Expensive goods!

During the times that I have been shopping in SL I have noticed that the prices vary from reasonable to expensive. I have seen some nice work on items and have that item be a reasonable price and I have also seen poor work on an item and have that item be expensive. It all boils down to "buyer beware". If you don't think the price is reasonable, then don't buy the item. Unfortunately, if that item was exactly what you were looking for, you risk not finding anything else like it ingame.

As for the "no mod" issue, I think that it depends on the item for sale. There are many items that have a specific function, and the seller doesn't want anyone to alter it's function. Another reason could be for safety (e.g. I set an item no modify when it's made out of many prims and it could be unlinked by a newbie buyer and then taken apart; that newbie will then come to me for help if he/she messed it up).

I have many items that are made of many prims and I sell those "no mod". If anyone has a specific function, I will make one especially for that: for example a girl wanted me to sell her one of my items modifiable so she could attach it. I sold her one and watched as she tried to resize it. Unfortunately she couldn't resize it while it was linked, since linked objects that have one prim that can't be resized (in this case it was made smaller) will cause the whole object to be unresizable (don't know if that's a real word, but what the heck ), and this is a headache for many builders. Since I had made the item originally and it was a pain to put together, I volunteered to make her the special item. I even moved it on her to make sure that the size was correct. I told her that if she wanted she could return the original and I would give her the new one, but she wanted to buy both (one to wear as a pet and one for home deco).

As for clothes, I think they should be modifiable. A person might want a specific shirt with longer or shorter sleeves, or they might want the skirt poofier or tighter.

Ok, I've got to wiegh in on this one.

I have to agree with those saying that it is the unique power of the consumer to take thier business elsewhere if they dont agree with the pricing of an item, especially as it applies to something as simple to create as a rug.
Think too much is being charged for it? Walk away, straight to GIS or to someone else's selection of rugs.

Incidentally, this is coming from someone who has a decent selection of rather spendy rugs for sale. I'd rather see someone spend the time to make thier own rug than buy one of those any day of the week, and thats why i price them so steep.

Same applies for furniture (which i would rather pull my own teeth than build, and will happily pay a premium price for provided the quality is there) . dont think its worth the money? dont buy it. go somewhere else. there are enough ppl in world selling items, surely you can find something that lines up with both your budget and your standards of quality.
If not, challenge yourself to define through your own creation what your standard of quality is.

The seller's right is to price the item as they see fit. The consumer's right is to either purchase the item, or not.
This is the same in SL as it is in RL.
However, in SL you always have the option of attempting to make your own. Not always the case in RL. That is the course fo action I persoanlly prefer to encourage...the make-it-yourself route. its creatively rewarding and personally satifying to create for $20 what you could have bought for $80. If i lose sales on an item because of that fact, so be it- I have tacitly encouraged someone to expand creatively, which is worth a whole lot more to me than L$80.

additionally (one day im going to get it all in on the first post, i promise...) on the subject of no-mod. I despise no-mod. If i but a couch from a furniture store, I can recover it once I get it home, or if it no longer suits my decor a few years down the line. If I buy a candle, I can sit down and whittle a design into the wax.
No-mod makes no sense.

That said, if anyone has experienced no-mod issues with any of my items, pls let me know. they are set no-mod in error if you got them that way, and I would LOVE to fix that problem for you. Most of my clothing is specifically designed to be able to take color filters, look good with a range of sleeve hieghts ect...I want to make sure that the purchaser/reciever can take advantage of that capability.

Here's just a few facts about production costs for my items...
(or, more than you ever wanted to know about how I run my business)

In order to make clothing of the quality I wanted to make I needed better mapping templates than are available from LL. I've done a new upper and lower body template. Currently each one has had over 50 revisions/uploads. I've probably spent in the neighborhood of 30-40 hours on the templates.
I'll call this R&D costs.

Total R&D costs: 35 hours, $1000+
That doesn't include the time or costs of building two stores (around $2000 and 15-20 hours)

To produce a typical clothing item...

time:
1-2 hours to find source material
1-2 hours to modify the source material to fit the templates
30 minutes - 1 hour of uploading, tweaking, uploading again
30 minutes or so to take screenshots and create the box texture.
30 minutes or so to put the item up at my locations.

