No, There is Nothing Wrong With Selling Skins!

Published on August 18, 2008 By Island Dog In OS Customization

Over the weekend we had a little flamefest going over a skin, and one of the comments was basically trying to trash people for selling their skins. Now since I posted a warning about a 3 month ban from WinCustomize if any other trolling was going to continue, a certain person decided to go to my personal blog and send me an e-mail to my personal account about it.

The e-mail:

“So you think that there's nothing wrong with selling skins between $4 and $5 a pop, uh. Everyone of you is ripping off the the american public. Do you know how much money it takes to make a simple song? Do you know much mp3 files cost? I get them for 10 cents a piece, and yet songs take a hell of a lot more time and money to make, than your skins, and your selling them for more than what a gallon of gas costs. You need to wake up, and look around you. You obviously don't know what the hell is going on in this country right now. You got the nerve to sell some desktop skin for the price your selling for. You Spencer Scott are very little piece of the problem we have in this country, you Spencer Scott, are very good example of an asshole.”

My first reaction at this e-mail was a very good chuckle. I then read it again and wondered what this person was really thinking. Trying to compare .mp3’s to skins really made no sense to me, but then I realized probably what they were saying, and then once again realized this person had no clue about skinning. Let me explain something to this person specifically. Making skins is not easy, and making professional-type skins is much, much worse. A high-quality WindowBlinds skin can easily take months to complete, so what really is the PROBLEM with selling a skin? Nothing at all, that’s what!

I work with many of our Master Skinners here on WinCustomize, and I think every one of them also creates plenty of free content that is also released, so not only do I not have a problem with someone selling skins, I encourage people to buy them as well and support these works. WinCustomize will continue with the Master Skins programs, and if you have an issue with it, you can contact me via the WinCustomize or Stardock e-mail.

Better yet, lets have a discussion about the selling of skins. What is your opinion about it? Do you buy skins? So instead of following me around the internet, step up and post some reasons why someone should not be allowed to sell something they have worked countless hours on. I really can’t wait to read the communities opinions, especially from this commenter (which I do know who you are ).

Comments (Page 3)

Island Dog

on Aug 18, 2008

Some my say Island Dog is just making things up to remind people how time consuming it is to make a premium skin, and the hard work involved.

CharlesCS

on Aug 18, 2008

I never understand people who claim the sellers are cheating the buyers. The way I see it, if $4.99 really is too expensive then the buyer is the moron, not the seller. I'd go as far as saying the seller is a genius for selling a product higher than some believe is should be. Now that's being a good business person.

Ahh sorry bout the email man, had a bad day...
Its just... $4.99 for something like vstylers sexy, or mikeb`s sirus... i dunno, i think its an outrage

I love how people use the "had a bad day" excuse to excuse such rude behavior. Since when is it OK to do this? Some people complain that gas is too high but won't stop driving their cars or buying ipods or PS3's. And complain about $4.99 skins? This is what you get for giving free stuff, people never appreciate anything. Always want everything for free. Let me stop before I make this something political when it shouldn't be.

J. Aroche

on Aug 18, 2008

Weird double post hehe.

zakai1369

on Aug 18, 2008

Conclusion: I think it's need to send he into the arse and nevermore to pay attention for the similar letters from such idiots!

Obviously the world is full of idiots without the common sense to think before opening their mouths. The freeloading group being some of the most vocal of those idiots. Unfortunately the internet just opens us up to exposure to even more of them.

hmmm....wait!!!

I'm going to call my ISP right now and tell them they owe me next month for free for subjecting me to the drivel of idiots such as the one who sent this email to I.D.

I really don't see how anyone can complain at all about the prices on the Master skins. Especially since a majority of people find a theme they really like and stick with it for quite a long time.

Myself I don't buy that many Master skins just because I have so many free skins I've found here that I could change my desktop theme every day for the next year and a half and not use the same one twice.

But still I do buy certain ones(6 or 7 so far I think) and I have no problem spending the money on them. I think they are worth well over what is charged for them. And I usually only use a theme for a week at most before moving on to the next one. So what's that, less than $1 a day?

Just think of what you're paying when you use them a lot longer than I do. Hell it costs you alot more than that just for a single cup of coffee these days. And that only stays with you for a matter of hours

TYCUS

on Aug 18, 2008

it's a long way to became a Master, if i became one and then someone start saying that I’m a asshole for selling my work then i might take a mirror and put in front of his face and ask "who's the asshole Sir?"

...to became a Master, anyone needs to do a hard job and polish all the skills to then be allowed to sell any kind of skin, example?

Personal experience: read comment #35

If someone is honest to leave a comment like that you will know that you have reached the goal!

zakai1369

on Aug 18, 2008

Ahh sorry bout the email man, had a bad day...
Its just... $4.99 for something like vstylers sexy, or mikeb`s sirus... i dunno, i think its an outrage

I love how people use the "had a bad day" excuse to excuse such rude behavior. Since when is it OK to do this?

pstt... it wasn't really him. that was sarcasm

messiah1

on Aug 18, 2008

Messiah, I know you can smell sarcasm when you 'see' it, with those finally tuned animal senses of yours.

I thought it a bit wonky since he's always around praising stuff. Maybe a different smiley would have got me...dunno. What can I say, I'm a munkeh...I mean, c'mon, I fling poo at garbagemen for fun.

Elsius Saint

on Aug 18, 2008

Go To Opra! Go To Opra! Go To Opra!

This is Jerry Springer Show here mate

HG_Eliminator

on Aug 18, 2008

I see no reason a person can not be allowed to make a living at somthing they are good at and love to do. I mean should we expect folks to go to work and not get paid?

The first person to refuse their pay check on Friday for 1 year, will IMO earn the right to gripe about others working for free.

I have given over 11 years to skinning, from helping develop one of the "at it's time" top 3 most popular desktop customization programs, to skinning, to moderation and community support, all without asking for a dime, and I do not feel I would have the right to gripe about others trying to make a living doing it.

I applaud those who can succeed at doing something they love and can make a living from it.

It can take as short as 5 minutes to write a song and make millions off of it, I've heard of some artists taking a total of 3 days from writing to studio to release to make a hit song.

While on average it takes months to build a master WB skin. A suite can take even longer.

ok John .. do I get a ride in the Ferrari now ?

Seriously tho. Why hold a grudge against those who can do..

Robbie_Boy

on Aug 18, 2008

This Email must of come from someone that dose not contribute to the site in any way....
cos if he did he would know how much hard work goes in to making a Windowblind,dock, or any other type of skin or icon set for that matter...
Take my new skin S.D.V., first off i'm making it for my self, but i'm still going to put it up on here for others to download, to give something back for all the GREAT stuff that i've downloaded.
so if someone who uploads skins week in week out want to charge for 1 or 2 of them that not a bad thing at all.

there's just no pleasing some people......

zakai1369

on Aug 18, 2008

Seriously tho. Why hold a grudge against those who can do..

Because those who cannot be bothered to at least try and do something(read: to lazy) don't have the capacity to realize how much effort others put into the things they do(read: think everyone is as lazy as them).

Frogboy

on Aug 18, 2008

As someone who pays people to make songs (for our PC games) I can tell you it costs LESS to make a song (with vocals) than it does to make a skin.

Let me be explicit: It costs us MORE to get a professional quality skin made than to get a professional quality song made (yes, that includes studio time as well).

As for his 10 cents per song, he's buying them from a Russian pirate site. The cheapest you can legitimately get songs that I am aware of is 89 cents.

WebGizmos

on Aug 18, 2008

I hate to even interject this into the convo but I was contemplating even increasing my next WB an extra dollar.. inflation , cost of living, food prices, gas, all going up..

Dunno yet..

Oh man! V....if you do that with your latest skin....I'll.....I'll.....still buy it!

zakai1369

on Aug 18, 2008

I hate to even interject this into the convo but I was contemplating even increasing my next WB an extra dollar.. inflation , cost of living, food prices, gas, all going up..

Dunno yet..

Oh man! V....if you do that with your latest skin....I'll.....I'll.....still buy it!

Hell with that skin in particular he could raise it a dollar and only provide the start menu and I'm sure it would still sell

Anthony R

on Aug 18, 2008

Oh boy... I'm almost certain that anything I say will put me in the doghouse.

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