items or Resale Items. You will get a new Voucher at the beginning of the next month. You gain Access to the PC Forums and the Freebies contained in there along with the Tutorials. You can participate in the PC Gallery Monthly Competition. You can buy any of the PC Items one time for $1.99 You get an additional 30% Off all DAZ Originals that are not PC Items. Annual is $100 to join and $70 to renew for another year. You get all of that, plus you get a $30 Voucher for joining and you get the Coupon for the PC Bonus Items. These Items are specific Items in the Store. You can see which ones they are by clicking on the Bonus Item Catagory in the Store Menu (beneath the PC Store Items.) If you plan on getting at least $90 dollars of DAZ Originals you will have paid for the Monthly. (That is like buying the Morph Bundle and International Beauties or a few other textures or one Base Character and its related Starter Pack. If you think you will spend about $150 over the year on DAZ Originals and make use of all the Monthly Vouchers the Annual is the way to go. You can see the difference is not much. Now I will add this. I am not sure if DAZ is still giving the $30 Voucher for Annual Members and DAZ might give the PCBonus10 Coupon to everyone that joins, not just Annual. If you can wait until Monday I would call them to get it straight, because DAZ has changed several things recently and I do not know anyone that recently joined to ask what they are giving currently.

To some people, this might be a big deal. There are a few categories to consider: 1.) The Platinum club items themselves. Why not browse through the Platinum Club and see just how much of the stuff you really want or like? I belonged for a month or so, and it was hard to find more stuff I really wanted. It was really hard to find 10 items from the list of available bonus freebies. 2.) The $5 vouchers. Will you find something every month to make that $5 voucher worthwhile? Remember, you need to use it that month, or lose it. 3.) Extra 30% off on DAZ originals. You might do extremely well here, if you're just getting started on Vicky 3 & Mike 3 for example. How will you do over the long haul? Will you find more DAZ originals in the next month, or year? Probably. In the end, the Platinum Club was good for me, for awhile.

If you really are about to go crazy, even if only for a few months, I would join the PC on a monthy basis. You can get a big wardrobe + hair + scenery for M3 and V3 with only PC items, at $1.99 each. I would resist buying non-PC items at all unless you're absolutely sure (eg. the catsuit/bodysuit are expensive and not worth it, IMO). I rarely pay full price for non-PC things - I either grab them on sale or wait until I have a few vouchers from various sources.

Be aware of what you can get for free - no point buying skin textures yet because there are good free ones around (or grab some $5 ones from Renderosity).

If you buy four PC things a month, then including the $8 monthly fee that's $4 each, which is great value. Add to that the $5 voucher (plus all kinds of additional vouchers that DAZ gives away during the year) to go towards a non PC-item you can't live without, and it all adds up to a good deal.

The PC hasn't had too much of interest for me lately, because of the Girl/Aiko/Teens/Xmas madness, but I'm hoping for better selections soon. I no longer buy PC things on a whim - I stick them on my wishlist until I need them. Unlike sale items, their price stays low!

Message edited on: 01/07/2005 23:55

The PC has been a fantastic deal for me. I've made my investment back several times over with discounts, vouchers, and other specials.

The PC works best for those people that actually spend money at DAZ. If you never intend to buy anything, then it's probably not for you.

But if you have a voracious Poser habit to feed......or even a relatively minor habit.......then it's a great source of savings.

I always intend to spend money when I have it to spend. But I also look for "real world" clothes and scenes. All too often, DAZ and other sites don't carry the stuff I want. In contrast to DAZ PC Club, I can buy a membership at Poserworld and get everything they have for one subscription fee.

In contrast to DAZ PC Club, I can buy a membership >at Poserworld and get everything they have for >one subscription fee. Not much good if Poserworld doesn't have what one wants, however! For new users it's a matter of looking at the different sites and getting a feel for their products before you commit to a subscription. I had a subscription to Poserworld a while ago, downloaded loads of things and now rarely use them (except a few sets). I do keep an eye on their new stuff but haven't found a reason to renew yet. PoserStyle is also a subscription site - better quality stuff IMO but fairly specialised (historical, sci-fi). DAZ has the whole range, as well as a huge range in prices when you include PC. Their 30-day money-back guarantee is very reassuring, too, in case something turns out to be not what you expected. RDNA is high quality but can be expensive (I probably only have that impression because I'm so used to DAZ's PC). I snapped up a heap of things at their recent half-price sale. The $2.50 Real Deals are great value if something you like comes up. They have some of the best foliage, for example. PoserPros, again, has a large range in prices and also in quality, with some great deals with their $2.49 ProClub products. Just my take on the various sites where I shop...

The $30 voucher is still being applied to annual memberships. For somebody starting out with the PC Club, it's still best to begin with a monthly subscription and later switch to annual if wanted (switching from monthly to annual is a renewal, so is cheaper than jumping directly to a manual subscription). Getting the extra 10 PC Bonus items offers diminishing returns because monthly members are already getting their ten favorite items--annual members have to figure out what four items they don't want rather than pick faves. Keep in mind that a monthly sub to the PC Club isn't much less than a subscription to PoserWorld and there's a lot more there for the price. Once or twice a year, there will be free trial subscriptions to the PC Club. PoserStyle doesn't have as much material as PoserWorld, but it also offers short subscriptions that allow full access to all the items in their club. PoserPros and RDNA both have low cost items that don't require memberships. Welcome to the mad world of spending money for Poser content.

I don't know whether there's any pattern to the sales, but there have been big ones in the last couple of months, and the sale discount plus PC discount adds up. Some of the PC-price items are very expensive at normal price. Some is old stuff, some new but a little specialised. And some items are, I suspect, stuff which competes with high-quality free-stuff -- I wonder about the DAZ Sassy Hair and Koz's Messy Hair. PC membership is worth a month or two for the Environment props and textures, as well.

I had a short subscription to PoserStyle, and gave up on them because they're just not reliable, and they never did respond to some of my questions about defective items. Poserworld is great because they produce versions of clothing for several major Poser characters at the same time (Vicky 3, Stephanie 3, etc.) I don't get overly excited about much of the new content at DAZ3d. Lately I find more of what I want here at Renderosity Marketplace.

That clears it all up, thanks. It does seem like a good deal after all.

Buy for what is there now, not for what MIGHT become available. I gave up hope that they would get into a genre that was of interest to me. I also invested hoping to support and then benefit from the release of DAZ Studio 1.0. I've given up waiting.

I have belonged to the PC since it first started. I had been wanting the eagle for a very long time. Just getting him for $1.99 paid for the first year. The PC really pays off when DAZ brings out new characters. With all the discounts you usually can get the new figures for about 1/2 the regular price of the items. Between the PC and my lifetime membership to PoserWorld, I have a 200+ gig external hard drive with nothing but Poser stuff.