I logged in this morning, looked at my wishlist (both on site and locally stored bookmarks) and almost fell over.  There is a massive amount of newly marked clearance items.  I had to go 75 pages into the clearance bin before I stopped seeing items that are newly added. *And I do monitor the clearance bin very closely. *

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?Start=2221&Clearance=Y

Please tell me there is something odd going on with the site and this is mistake.  The first time I logged in at Renderosity this moring, my browser actually totally locked up the computer and then the site was deadly slow for a few minutes.   As a hobbyist, there's no way I can pickup the massive amount of my wants and wishes that are now in the clearance section in the next few weeks. :(   Especially with the bad economy. 

I really don't understand why with digital goods, Renderosity still maintains this clearance policy. Especially since there's so little true variety in product availabiliy and so few truly unique products.  :(   I think it's rather unforunate to limit the field any farther, especially with some of the more unique hair styles, scenes, ect. 

I agree.  It's not like there is a physical limit to the store. :(

Clearance was ran yesterday and this was the first time in was ran in months.

This is the reason for the large amount of clearance items.

The reason for running clearance is let the products that might sell come in and take the place of products that might sell better.

Alot of vendors like when we run clearance as it cleans their store up to make room for new products. :)

It might be fine from the vendors' standpoint, but as a hobbyist customer with a limited budget, it stinks to know that I'm going to miss out on the vast majority of these items. Some of which I'd really like to have, but probably won't be able to afford before they disappear. Especially since Renderosity has been rather stingy with coupons lately. :( Not that coupons would help much with the amount of stuff that's going to be disappearing from my wishlist over the next few weeks. :( 

Quote - Clearance was ran yesterday and this was the first time in was ran in months.

This is the reason for the large amount of clearance items.

The reason for running clearance is let the products that might sell come in and take the place of products that might sell better.

Alot of vendors like when we run clearance as it cleans their store up to make room for new products. :)

I guess I don't quite understand that, Kristi.  In fact, I just spoke to a vendor who is quite unhappy that their products have been pulled or put on clearance.  If a vendor WANTS to remove things from the store, they can certainly do that.     

To me, it just makes no sense that removing an older item will make a newer item sell better.  I buy what I WANT or NEED, not because something is a shiny new item...

I am very sorry as the surveys will be coming out shortly so please be sure and state that you would like for there not to be a clearance process any longer.

I'm sorry Alisa as I stated most vendors, not all as we do hear from vendors who do like it and those that don't...

Warmest Regards,

The clearance issue is one I've continually mentioned on the surveys since I've been filling them out. 

i fail to see the problem with clearance:

"If a product hasn't had any sales in the last 90 days it's moved into the Clearance section. These products receive an automatic 25% discount and can't be placed "on-sale" by a vendor. This is to help with over crowding in the MarketPlace as well as to try and help spur sales of products that aren't currently selling well. If a product is in the Clearance section for another 60-day period and has not had any sales it will be removed from the MarketPlace. Previous buyers will still be able to download their past purchases of Clearance and Deleted products. In order to re-submit a product that has been deleted from the Clearance section back into the MarketPlace significant changes to the product need to be made as follows:
New Thumbnail and Promo Images
New pricing
Product update or change
*These changes can potentially help the product sell better." *

if a product doesnt sell one copy in nearly half a year - even on sale - it is either a hopelessly niche product, flawed in some way (whether in content or presentation),  overpriced or obsolete.  clearance tries to address these problems.

the bottom line is that Renderosity is a marketplace here to make money.  if your local convenience store had a type of candy bar on the shelf that not one person bought in 6 months, they would remove them from the shelves to make room for something that will sell. 

yes its an intangible item and doesnt take up any physical shelf space, yet that completely unmarketable item is taking up marketplace real estate from an exposure and bandwidth perspective. when someone does a marketplace search or opens up a marketplace category they dont need half the products they see to be ones that havent sold in half a year.

if an aspiring content creator wants a place to upload products where they dont need to meet this absolutely minimal sales requirement i suggest the Freestuff section.  

