UPDATE: Because of the interest in this blogpost, I have done an updated version of just how many freebies you can scoop up in as few stops as possible: Get full-body mesh avatars plus 823 high-quality clothing, shoes and accessories for only L$51!
Here is a list of what I consider to be the best freebie stores in Second Life. In these four locations, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find high-quality free clothing, jewelry, footwear, skins and eyes, hairstyles, and even AOs for your avatar. Yes, you can be a truly fashionable avatar without breaking open your piggy bank!
Note that in addition to these four freebie stores, I can also recommend you pay a visit to UniHispana Crea, which has a small but growing collection of freebies for both men and women (more details here).
The Free Dove
First up is the venerable freebie store The Free Dove, operated by Palomma Casanova for over a decade now. Everything here is free. This is definitely a place you want to visit at least once, and probably on a regular basis, as Palomma does solicit and receive new items from designers regularly, and she does weed and update the vendor panels fairly often. Most of the clothing available here is modern and mesh. Note that there is also a men’s freebie section, but there’s not a lot compared to the row after row after row of women’s fashion. You must join the Free Dove group in order to get the freebies here, but the group is free to join.
The Free Dove has what I consider to be the single best collection of free avatar hairstyles on the entire grid, located on a wall at the rear of the cavernous store:
Ajuda SL Brasil
The other freebie store that you should visit at least once is the excellent freebie store at the Ajuda SL Brasil. Don’t let the fact that everything is in Portuguese throw you off; freebies are freebies in any language! 😉 The freebie store is located just a short walk to your left as you arrive at the entry point for this sim. Like the Free Dove, the collection of freebies is updated frequently, so you might want to become a regular visitor to see what’s new. (Note that while everything here is free, not all of it is mesh; some of the clothing available here is the older system layers and flexiprim clothing for classic SL avatars.)
This is where you can pick up a FREE Valentina Altamura female mesh head and body avatar package, just click the large red sign and select “Deliver” from the pop-up menu which appears on-screen:
This freebie store also has vendors for the dollarbie versions of the eBody Classic and the new eBody Curvy mesh avatar bodies for female avatars (the only non-free items in the entire Ajuda SL Brasil store):
The men’s freebie section was recently moved from the first floor to the third floor:
You can take the elevator in the far corner of the store to get there, or just click the large blue Altamura sign at the spawn point to teleport to the men’s freebie section directly:
Free*Style Store
The Free*Style store by Cherelle Capra has quite a few nice freebies available, almost all for female avatars, but BE CAREFUL! She has mixed for-sale items (that you must pay for) among the freebie vendor panels. If you’re not paying attention, you could land up buying something that you had not intended to buy! It’s almost not worth the trouble clicking on all the vendor panels to find the freebies.
Among the freebies available at Free*Style are a basic capsule wardrobe of clothing and three sets of footwear by Baby Monkey, which you won’t find anywhere else. All four sets have a texture-change HUD that allows you to choose grey, blue, or green, and colour coordinate your outfit to your shoes or boots:
Sexy Shoppers Freebie Market
Finally we have a freebie store that I had never heard of before yesterday, when someone in the Second Life Friends group on Facebook gave me a tip. The Sexy Shoppers Freebie Market on the Grouse sim has a small but serviceable selection of freebies, mostly for female avatars. You have to join the Sexy Shoppers group for L$1 in order to get the freebies here.
And there you have it! Four stops, tons of quality freebies! What more could you ask for?
