Yard Sale Ethics

I've been holding a yard sale and clearing out my inventory. Since I do not remember "exactly" what I paid for pretty much anything over the 2.5 yrs of collecting clothing, I am simply assigning prices based on what sounds logical for the quality of the item at resell/yardsale type pricing. So for the most part, the majority of short dresses/skirt outfits I'm pricing in the 40L range, give or take a bit.

Today, a creator IMs me and says "did you know your charging 40L for items i sell for 10L in my store? are you buying from me and hiking up porices?"

Well, as it turns out - the item has been moved to her outlet store and now only sells for 10L, but once upon a time it was in her regular store at regular prices. Since I have never actually been to this particular outlet store (something I will soon correct), for this particular dress I know that I paid much much more than 10L.

Even if she does NOW sell it for 10L, is there anything wrong with me pricing mine higher? Is it any different than if I bought something in a RL store and then sold it at a yard sale for whatever I could get for it, when maybe the store in question now has it on a clearance rack for much less?

Additionally, she commented that this particular dress, which has 3 colors, is sold as a set of all 3 in the box. I highly doubt it was always that way because I actually had 2 copies of one of the colors and 3 copies of another (yeah I used to be pretty bad at buying the same item a few times). Even if I had bought all 3 colors in one box, I still think there is nothing wrong with me selling each of the 3 as separate items if I have all the pieces to support that. Opinions on that part?

Geez, it is amazing how a simply yard sale can get complicated.

Having been to your yardsale I can categorically state it is well worth the trip!

Aside from that, in a polite fashion, I would have said these things you mention above to the woman in question had I felt particularly chatty or kind - depending on her voicing of her concerns. I admit she had concerns but- really, even if you had been buying and reselling, so? She had the things out for sale -

Now- re your questions - It's your yard sale, and yours to do with as you please.

Thanks, Amara. That was pretty much my take on it. No different than a RL yard sale - I am not going to go to every store and check prices again before pricing things for my sale.


ETA - Now that I think about it, as much as I much prefer Transfer stuff so I can give it away or sell it when I am done, creators that do sell Transfer probably ought to change them to No Transfer when the put them in an outlet or a Lucky Chair or anything else like that.

Pricing it at 40L before you knew it was now available for 10L in the outlet store would have been ok, but now that you know it sells for 10L "new", you should at the very least drop the price to 10L. Everything depreciates over time, apparently that item depreciated more than you'd thought. Personally, I wouldn't feel right pricing it above what it's sold by the creator since an unknowing shopper would probably feel 'ripped off' if they found out that it's available 'new' at 4x less elsewhere. In the end, we're talking about $30L (10 cents or so), so what's the difference in setting it for 10L. Also, that's one hawking creator to sniff out someone selling their stuff at a yard sale. Also, it's none of his or her business even if you were buying stuff at 10L and reselling it at a higher price. It's done all the time in RL, so why not SL. If you were doing that (which obviously you aren't), then perhaps the creator is underselling their item... their fault, not yours (or someone who would be reselling at a higher rate).

I do understand what you mean I am clearing out my inventory of over 3 yrs and trying to price things is hard so what i did was think... am I selling to make money or get rid of it. If its the first then do your research of other yard sales if its the latter make it cheap

A little manners go a long way...whether she thought you were scamming or not I hope she was polite about it. Although I am not sure if there is a polite way to ask someone if they are scamming. The tone as reported sounds a bit confrontational. As if she assumed you were doing something to purposely hike up prices.

I did from time to time wonder how content creators feel about yard sales. They might have mixed feelings about them, but I wonder how they really feel. It's obviously a practical concern to be able to pass on things no longer used but the "not wanted any more" aspect and the secondary market profit aspect might gall them...I wondered because I had thought about having a yard sale sometime myself, just hadn't gotten around to it.

If you have a small private yard sale and do not have a mall full of multiple examples of the same thing then it would seem to me you are not a reseller and the person could've let it slide. Maybe they could've sent a brief note with a landmark inviting you to stop in or something, or just a brief note saying simply, "dress A is now only 10L in my shop, perhaps it could be the same or less in your sale." And then they'd need to let it go since there really isn't any hold over their items once they have been sold, as things stand in SL today.

I don't see anything wrong in yard sales. What they want to guard against is people trying to jack up prices on a massive scale but then who'd shop at those places for very long when the real deal sells it for less anyway?