Quote - I guess I don't quite understand that, Kristi.  In fact, I just spoke to a vendor who is quite unhappy that their products have been pulled or put on clearance.  If a vendor WANTS to remove things from the store, they can certainly do that.     To me, it just makes no sense that removing an older item will make a newer item sell better.  I buy what I WANT or NEED, not because something is a shiny new item...

then may i suggest you buy that vendor's product?

Yes, but some of us are just hobbyists who don't make money doing this.  I have a fairly set monthly Poser budget I have to try to stick to.  I spend more money than I should, even so. I buy what I can when I can, but a lot of stuff gets wishlisted or bookmarked for later.  When Rendo dumps hundreds of items at once on clearance, it's a good bet that quite a few are going to be on my wishlist.  The other day when I checked, there were nearly 75 new pages of clearance items (between 700 and 800 products). It mean that I have to choose between getting things I've wanted for a while (maybe even a long time) or getting new marketplace items, for one.  When I have to rescue things that are marked for clearance, I'm not buying any new marketplace items.  And no disrespect intended, but that effects vendors like yourself when I have to choose between something that older that may disappear forever or having something shiny and new.  If a clearance item is by a vendor I like, I usually choose that older, clearanced item over the new releases (which get wishlisted or bookmarked).

^i understand, but you are missing the point that those items have not sold a single copy for nearly half a year. 

the issue isnt with the clearance script, or with Rosity. the problem lies in the general attitude here. if NOONE wants a product for half a year - and that goes for any product whether tangible or intangible, 3D content or groceries - then that product is not a marketable product and should be removed from shelves to make way for one that customers DO want:  both to stop wasting customers time, taking exposure from other vendors and to keep the marketplace from looking like some dusty flea market. 

if noone wants a product then it either needs to be clearanced, removed, or updated/improved. this is exactly what the clearance script tries to accomplish. 

this is the only community on earth where there is this 'hippy commune' mentality when it comes to vendors and items in the marketplace.  theres nothing admirable or noble in preserving products that noone wants.  put them in freestuff if you want to preserve them indefinitely.  many responsible vendors will actually remove obsolete products on their own to keep their store nice and clean - often they put them in freestuff. some refuse to do this, and want them to clutter up the marketplace for eternity 'just in case' theyll make $3 off it from a sale years from now. this is where some intervention is required - for the sake of the marketplace, the customer and other vendors.  

if you do indeed want these products, then i suggest that you purchase them and/or help draw attention to them, their niche and the vendor making them - since the complete lack of sales/interest is the exact reason they are being removed from the marketplace. 

Quote - if you do indeed want these products, then i suggest that you purchase them and/or help draw attention to them, their niche and the vendor making them - since the complete lack of sales/interest is the exact reason they are being removed from the marketplace. 

I do buy what I can when I can. I'm basically down to spending 80-90% of my money here.   I spend it  between Prime items and clearance items.  I buy fewer and few new releases so that I can try to keep up with the clearance items.  Meanwhile, my wishlist gets longer, instead of shorter.

Spread the word... Hmmm... Kind of hard. I have few conversations in Poserverse these days.   I'm a Poserverse nobody, really.  And I get tired of being told (if not in so many words) my views don't matter, or are wrong, when I do bother to speak up.  Kind of where like this conversation seems to be heading. :(

{{hugs Tiggersprings}}  I hear you.

I think we all understand the "concept" behind removing things, but there COULD be, it seems to me, a place for these items because this ISN'T an issue of needing physical space for them. 

I personally don't feel that they are "wasting customers time, taking exposure from other vendors" or making the marketplace look " like some dusty flea market." 

