Quote - /waves Acadia, Gareee, Dustrider - very happy to see familiar people still around :biggrin:

There have been a lot of very informative replies, thanks so much for that.  That is the community spirit that I have missed.

3anson - your post was actually very helpful and hit directly on the type of information I was looking for.

I agree with Laurie, there was no need for a sh*tstorm lol

I really appreciate all the feedback, based on this I think I am going to stay with Poser and Poser based models.  I am more familiar with that and it seems it is still the more popular option.

My goal is primarily to get back into the marketplace so knowing what people are currently using and buying for is great before I make the investments.  

Last question: When people say those programs are half off right now...Is 249.99 half off for Poser 9 ?  and 499.99 half off for poser pro?  

And if I am interested in creating for the marketplace, is Poser 9 still gunna do the trick for me?  - I really really don't want to spend 500 on the program, knowing darn well I probably have another 500 I have to spend in utilities and items anyway.  If so, well I guess it is what it is, but I'm gunna keep my fingers crossed until someone replies to this last part, lol

I just upgraded Poser 7 to Poser 2012 for $129.99 in the half off sale. 

If you are going to create content, Poser 2012 is definitely the way to go.  Poser 9 doesn't allow you to create weight mapped items - just use them.

From another post (the half off link):

http://my.smithmicro.com/marcom/eblasts/poser/20120303/index-web.html