Quote - > Quote -

As for vendors in the Marketplace -- some of them approach the job of being a vendor as a part-time endeavor which they do purely for fun.  Others view it as a way to finance their Poser addiction.  Still others make good, solid supplemental incomes off of their efforts -- and some even make a full living from it.  It's nowhere near as bad as a few would have us to believe.

Dude. You must be joking.

Nope.  Not in the least.  I know people who are doing those very things.

Quote - Nearly every other thread's first posts can be summarized as "Hi! I'd like to sell {item}" or "Hi! I will soon have {item} for sale!", or "Hi! I made {item} and I want to know if it's good enough to sell..." or worst of all: "Hi! I'm new here and I'd like to start selling stuff... how do I do that?" These easily outnumber topics covering improvements on artwork, or how to push the app further than it has ever gone before.

I agree with Connie that this is just a wee bit of an exaggeration here.  But even if it weren't an exaggeration -- so what?  Would that (grossly overstated) state of affairs translate into the specious idea that "nobody can make any money doing this"?  I happen to know people who are -- personal knowledge revealing the weakness in your argument.

And they aren't all top sellers, either.

Quote - Free stuff is packed to the rafters with "Texture/poses/accessory/MAT for {item for sale}", and rarely items which don't require content purchases in the RMP or DAZ.

You don't even have to take my word for it - a cursory glance about the Poser forum and the Free Stuff section tells the whole tale.

Free stuff is great.  I love freestuff.  Many vendors provide it to us on a regular basis.

Tell me -- if free stuff is so bad for business, then why is Rendo hosting it?

Quote - > Quote - But one thing that all of those multitudes of good, solid vendors do for the rest of us -- their hard work supplies the very life's blood which makes this website's existence possible.  So even if you never buy anything from a single vendor in the Marketplace.........you have benefited hugely from their labors: and you owe them a debt of gratitude.

I don't owe merchants an single thing beyond the stated amount on the price tag.

Neither do you.

Freestuff makers who aren't merchants simply out promoting their for-sale stuff? Mega-props and gratitude to them. Tute writers who take the time to show others what they've discovered? Awesome works and even more awesome gratitude (as someone who has actually written a user's manual, I can tell you that it is often just as hard to write and proof a tute as it is to build and sell some bit or bob). Folks who take the time to lend a hand to a lost newbie? Sweetness.

...but merchants? Nope. Glad they did it and all, but they got their reward when they cashed the check.

Nothing personal - just business. (emphasis added only to belabor the obvious).

And a website which wouldn't exist without the vendors providing the financial wherewithal to run it.  The free stuff providers / tute writers / artists et al would have to find another place to host their gifts without the absolutely essential financial underpinning which is needed to run the business where they can freely post their freestuff.

Yep -- a debt of gratitude is owed.  But such matters are, of course, only to be found in the purview of the grateful.  Buying stuff from the vendors doesn't hurt -- but it's not required.  You can download all the free stuff that you like: and you can do so for the subscription price which Rendo charges for membership on the site.

Hey -- you can even post in the forums: which are likewise provided for us by the work of the merchants.

Free stuff is wonderful -- no doubt about that.  But it doesn't pay for bandwidth.

Quote - > Quote - BTW - volume DOES make up for high price.  It's a business model which has succeeded again and again.  Toyota is a much bigger company than Rolls Royce is.

Never said otherwise. OTOH, when you've got 400 different lingerie sets to choose from for a given mesh, you simply don't get the volume that you would otherwise have if there were only four, y'dig?

/P

 

Hmmm....I seem to recall you saying something else.......but leave it.

Toyota manufactures a much wider variety of models than Roll Royce does.  Dig?  :biggrin:

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