If all vendors made them free or even allowed you to BUY them elsewhere after they were removed from clearance, then it wouldn't be so bad, but most do neither, and, as Tiggersprings said, not everyone can afford to just buy what they want when they want it. 

i agree with Alisa and tigger...i myself can´t buy all what i want...and sometimes when i buy something for example BJD and then try to find more things for that figure ,i find that things that i would buy are no longer avaliable....this means ...that sometimes a thing cannot sell for a while ...but new  members can be  interested on it...another thing is that with the lot of new things everyday....the previous ones become relegated to a second plane and can be difficult to see them....perhaps more publicity to all the items could be a good thing.

Anyway usually the little groups like us tend to be ignored...but we have our right to speak too!

kind regards to all!

Just gonna chime in here, but I can't stand the idea of "clearance."  I can't tell you how many sales you've lost because *"this item is no longer available for sale." * Sometimes you have a product that is still up for sale, like a clothing item, that's old but was very popular, but heaven forbid your customer wants to buy a texture set for it.  Or sometimes your customer WANTS new textures for an item they bought long ago, and have just "rediscovered" in their runtime... too bad, even though there were 5 texture sets made as soon as it came out, they're not available any more... snooze you lose, sucker!

Yeah, the survey.  I've expressed my dislike of "clearance" in prior surveys, and yet it's still here.   I'll say it again NEXT survey, for what good it will do.

Quote -^i understand, but you are missing the point that those items have not sold a single copy for nearly half a year.

Half a year?  That's nearly FOREVER in Internet Time!

Quote -the issue isnt with the clearance script, or with Rosity. the problem lies in the general attitude here.

...

this is the only community on earth where there is this 'hippy commune' mentality when it comes to vendors and items in the marketplace.  theres nothing admirable or noble in preserving products that noone wants.

...

many responsible vendors will actually remove obsolete products on their own to keep their store nice and clean - often they put them in freestuff. some refuse to do this, and want them to clutter up the marketplace for eternity 'just in case' theyll make $3 off it from a sale years from now. this is where some intervention is required - for the sake of the marketplace, the customer and other vendors.  

if you do indeed want these products, then i suggest that you purchase them and/or help draw attention to them, their niche and the vendor making them - since the complete lack of sales/interest is the exact reason they are being removed from the marketplace. 

^I understand, but you are missing the point as to why the "clearance" script is not good for customers, and can hurt your sales.  I've bought many products from here over the years.  V4 has been around for what, 4, 5 years now? (longer?) I have a LOT of content for her.  Some of it is old, but that doesn't mean I can't use it.  Did that outfit by Pretty3D decay on my hard drive in the past two years since I used it?  No.  But even though there used to be 4 texture sets for it 2 years ago, now there are none. 

What made this item in my runtime obsolete?  The clearance area.  Yes, I've tried to buy accessories for items I've bought years ago, and why not?  Do you all only like making money on "new" products?  Is that $3 that you might actually have made not $3 more than you had?

I agree with tiggersprings up there about "spreading the word" and whatnot.  I'm also a small fry, I can't buy every danged thing I want when it comes out, nor can I predict what I'll want in the future.  I cannot think of a way that I could spread the word about a product or a vendor that would get something I needed back from the memory hole known as "clearance."

I realize that you can look at it like you're creating a product and you're marketing it and you're important vendors with sales graphs and such, but we, who you refer to as your customers, are often times just people banging out pictures, and sometimes the need for a specific prop in our pictures doesn't always coincide with your marketing schedule.  

Quote - I think we all understand the "concept" behind removing things, but there COULD be, it seems to me, a place for these items because this ISN'T an issue of needing physical space for them. 

there is a place for them. its called 'FreeStuff'.

There have been times when I've plopped an outfit AND textures for it into my wishlist. Later I've put the outfit in my cart to purchase but the textures for it are no longer available.

Seems kind of silly and arbitrary to me.

And comparing to a physical store with limited shelf space is silly as well. You seem to be saying if something hasn't sold in xx amt of time it doesn't DESERVE to be around not that you couldn't manage to keep it. Sounds more like you're applying brick and mortar rules to digital content.

