SL Trade Descriptions Act

Yes... when I think of this, I think of There and the Try-o-Matics. It's kinda like the food samples they give out at the store. A free cookie can sell boxes of 'em!

A current idea to creators wanting to preview their goods this way is to set up kiosks in the Preview 1.7 grid (http://secondlife.com/preview) and then set them at a very low price. True to the name PREVIEW, you don't have to risk anything if you don't like an item, and if ya dig it, come back on Gridverse Prime and lap it up! This also has the additional lateral benefit of helping test for bugs—there are a number of vehicles, for example, that I've been noticing oddities with in 1.7. Then ya report them, help Lindens help make SL better, and we all have a WIN-WIN-WIN.

The few attempts I've encountered to implement any type of Better Business Bureau organization in SL have always foundered, either due to apathy or infighting or ... who knows?

Without government or a legal system, and with the barrier to becoming a merchant being so low, there's very little likeliehood of this changing, IMHO.

Not true. If you lack artistic skills, your choices are limited to either a) poor work that a non-skilled person can make, or b) what others provide.

What's wrong with relying on what others provide? That's an option. I don't make skins. I don't make hair. I don't make shoes. Yet I wear them all. Items I bought from talented SL creators. You have as many options as everyone else does. 1. Learn to create things for yourself. 2. Buy things you like from others. 3. Do without.

Maybe I'm reading you wrong or picking up the wrong vibe from your posts, but I keep getting the impression you think those who do create things owe you something, as if it's a right to look as good as they look without having to do anything for yourself.

That they don't provide avatars - and, then because of that, the stuff that others do provide doesn't work on the avatar that you do have.

As for "learn to create" - just knowing how isn't the whole of it. Most people will acknowledge that artists have to be born artists, for the most part.

Have you ever contacted someone and asked for help with your avatar? Or asked where someone got a skin or hair that they're wearing in a picture?

Are you honestly suggesting that if I sell clothing, I should include a copy of my own avatar, that I created and bought stuff for, in every box? (That's not even taking into account the fact that I don't have permission to resell those items I bought.)

The skins I use cost between $1,000 and $5,000 a pop. The hair can be anywhere from $100 to $500. Add in the shoes, the poses, the accesories... Do you really want to pay up to $10,000 Lindens for a shirt? Or should I foot the bill to supply everyone in SL with skins and hair and all the rest, because they don't want to create their own avatar? There are places in SL you can buy pre-made avatars. Why not go that route, instead of making some kind of demand on every other creator?

Yumi, contact Mary Edison in game, ask very nicely and she'll likely help you get your av looking just the way you want it. Once of the more tallented folk out there where the avatar shape itself is concerened.

That's the key, really. If you see something featured on a box other than the item being sold and you'd like to know where it's available, just send an IM to the creator of the box. Chances are if they know they'll be more than happy to point you in the right direction. If it's someone who hires models when they shoot their clothes they may not know who made the skin and hair of the model, but they can probably tell you who the model is so you can ask them.

On the topic of being unsatisfied with something you purchase because it doesn't meet your expectations from looking at the box, that's valuable feedback that the seller would probably like to know (as long as you approach them about it respectfully). If it were me I'd be happy to refund your purchase price.