I've noticed that people seem to think that the price of a item depicts its quality, though in some cases this is true, because you can only find them at higher prices, its not true in alot of cases... I've ran across items here and other places that i've bought that were higher priced, and then later bought a low price item that greatly surpassed it. It seems to many seem to pass off the price of the item to depict the quality. I was wondering what other peoples views here were on this?

For example spectre3:s Maria texture ($5) is better than most of those $15 texture sets... so I have to agree: high price doesn't always mean high quality just like low price does not mean low quality. Some of the items at the MarketPlace have ridiculously high prices considering the quality.

must agree: high price is not always a criteria for high quality. another question is: does high megabyte mean high quality? - or: does high price automatically means high megabyte? i found many low megabyte (or KB) more usefull than tons of megabyte i can't use on my old PC. it's a question of how detailed you need your model. what do you think ??

Whilst price is not always an indicator of quality, how many people have been willing to buy something at a high price tends to be.

I've seen one high price item that was a very attractively presented character, but when you read carefully, for your money you get ONLY the .cr2, no texture, no hair, no props, just the dial-twiddling bit. The seller offered to include "advice" as to which textures and hair to add to your purchase! You can often do better in the free stuff.

I think that merchants approach pricing in two ways: high price for a "guaranteed" return on time spent, and low price for a hope for volume sales. I will probably end up owning say, ALL of Spectre3's textures for Vicki eventually, for example, but maybe only ONE texture from a vendor who sells several sets for 30 dollars each, if any. Personally, I tend to buy less expensive items first. If I have a choice between "Lovely Armor Set A with 15 flexible pieces" or "Lovely Armor Set B with 5 flexible pieces" I will tend to go for the set with more useful pieces first. Some things LOOK expensive, but aren't really if you look at the actual items. If a merchant puts useful morphs into a high quality clothing set and includes a decent texture or two, that is worth the extra money because the items are more flexible. A clothing set could have 30 pieces, but if there are no morphs their usefulness is limited, so that 35 dollars on a smaller morphing set is probably a better option. Just a few thoughts. =)

"You get what you pay for" may be true in a lot of cases but not usually here. There are huge differences in the quality of items and it rarely has to do with price or file size.

The unfortunate thing is the trial and error involved in finding vendors who offer significant value for the money spent. Those can be found through experience (pricey) or pouring through the forums, asking questions etc.

One of the more pleasant purchases I've made to date was your Darkages complete set, an astounding number of props of very high quality. I admit I was skeptical that they would be that quality given the price you charged, just further showing that "you get what you pay for" is not always true at 'rosity, sometimes you get more! and sadly, sometimes you get less.

My .02 or .01 after taxes.

From the point of view of a newbie merchant, the absolute hardest thing to do is judge how much you should charge for something. I have learned from my mistakes recently, hopefully. For example, I released my Sea Beast for $10.00. I got numerous sales, and it (so far) is still my best selling item. I then got "heady", and charged $20.00 for my Redta Riding lizard, because it included the saddle and various head props. And it is one of my lowest sellers. Judging how much to charge is a very tricky proposition... Charge more, and get more $$ per sale? Or charge less, and get more sales? The trick is trying to find a price that's fair, while getting the best balance of money per sale versus total sales.

Remember, kids! Napalm is Nature's Toothpaste!

Another indicator for pricing is utility for general purposes rather than fineness for specialty purposes. If you are going for volume sales (with a lower price), the item should be something which almost everybody could want and use. Hair is an example: since it doesn't matter what period, genre, etc., most images have human characters and most characters have hair. If 95% of the users here can use it, then it is likely that you'll get enough sales to justify the lower price for your time. If you are going for researched accuracy and incredible detailing on a specialty item, you'll need to charge more to cover the time spent... but also realize that few people might need or want an ultra-realistic item with limited utility. An example here would be the Paris Opera house (several stories... with underground lake, stables, and gargoyles on the roof). People will ooh and ahh, but how many will actually need it? So when pricing, you need to guestimate whether 20 people will buy it or 200 people will open their wallets. Carolly

So far I'm far happier with the $5-$10 items I bought here and elsewhere online than with the $30-up stuff, After a number of years of online shopping with no other reference than that pricetag, all I can say is "a higher pricetag only means a higher pricetag and seldom a better buy".

thanks for your responces, found it helpful. I am getting ready to start up a store at my own site as well, for my products, which will cut there cost by 1/2. I price low for one major reason - not alot of people have money they can throw away on models. The lower price on my props is so that not only those who have money can get props but those that may be looking for a good little deal where they can get something nice to work with. I tend to agree with hein, a higher pricetag only means a higher pricetag and seldom a better buy, proven alot by just your local stores compeating with eachother. Thanks again for your thoughts =-) its much apreciated.

Will you be selling through the WTDarkness site?

no the wtdarkness site can't handle ecommerce properly do to the host, so it will be on another domain of mine, im just trying to fix 1 small bug (not counting the downloads right now) and after that is done i'll have the store up and running at www.darkfaction.com

That site looks fine sofar, can't complain about the store either, pity I have DA kits already :)