You could help matters by allowing us to sort those things to the top in our wishlists.

You could help by not limiting vendors as to how many items they can have in their stores---or create an annex for any store that has what normally would be clearance items.

You could help by not throwing all Clearance items into one pot. Who wants to look through all those pages if they only want to find Bryce stuff or backgrounds or whatever.

You could help by throwing a big clearance sale occasionally. Surprise us.

There are some darned fine products that get swept out the door and it feels like you're standing at the exit with broom in hand more than eager to do the job.

Or perhaps keep the clearance section how it is, items moved there permanantly marked down 25% off and unavailable for putting on sale, but only viewable in the clearance category and not through looking under say Poser/Victoria 4. In the same style as the Deep Freeze section at RDNA.  Not cluttering up the main marketplace, but not completely removed. Rendo is the only store using a clearance section and ive always hated the idea.  With the constant influx of new customers and new vendors its surprising the amount of sale on older products that I recieve from the other brokerages, but with Rendo its a missed opportunity. Even I have purchased older items and never grabbed expansions for them because at the time they werent my style, but style changes ;)

Quote - > Quote - I think we all understand the "concept" behind removing things, but there COULD be, it seems to me, a place for these items because this ISN'T an issue of needing physical space for them. 

there is a place for them. its called 'FreeStuff'.

 

then make you your products free...the vendors that make some to sell want to sell them not let them for free...if i don´t needed the money i would not sell anything and would make all for free...but is not he case of any vendor if not it not would be a vendor.

Quote - ... With the constant influx of new customers and new vendors its surprising the amount of sale on older products that I recieve from the other brokerages, but with Rendo its a missed opportunity. Even I have purchased older items and never grabbed expansions for them because at the time they werent my style, but style changes ;)

this is what i meant in my first post..i would buy something old in the future.

Yeah, i wish I could afford to buy everything I like that comes out.  This is just a hobby for me, so I have to try to prioritize. Even on the things I really, really want to purchase.  If I could afford to do so, I'd clear my ridiculously long wishlist and all my friends' too.  Unless I have a rich relative somewhere that I don't know about or win the lottery, it's just not going to happen.  Given that Poserverse had already existed for years before I arrived on the scene, it's just a fact that there are lots and lots of "old" products that I'd like to have, even after all this time.  That's part of what makes the clearance concept so annoying. 

I also agree on the thing that sometimes tastes or needs change.  I don't buy a whole lot of textures because I can do simple texturing myself.  However, when I do look for textures in the marketplace, I more often than not am met with that annoying little message at the top of the page saying that this product is no longer available from this vendor.  Even when it comes to some of the best texturers' stores.  

I don't know... Given the rate that Poserverse seems to be attracting newbies nowadays, it just seems like limiting sales options, to me...  The clearance process hasn't helped me avoid getting products that I don't care for as much as I thought I would or avoid ones that have functunality issues. I still manage to find plenty of both here, clearance bin or not... 

Tiggersprings raises another excellent point.  There are always new people showing up.

So they don't get to buy certain items that maybe WOULD have been purchased if they weren't removed from the store.

Quote - i fail to see the problem with clearance:

"If a product hasn't had any sales in the last 90 days it's moved into the Clearance section.*" *

if a product doesnt sell one copy in nearly half a year - even on sale - it is either a hopelessly niche product, flawed in some way (whether in content or presentation),  overpriced or obsolete.  clearance tries to address these problems.

the bottom line is that Renderosity is a marketplace here to make money.  if your local convenience store had a type of candy bar on the shelf that not one person bought in 6 months, they would remove them from the shelves to make room for something that will sell. 

