ta to you both for the clarity, [i] found it all to be rather informative. i'm stuck back in the age of ice, using outdated software on old outdated hardware, using V4 [whom some would say is also outdated], but in all honesty, for the most part, i'm super okay with all of it. there's not much left on this site, or Daz, or Runtime, to entice - i.e. i came, i saw, i bought, i'm done. and it sounds like in many ways i came back at a fair opportune time as well, since i do not use DS nor have a version of Poser that supports DSON... for if judging by new releases, things are moving towards things i've no interest to partake in; however, even the deals i've found o'er the last few months for V4 will potentially be even better the closer the masses relegate her to the attic/basement [tho' i doubt she'll ever fully die a true death], and clearance sales abound. as of today, there are but 7 items across all three sites that i have my eyes upon, all of which are easily left behind.

and to bring this, once again, back to the topic at hand, had Rendo had a similar set-up to Daz in terms of being able to purchase various blocks of time for Prime instead of having only a one year commitment option, or a 'trial' type offer/option, i might've honestly considered it whenst i came back a few months ago - i wouldn't now, but back then, i was, once again, almost virginal to the ins/outs of the MP here and other site's marketing presentations, ploys, patterns & philosophies... must say, i lost that cherry rather quickly tho... [snort]

i'd probably be willing, or even wanting, more things from here, even without decent sales pricing, except for the fact that i feel frustrated by so much about this place, and in particular with shopping here. i mean i did come back prior to the whole destruction of this site, so my opine is not being influenced or swayed by merely taking others' voiced concerns and displeasures.

sure there are places where you choose to buy a membership [i'm talking retail, like Costco or Sam's], but one does so -because- the benefits are overly rewarding, so i'm taking that kind of modeling into consideration to a degree. imagine if suddenly it was only $15 to join Costco, as opposed to the $75 it is, or was a couple of years ago. you'd think 'wow!! holy cripes, batman', and you'd shell out that money. but then you go to shop only to discover that you're only getting maybe 30% off what you'd spend at a regular grocery, or other retailer. you might think, 'well, ok, but yanno what, i have those coupons i clipped out of the paper the other day, and that can go towards making up the disparity', except you go to the register and are told that, gosh, Costco won't take your coupon[s]. and at that point, those BOGO deals at your local grocery/retailer are starting to look better than you thought initially, but still not quite as good as Costco's 30%. but Costco is predominately a buy-in-bulk kind of place, and not really for impulse shoppers, which, let's face, much of this 3D stuff is geared towards. with that in mind, you get better deals from a retailer offering a BOGO than at Costco, and the better deal comes from joining Costco whenst buying only investment kinds of things, for example, an awesome audio set-up or a television. there's not terribly much in this 3D world that equates aside from software and maybe utilities like scripts or maybe ?lighting? [if you can't make your own], etc.

quick number crunching tells you that Prime is no longer the value it once was...

i don't recall the exact price it used to be, so i'll just opt for $90 bucks a year, and all Prime was $3.50 each.

so i pay my $90, and let's say over the next three months i bought 10 items, so now i'm all in at $125. i buy 10 more items over another 3 months, so now i'm up to $160.

today, if i bought Prime, i spend $30, and over the course of three months i buy 10 items that now average what? $8? maybe it's lower, i don't know, but i'll just use $8. so for my first 3 months, i'm all in for $110. i buy 10 more items in the next three months, averaging $8, so now i'm up to $190. or lets change $8 into $6, so the total is less for 6 months than it used to be [$150], but add 20 more items for the rest of the year at $6 vs. $3.50 for the same items, and well...

extrapolate from there, and you see what i mean...

i'm just extremely tired of feeling like i am supposed to NEED Prime these days whenst numbers do not lie. i'm not denying that one can save money by joining, as that is misleading... again, i'll just repeat myself and say: the thing with Prime is that i feel as if TPTB are trying to manipulate me into joining through various triggers, and the more i feel that way, the harder i dig in my heels in opposition as i value the feeling of freewill far more than i do money, or the saving of it... [shrug]