Auction Woes

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here I go anyway...

I would like to buy land, so yesterday I purchased a premium account. The home page seems to acknowledge that I have a payed account, but auctions do not. Every time I click "Place Bid", it yells at me that I don't have the ability to participate in auctions and tells me to buy premium... Does it usually take longer than 24 hours for auctions to acknowledge you, or am I just unlucky as usual?
I keep making sure my purchase went through, and as far as I can tell, it did.

Your current plan: Premium Annual
Your billing rate: USD 72.00 Annual
Your current status: Active
Next bill date: Monday, 04-26-2010

I don't know if it's normal, but I would submit a support ticket to ask about it, if I were you, so you don't miss the auctions you want to bid on:
http://secondlife.com/support/
Choose Submit a Ticket

arent new accounts limited in the usd they can move? its possible your first $10 spent on premium has put you at your trading limit.

I'm not entirely sure of your Land needs.....but auctions are not the only way to buy land. Land can be purchased in-world on the mainland or on private estates. You ONLY need a premium account if you plan on buying mainland and paying tier directly to LL. Private estate ownership does not require a premium account.

Also, from what I have ever seen.....auctions are for rather huge parcels of land/entire sims. Is this what you're looking to buy? Either way, you might be better served to shop around in-world and familiarize yourself with the types of land out there for sale. There's a LOT and it's worth visiting places to check it out.

As far as premium....I do believe it might take a bit of time for your account to get up to speed....but there again, you don't necessarily need premium to be a land owner. All it does it put a few extra bucks in LL' pockets.

she should most likely NOT be looking at auction land, but the sl website steers new people in that direction. ive seen tons of new people outbid me and fight for a 512, and they dont even have land on the sim.

i think the op should actually rent for a month or two before buying any land. in fact, if it were my call it wouldnt even be possible for avs to buy land in their first month.

Well, I'm trying to bid on linden auctions, not US$ ones, and I already have more than enough lindens for what I'm trying to bid on, so I don't see why that would be an issue...


@Milla and Nina: I'm looking at the 512m auctions held by Governor Linden, which is what I can afford. I've looked around quite a lot at different lands, and I've come to the conclusion that renting or buying from a user would be a waste of money for me. It looks like the name of the game with land is "Buy land cheap from SL and then resell/rent it totally overpriced", which is something I'm not looking to participate in from either side. At least not now.


And thank you, Puppet.

you're a premium acct, take advantage of the Live Chat option in support

How do I do that? The My Support page has a section for "live chat history", but I don't see something to start one. Do I just file a ticket?

ok, well since you have it all figured out already...

go to support page, not acct page... on the right side there's a option for Live Chat, click that, and it will say something like start concierge Live Chat, click that and start a live chat... even though it says 'concierge' a premium acct can use that

I just happened to come from the auction FAQ, and it says this.."residents that have Premium memberships and are at least 14 days old are eligible to participate in auctions. "
Perhaps it will take that long? (although I hope not)

Ah, thank you very much! Silly me -Closes ticket-
n_n I'll just do more site-seeing and prim fondling until 2 weeks have passed.

I also suggest you take a bit more of a look around in-world.. Turn on View->Land Owners and just fly around for a while - land that's for sale will be yellow. There's also some switch on the map that'll turn bits of the map to yellow if they're for sale.

With auctions, you'll frequently be bidding against other people who already live in that region and have a reason to want that specific parcel. That's not to say you can't get good deals at the auction page - I just think it's a lot faster the other way.

Forget renting and, IMO, Search/Land.. Just pick a spot on the map that's mainland & has lots of yellow and fly around for a bit..

Hehe, I've had property borders showing since I first joined, I never miss a bit of land for sale.
I don't mind putting up a fight for a good deal!

I like it

Oobby. I'm gonna fondle them prims in all the right ways.

Er.. I think 'putting up a fight' usually means you're probably not going to get a good deal. Also probably means you'll have a pissed off neighbor the moment you take the land.

I think if they already live there and wanted the 512m worth of land so badly, they could probably easily outbid me anyway

/me gives up.

there are 512s going for 1000L right now dur to mature becoming non adult on map turn on for sale and check those yellow lots and $ signs ... if you can wait a month they may drop cheaper .. it depends where and what type of land you want.


It used to be buy cheap and sell high but it a buyers market right now ...

I sold 2 512s for 20Lsqm a few months ago and bought them back two weeks ago for 2L a sqm how do you turn that price down on land you know is in a good sim ???

You have to be at least 14 days old to participate in the land auctions. When did you join SL? I made my first purchase on the mainland outside of the auctions because of that. Jackie

Nina, with all due respect, I'm glad you're not in charge! No offense intended! You are right, though...in world purchase makes a lot more sense if you have time! Hugs, Jackie.

Maniac,

Kudos on your desire to own land. Do, please, be careful and not rush into it, though. The whole topic of "land" is very complex and you need to do some talking and reading and looking around.

I think you have something of a misconception about renting. It's a very competitive market, and most landlords don't "overprice" their rentals. They have to meet their tier costs, plus recover their purchase costs, plus allow for a vacancy factor, plus make a little something for their time, effort, and financial investment. Prices vary, but on the mainland this works out to (very roughly) a rental cost of about L$2 to 2.5 per prim per week. Private estates may charge more, because their fees to LL are 1/3 higher.

I would also suggest that auctions are not the way to go. For one thing, by definition, you will always pay the *highest* price for that piece of land (if you win). Instead, try one of two methods...

1. Open your map. Make sure "show land for sale" is checked. Scroll and zoom around, and look for yellow patches that are in locations that interest you. Then teleport to them, right click the ground, and look at "About Land" to find out more about that parcel.

2. Use Search, and click Land For Sale. You can filter your search to limit it to mainland only, or private estates, or both. Don't look only at the cheapest parcels. Look at a range to see what's available, and how location and quality affects price.

For mainland, if you find a parcel you like, IM the owner. Make an offer below his asking price. You may find she is willing to negotiate.

Be aware that the only ways to "own" land are to either
a) buy mainland, and pay monthly tier directly to LL, or
b) buy an entire private island direct from LL ($1,000US, $295/mo.)
Everything else, including "buying" a parcel on a private island, is really renting from some third party. This can be very satisfactory, but it can also be a nightmare...it depends on your landlord, so do some research into their reputation before closing a deal.

It's important to realize that most of the land that's in the Auction queue got that way because somebody who owns land in the same sim *requested* that it be put to auction, so they could add that extra land to their own, so they are usually willing to bid it well over market value. There are vast amounts of Mainland currently abandoned, owned by the Governor and not going to auction (if it were, prices would collapse so badly that the floor bid would have to be much lower than it is now to get bids).

That said, I have on very rare occasion gotten a fair price on auctioned land. This absolutely never happens with any variety of water or waterfront; those invariably command a price well above the going rate for private sales of comparable Mainland. (Don't be fooled by some of the astronomical waterfront asking prices: they've probably been set to that price for years in hopes that somebody will make the mistake of buying. Right now there are many good waterfront properties for private sale at reasonable prices, but they're not easy to find. And of course there's certainly no assurance that the prices won't keep going down.)