Given the sheer amount of items listed on a regular basis, and not to mention other shops, the candy bar on the shelf metaphor isn't very good.  If you aren't quick enough to wishlist an item within 3 days you might have great trouble finding it here in the store again. In grocery stores, the companies that pay the most money get their items placed on shelves at eye level.  Technically this is true of the giant companies too (look how many products Coca Cola markets as example, or the Pepsi Co company of products). Yes Renderosity is about making money for themselves. However to get rid of an item that doesn't sell can be a self defeating business. Businesses that stock just one item are closer to being nieche markets and have a very tenous existance unless they control the overall market (interfereing with competition). Doing so also generaly interferes with quality of products coming to market.

Established vendors do have an advantage of customer loyalty and familiarization with quality of product. That said, there are many items in clearance that are of equal quality or better.  Given customers have a limited amount of funds it's difficult to realize how a glut of clearance products can be released at one time can affect those funds.

*edited to make the statement above clearer... hopefully

I've picked up a lot of older products via Prime sales.  Some of which had been clearance. Bundling older products together (at reduced prices) can bring a sale as well. I have picked up several bundles here and elsewhere (at other shops).

As a content creator how would you feel if your product was relagated to a lower shelf (back to grocery metaphor) or page 75 when you hadn't sold an item in 90 days? Being an experienced content creator you might have a little more understanding and patience, but a new content creator could very easily be discouraged and leave the market (which some established vendors would be happy about)...

I think an additional Prime Clearance section (or pages) might be a good idea in adding the possiblity of extra sales for vendors (a little money is still money after all) as well as a nice perk for Prime users.

I like Silver's idea of a "Deep Freeze" or perhaps a "Vault" where these items could go and be put on a permanent sale instead of being relegated to the dustbin of history.  I'd hazard to guess they'd make some pretty good money off the "obsolete" items they have up until now just discarded.

i agree!

As a perfect example, I still recieve enough sales on my ToXic Whimsy pack that it hasnt hit clearance, even tho the hair itself is not longer available for purchase anywhere and hasnt been for over a year now. So obviously people are still purchasing expansions for 'obsolete' content.  I love the idea of a Renderosity Vault. Great name too :D

Quote -   I love the idea of a Renderosity Vault. Great name too :D

Heh... I'm always thinking!

I agree with the general opinion here that there's so much i still want but cannot afford to just "buy it then"  so a Vault is a brilliant idea !!

Speaking for myself, and only for myself here... I'm one of "those" customers that will sometimes go looking for textures for clothing and hair months, or even years, after buying something.  And of course, here at Renderosity, they're usually unavailable.  I usually buy textures when I'm going to be using them, instead of just buying them  "just because" so that I have them in my runtime.  For me, this is usually a bigger issue with hair textures than clothing textures. I can make simple clothing textures on my own (but I'm nowhere in the lead of some of the "big names" of texturing that sell products).  However, I really haven't done much playing around with texturing realistic hair products (I do my own toon hair textures though LOL).  So sometimes I'll turn to vendors like Silver, Sveva, 3-D Arena, and so on that do make great ready-to-go hair textures for realistic hair products, even years after I've purchased a hair model. After all these years, I'm still aquiring "new to me" hair models (particularly expensive ones) that have been around years, but I have to wait until excellent sale prices come up to have them for my own runtime.  It's annoying to go hunting for textures for my new toys only to find out they've long ago been removed from the marketplace.  :(

For someone only speaking for themselves, tiggersprings summed up exactly why I'm against the clearance area, too!

And sometimes you may only find out about an old item by accident.

For example - not so long ago I saw a great texture for an item in another store. I really wanted that item and came here where it had been sold, just to find that it had only recently gone from Clearance :(

I also like the idea of a vault of clearance items. Like Silver mentioned, it would be totally seprate from the marketplace, you can't find those items when you browse the normal marketplace or search it, etc.

It would be its own self contained area. And the items should stay there ... I'd also be okay to see those items have a special discount for prime members 35% off for normal members and 40% off for Prime.

Agreed!

Ditto!