Hidden costs, efforts and requirements

Hidden costs

Some avatars/items on booth.pm require you to already possess certain things. For example, a base model, paid scripts and/or programs like Photoshop to make full use of all the features that are offered.

This can add up quite a bit if it’s your first initial purchase. For example you buy a simple avatar for ¥1500 (about 15 dollars) and then realize in order to make full use of the avatar, you need the dynamic bones script. But that’s gonna set you back another 20 dollars so the total initial cost is more like 35 dollars.
Be sure to check this before blindly slamming the buy button.
Also keep in mind that most booth stores don’t do refunds since the buyer receives goods that can’t be returned.

Hidden efforts

The content sold contains mostly Japanese, like certain settings in Japanese avatars are in Japanese. Things like tags, descriptions, file names, annotations… there is a high chance it’s all in Japanese. This can be a real head scratcher if you try to find or change something.

Most Japanese users that distribute their items/models on booth.pm barely speak English. They will do their best to communicate with you, but this won't guarantee that it will solve your issue. If communication is a problem you might need to do quite a bit of research, use translation tools, read this guide, learn Japanese or ask someone who can speak and/or write Japanese to help you out or communicate on your behalf.

VRChat requirements

Of course VRChat has its own requirements you need to comply with.
You need a VRChat account (not a Steam/Oculus/Viveport account version!) and need to comply with the VRChat Content Gating system before you can upload an avatar.
It perhaps sounds logical, but it’s not the first time I helped someone and then realize that this person can’t even upload an avatar because the above requirements are not met yet.
Please look up https://help.vrchat.com/ if you have any questions about this.

With all this out of the way, let's start!