Total time per item averages around 4.5 hours
I have over 60 items for sale so if I divide the R&D time between them that's another 40 minutes or so

many of my items are two textures that must fit together seamlessly, like jackets, long dresses, and bodysuits. Time and costs for producing these is generally triple what it takes to do a single texture item.

one time costs:
10-20 revisions per texture. Average is around 15 ($150)
(some items have had as many as 40 revisions)
1 box screenshot ($10)
1 rez'd box for the item for each location I sell from ($40)
cost of R&D divided by 60 items = another $17

average one time costs per item = $217

Ongoing weeky costs:
taxes for store buildings (around $500 per week)
taxes for item boxes (around $200 per week)
land tax for stores (around $600 per week)
light tax for store signs (around $100 per week)

Total weekly costs = $1400

Total weekly costs divided by number of items for sale = $23 per item per week

My items are priced at $150-$500. Most of them are $200.
A few items become popluar and I sell dozens of them. Most items are purchased just a few times. Some items have never sold.

I currently cover a $6500 weekly deficit

As you can see a whole lot more goes into the production and sale of a quality item than a texture upload.

why did this turn into a justify-your-high-prices debate? first of all if you're justified you shouldn't bother explaining it. someone complains that things are too expensive? the only solution to their problem it to stop buying expensive things. the rest of the people aren't going to lower prices just to make them happy.

the reason people charge high prices is because they have high expenses. the SL world would be a better place if we all got $10,000 and there were no taxes. more people would make their own things. more people would give things away. it would encourage grouping. and people would quit whining about high prices.

Human nature. There's a reason one-liners like "There ain't no free lunch," exist.

My intent isn't to justify. If I didn't think I already was my prices wouldn't be what they are to begin with. I'm responding to misconceptions about the cost of doing business in response to a point of view I happen to disagree with ;P

Taylor! Great shop, must have spent 300 or more there in about 2 min

I just wanted to post in case people wonder why there stuff doesn't sell when they think it should. Maybe try a price change! A bit of consumer feedback never hurt anyone

I totally accept people should set the price they feel is right.. also, clothes costing i can understand after trying to make them myself. Ouch!

/me off to furnish

Pirate

TANSTAAFL = There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

If someone puts something out for sale, they have to make sure that weekly revenue from that item is at least the weekly taxes on the same item and surrounding store.

I'm aiming just to break even. I saw several aircraft for sale for $1000. I sell my Hover Pods for L$500 or 600. Jets are $300. Some people want to make back all their cash with one sale, which is ridiculous. You should sell it for what customers are willing to pay, not what you can gouge.

There is a couple ways to approach successful selling. One is high prices, knowing you will have lower volume and a more specific clientele. The other is lower prices and higher volume sales.

My clothing items have long sold at reasonable prices (many items are not currently out until I check them all after the 1.1 load.. rl has been busy.. sorry abt that).

I don't make a mint and am running at a minor deficit however much of that is my own doing since I pulled items for quality checks.

When I am approached regarding volume sales I try to work with the customer. I don't compromize much since my prices are already low but I have made concessions for additional volume.

Okay, as one of SL's major consumers, I have to way in on this!

First, I've found that one can find almost anything in a general category (such as rugs or couches or hoverboards) for prices ranging from free to outta this world. Price often has very little to do with quality, as well. However, price does often have something to do with rarity!

I will, more often than not, select a higher-priced item of similar quality if it is an "identity" piece - something that I am using to establish my personal identity in SL. This may mean clothing, or home decor, or other outward displays of who I am. Why? Because I'm less likely to discover that every other person in SL owns and displays a copy of the same thing!

I'm also more likely to commission unique work from a person whose work I admire than to buy "off the rack". Again, it's a matter of rarity. I'd rather be the only person in Neph's great Lilly Munster costume than one of the many dressed as Sponge Bob. (No offense meant!)

Why? Because I can. Because it's damn hard to really go broke in SL if you're trying at all not to do so. And because I remain completely blown away by the creative work that people do here, and want to support it by buying it!

Pirate, your castle is just breathtaking! I imagine that if you advertised, you could get designers who would DONATE things like rugs and furnishings just to be part of such a great project. Then people like me would see their work, and hire them to build original pieces for us. I know I was so impressed I donated L500 to someone who was working on the project as I passed by!

Bhodi

It would be great if we could publish another Consumer Reports 'zine, since the last one has ceased to be. I try to be fair when it comes to prices, but if any of you can help me make sure that they aren't overpriced, I would appreciate it. I wouldn't want to do to others what I don't like being done to me.

I would appreciate if peeps would stop by my shop in Perry (behind my house), and tell me what they think of my prices. It would help greatly to have feedback.

I make my SL living constructing buildings. It's what I love to do.

When I'm not building for other people, I make "prefab" housing. Something a bit more detailed and original than the linden's stuff. I basically do it to pass the time, but when I'm finished, I box it up and sell it for cheap at Beryl's shop in Tan.

