Quote - Acadia, you are ranting (not that there is anything wrong with that) but look at what you wrote: you know things are more filtered at the other sites, but here at Rendo in both the marketplace and freebies, you have the wild wild west! Barn door wide open! Come one come all.

I don't think I'm ranting at all. However while the "Wild West" is an odd comparisson, I guess it does fit, to a degree.

cobaltdream made an excellent point about how some items that are sold here would be turned down at stores such as Daz or Poser Pros because they are "too niche". So with that in mind it's nice to know that those types of products are being accepted here.

It's however important to not confuse "niche" and "low quality."  A well made niche item should have the opportunity to be in a store for sale.

As I stated in another thread my gripe is that most of the V4 character texture packages being marketed look like smooth/shiney plastic.

Quote - Are you REALLY sure that does not have a benefit?  It might be annoying....but perhaps some people enjoy sifting through everything to find a gem, and the current system in a way encourages newcomers to grow...hopefully because while they get the ego boost of being approved, if their items are not good or praised, they will not sell.

If they are not good enough then why are they in the MP to begin with?

Quote - Also, I have purchased certain items, such as shirts and dresses, that did not have much going for them, just to get the mesh to make dynamic and apply my own materials. In other words, I might see some "low quality" item that I can 'do something with."

::::: Opera :::::

But we shouldn't have to be doing that. At least I don't feel like I should be having to do that for something that I just spent money on.

Yes, those who are creative enough and adept enough in Poser or have the talent and inclination to "fix" something they bought so that it meets a higher standard can certain do that. However that product should already be up to that standard before it even hits the market. 

TBH it's only been quite recent that I have been looking beyond some items textures at the actual mesh design for that "gem" and like you I have  come across  a few items that I felt could have potential with some material room help.

There are many levels of Poser users and not everyone knows that they can or even how to make something that they bought look better through shaders and the material room.

Yes, you can take that shiney plastic skinned  V4 chracter texture and add a bump map or a math node or face_offs or bagginsbills shaders to make it better. But the vendor should be  doing that kind of thing as part of their creating and packaging process.  But many spend so much time making the texture in Photoshop or wherever, that putting it together in Poser is maybe not high up on the priority list.  r they don't know enough about Poser to do that kind of thing.  So instead of taking time to learn they package it "as is" which results in lower quality items being sold.

Yes, Photoshop/Painshop Pro skills are a must when it comes to texturing,  but so is being able to apply that texture to a figure in Poser and make it not look like shiney plastic through the use of shaders and such in the material room.  

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi