Why is male skin so expensive?

I'm new and looking for better male skin, but every place I look it costs about 4 times what female skin costs. Am I just looking in the wrong places or is it really that much more?

Men's items in general are much more. Females are fairly easy to create for, since they are generally all the same size as a human. Boobs, booty and a small waist.

Men vary GREATLY, from the short buff, to tall and lanky and are harder to design for on scale.

Male skins may also be so expensive because not as much money is spent by males on skins. This leads to a reverse economy of scale where creators have to have higher prices due to fewer sales (this is a bit of a guess on my part). I have not seen the same quantity of male skins for sale as female skins, and have to assume it's driven by the market.

The alternate explanation, that male skins cost so much because males are so hard to trap and skin in SL, is only a rumour.

I would find that rather hard to believe in any case, although I would advise gentlemen not to dally with anyone possessing an extensive collection of texture-scalpels, just in case.

There is less skins available for males, but the prices appear to be similar, pretty much.

As far as looking for places go, there's currently clearance sale going at PixelDolls, with both male and female skins for L$ 50 a piece.

With some female skins going for upwards of L$ 4000 EACH.. I'm not sure that's an accurate statement.

Perhaps it's just that there's less competition? And fewer "cheapo" skins for men.

Part of the issue is that the "Default Avatar Texture" or "Linden Skin" is actually fairly plain. It's fairly serviceable for men, you tint the skin, etc... But the "Linden Skin" make-up solutions for female avatars are just awful. So the "need" to by a female skin is greater.. therefore there's more money to be made off quantity sales.

There's other demographics to be considered.. the number of female avatars really does seem to outnumber male avatars. Of the male avatars, a full 2/3 inworld deem to be prim-coated. From Furries to Dragons to Clone Troopers and Transformers. While it can be said that "more inexpensive skins" are available for females.. it should also be acknowledged that "more insexpensive costumes" are available for "men's themes".

ALso.. factor in that most women also *HAVE* to go in for prim hair and prim shoes, and if they wear dresses, prim skirts.. (because the "Linden" versions of these also suck) whereas most guys can do with just a few painted textures.

When you take into consideration the costs in the larger sense.. and examine how much money women spend on their avatars, versus the men.. I think you'll find that it not only evens out.. but it's actually MORE EXPENSIVE to be female in this game.

Just keep looking around - you'll find some good, cheap skins. Also, depending on where you hang out, ask some where they bought their skin.

I sell a quality skin that is L$250, branded (wearing underwear) and the non-branded version is L$800. I have seen very good starter skins for L$200, regular price, but without features like facial hair.

-2fast

My male skin cost 2K which I believe to be reasonable. My daughters cost 4K!

Simple, it's because Male Skins are Rarer.
Female Av skins outnumber Male probably thirty or more to one.

Angel.

4k tends to be for the packs of skins. But yes i think you can get a female skin pack for less than that.

I get my skins from Naughty designs, its 1.8K for one, and i believe 4k for a pack of 4. So, 1.8 is a bit expensive but the skin is the only one I found where i can get my avatar to look almost exactly to the RL me

I'm a newb. When you buy a "skin" what all is it that you get? Do you get the new head and face as well? I don't really want another face, but I'm guessing you can override the new face? Is it advantageous to just change the face's appearance?

I guess I'm a bit confused. The new skins just give your unclothed state a new look, right?

When buying 1 skin, it totally covers all of your av. Makeup (if needed), muscle detail, facial hair, etc. it's from the tip of your head to the tip of your toes.

Can you sculpt the new face? Surely you're not stuck looking like a clone of everyone else who's bought the skin...

Your new skin just changes what you look like (color, body hair etc) - it does not change your shape.

So, if you are tall you will not suddenly become shorter, for example, because you changed your skin.

If you are specifically interested in facial hair for men and want to keep your skin (assuming it does not have facial hair), you can get/use a skin without hair and buy facial hair that you wear (I think this is prim hair).

Hair that is part of the skin cannot change, so buying a gotee, for example, might be the way to go if you like to change your look but want to keep the same skin.

-2fast

That prices are driven by demand would explain the $500L price difference between Lost's male and female skins (the male being the more expensive). Still very cheap though, considering the attention to detail.



Boys and their toys eh? I've always blamed them for my menswear woes.



Oh yes! Now the hair, dresses and skirts have to be flexi too! And once they're done, they find themselves a guy and make him their very own ken doll project, taking him shopping for new 4K skin, flexi-hair and prim shoes...and that's why menswear stores exist at all.

Yeah, I'm being silly... to a point. But you raise some good points...and there is some truth in the generalisations about male & female avatars.

Hmmm... all of that is good information, but not really what I'm looking for. I guess I relate my face to my personality, and I don't want to buy a new skin and end up with someone else's face!

But, I guess SL being what it is, I can buy a cheap skin and experiment!

OK, you're looking for a cheap skin. Take a look at what's on offer at Manhunt Mall. I bought my very first skin there for around 500L (cheap), and I'm fairly sure those skins are still available. MM contains a few (budget) male skin stores for you to check out so you can compare. Be sure to try the demos! (Usually priced at 0L or 1L.)

I'd let you have my two first skins if they were transferable, but alas, they rarely are.

As was already said, your shape does not change. With the skin you buy, if it's no mod, you cannot experiement with it and even if it is, it is still limited.

However, do you think many women look alike, probably not, but most have the same sets of skins witha few tweaks. The shapes can change the way a skin looks to an incredible degree.

I gave my shape to a friend who bought a totally different brand of skin than I did. The differences are HUGE and you'd never even be able to tell we have the same specs for shape because of the skin. I brought her to SL and told her I'd give her mine and she still uses it to this day (a hair bigger boobs mind you) and we look nothing alike.

You would think that everyone one with the same skin would end up looking alike, but that is not exactly how it works out. You still have your shape preferences set under that skin. So, instead of looking identical people with the same skin end up looking more like they are genetic relatives.

Ok, so at lunch today I went to Pixel Dolls and bought one of their $50L clearance skins. My avatar previously had sideburns and a goatee, so I bought one that had that as well.

I understand that this is not a $2kL skin, but here's what I noticed:

Overall, my character looks more, ummm.. complete when nude. There's no genetalia (I understand those come separate...), but everything is sculpted a bit better and there's, in general, more definition.

My hairstyle and hair didn't change at all. However, a big difference I noticed is that my facial hair completely changed. The goatee in particular looks a lot nicer and more realistic. I'm not too sure about my eyebrows though. They look drawn on.

The skin color is also a bit questionable - again, I'm guessing because I only paid $50L. I had the choices of white, light, medium, and dark. White is like goth white, and that's not me. Medium and dark are both too dark, so I chose the Light skin. Hmmm... still seems a lot lighter than I wanted. I was able to use the tone slider in appearances to give me _some_ color, I still almost look like a vampire or something.

Overall, I can report that skins do seem to make your av look more realistic, but I can understand why you might want to pay more than $50L. After applying the skin, I still look like "me," only after having gone through some special spa treatment plus a crash course in metrosexual body primping.

Just to add some perspective to the debate, at the current exchange rate L$4000 is $14 usd. Is the price of four large lattes too much to pay for something that most buyers will get hundreds of hours of use from (compared to the hour it would take most people to drink the lattes)? I think not. Your mileage my vary.

Ok - now for another related question:

Where are some excellent places to buy male skins? Who has the $4k skins? Who has some cheaper? Doing a search for "male skin" and I think even "men skin" didn't turn up much in-world.

Also, are there places to buy prim hair for males?

There was an excellent thread here in the last couple of month: Time to shed my newbie skin. That had a ton of male skin suggestions. If you do a forum search on male skin it will be in the list.

Thanks! That was a very useful thread for finding Men's skins!!

tad,

you can try SKINS BY MAX and NAUGHTY DESIGNS for male skins. the first 2 have $4K packs ... multiple copies of the same skin but with different facial hair.

my first skin was from MAX, my second from NAUGHTY.