For instance, a townhouse prefab that costs a whopping $1560 to rez is for sale for 150 dollars

I figure if I'm paying like, 3 dollars in taxes for the box, why should I be charging eleventy billion dollars for the house?

SL is all about capitalism... if you don't like it, ma
ke a Soviet Union Sim

LF

Another issue here (IMHO) is that it's incredibly difficult to tell (especially if you're a new player) what a reasonable price for an object is! Clearly there's disagreement over what's reasonable even among established players.

Almost every newbie starts the game with a look at the $$ leader board and at their own seemingly paltry account. Add to that the fact that most newbies spend their initial $3500 quite quickly (often on other newbies strangely priced items and various ripoffs that don't deliver) and money takes on a much bigger dimension than it does for many established residents.

I know it took me about a month to get used to the fact that I didn't need to go nuts trying to make money in this game -- it's so different from other games that it takes a while to understand.

I'm sure if I'd put anything on sale in that month, it would have been strangely priced, probably overpriced.

In the time I've been here I've eventually come to these personal conclusions (which apply specifically to me and others may violently disagree with):

1. Establishing a viable store selling something in SL is NOT easy and not something I'm willing to put the required amount of work into.

2. Most things being sold I personally either a) don't really need or b) could make myself, and probably enjoy more than using a pre-made version.

3. However, if I see any $100-200 object for sale that I find exceptionally clever, pretty, or nifty in some way, I'll gladly buy it to reward the creator for making something that I think is slick, even if I never use it again.

4. Past the $200 price point I don't think I've ever bought anything in SL.

Clothing is about the only thing I don't have the patience to make myself, and I'm more willing to spend money on it than most stuff.

I agree about the relative value of money when you are new and after you have been here a while. Personally, I didn't spend more than $150 my first week I was so afraid of not getting enough value for my payment.

Of course the most common question I've gotten from new users is "How do I make money?" After the usual "attend events, host events, sell things" answer I always follow up by expressing my opinion that it is a lot more pleasant if you think of money as a building quota, rather than as cash. When you get down to it, that's exactly what it is.

Eh, what the hell, here's my two cents' worth on this subject:

I like to make clothes. People tell me they like my clothes. I decided to sell my clothes. I got Lordfly to build me a gorgeous place in Tan to sell things. People come and visit me and I get to socialize (yay!). I get to offer space to friends who want to sell their stuff (like Cubey Terra with his nifty vehicles).

My clothes are priced quite a bit lower than a lot of others that are selling in-game. In fact, if you compliment me on an outfit I'll often just give you a copy. I'm not really in this for the money, though it is nice to make money to cover upload fees and have a little extra left over.

So let's review: 1. I get to share my clothes with other people, which makes me happy. 2. I get to socialize, which makes me happy. 3. I have an excuse to have a great build which people come and visit, which makes me happy, and 4. I get to help out friends who want to sell stuff, which makes me happy. Ultimately, making piles of money is not what makes me happy about selling stuff in SL.

I have toyed with the idea of putting all my clothes out for free for anybody to take copies of. However, I firmly believe that people associate something free with being of lesser value, hence I slap a pricetag on my stuff. As Thomas Paine said in his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, "That which we attain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly." This principle can apply to those selling SL clothes and other things at higher prices, people associate more value with something that costs more, though it may or may not actually be worth more (and worth is so subjective). I just can't bring myself to charge what I see as exorbitant prices.

This is an excellent example of why there is so much disagreement as to a "reasonable" price for goods -- since some people are happy to give things away free or very cheap while others regard sales as a big deal important to their SL "livelihood" you end up with a wiiiide spectrum of prices.

This doesn't happen in real life because of reasons people have gone over above -- the ability for the buyer to copy the source object being key.

I had something else but it escapes me... at any rate, if Salvation Army was competing for business with Macy's you might end up with a similar situation, although that's a weird metaphor.

If you see something you think you want, but the person selling it you feel is charging far too much... Well... try an do them one better.

I've bought the odd $300 shirt/something from chip that I knew i would just LOVE to wear... Yet my FAVORITE clothing item (a moddable lindenworld denim jacket i've ripped up an made into an 80's denim vest) was handed to me FREE the day it opened.

If I wanted a rug and someone was charging more than i thought was fair for their investment of time, forget shopping around, i would probably just crack open ps/psp and see if i could do better. Its a fun way to kill some time and if you DO do better why not sell your better rug for how much YOU feel its worth?

Basically, let pepole charge a fortune, and let it be known that you're not one of them. I do think we need more of a yellowpage kinda system.. like not jus name search but you could pick like 'home furnishings' and you could get descriptions and tel points in game