Personally what I hate seeing are freebies being sold for profit...to me that's just wrong and that usually IS done on a large scale. I don't think content creators have much to fear from yard sales, but I'm no expert on either side of it so I hope some of them chime in too. (I think the more product is out there the more potential customers are aware of it so that's usually a good thing.)

She started out sounding a bit harsh, but was nicer towards the end. She said she does not have anything against resell in general, as she did that herself in the beginning, and that is part of why all her stuff is Transfer. I think she was more concerned with me maybe going to her outlet and buying tons of items at 10L and reselling them for higher profit, though if that truly bothered a creator, I would think they would change the items to No Transfer at the time they move old stuff to an outlet store for really cheap.

As for whether someone now can get it for 10L "new", I guess I am not sure how that really matters. What if I paid 100L for something and want to sell it for 40L and it just so happens that the creator of said something has a massive "everything is 25L" sale for a day or a week or whatever. Would that imply that mine is now overpriced because someone could buy it from me and then see it in her store for much less? I guess I see nothing wrong if, in RL, I buy something at Walmart for $50 and want to try to sell it at a yard sale for $30 to try and recoup much of my cost on it, even if I know that it is now on Walmart's clearance rack for $15.

Not to mention that "new" vs "worn" have entirely different meanings in SL than in RL. The only possibility of any real difference was if I had to modify the prim skirt and the chances of that are pretty slim as I seem to almost never have to modify a prim skirt for fitting - at least not from any of the stores that I have bought multiple items from.

On this particular dress I will reprice it, but I will also continue thinking on the whole think, cuz I really am not sure yet about what seems right to me. Thanks for the comments and I definitely am interested in any and all viewpoints.

I tend to agree that you have as much 'right' to recoup what you invested as someone else does to put their in-store items on sale...Since it's clear you are not out to scam anyone, I'm glad they softened toward the end of the conversation.

Maybe this is one of those things that has to be thought about on a case by case basis and everyone to try and do the sensible thing. It was nice of you to lower the price on it, it's probably what I'd have done although I'm not sure that 15 L difference or whatever would've hurt her sales in fact the opposite...having a HIGHER price isn't really hurting the other person's business I think.

new is near meaningless in SL... I say price whatever you feel is right regardless of what it does or doesn't go for right now... or before for that matter.

Anyone who has to unload their items for 10L, should be tickled to death that someone is getting 40L for them.

I'm thinking Lil should offer marketing services to the original creator....

That's what I was thinking.

really it's none of her business..she is a supplier..she shouldn't care if you bought every item in her store and sold it for what you want..

you have in a sense become the middle man/woman..
it's like dealing with a wholesaler..you buy something and put it up for sale and someone else comes along and buys it..if they want the wholesale price they can go to the outlet store..

it would be like her complaining that she sells it for 10L and you decided to get rid of it for free..now you would be undercutting her lol
your business on that item ended with her when you clicked buy and the transaction was made..

They pretty much always do, don't they? I haven't seen transferrable freebies in years.

I allow transfer on all freebies. (not copy, of course)

They are welcome to come in any day for a freebie, then take it to their yard sale and sell for whatever price they want. I go to tons of yard sales, and always find a new creator there, if not several. It's like a market showroom of a hodge podge of designers.

It's like having your stuff on display at another location for FREE, without having to pay a mall space rental. You're not going to make a sale from the yard sale - but I bet you get a visitor to your store, from it....or the new buyer takes it home, sets it out or wears it, and you get a visitor to the store that way.

Morally, as has already been pointed out--You now own the item and what you do with it at this point is your business.

That being said, this seems to be a designer you admire. I've seen many stories where shop owners frequently get pissy and ban people for imagined, or minor infractions. Is it worth potentially losing access to their shops?

Many merchants are not thrilled about yardsale operations because they frequently are the outlet for exploit thiefs who steal items from the original creators. Granted, many of these outlets are unwitting accomplices (buying items to sell in their operations they think are legit from others), but some are clearly not innocent. Some merchants go so far as to outright evict and ban customers they see sporting a yardsale group tag. So, you can see why a lot of merchants may be a bit grumpy dealing with those who have yard sales. Some see them as a great way to save money on merchandise. Others see them as basically illegal money laundering operations.

Lots of good points made in this thread.

I'd like to add that you, Lil, don't just hand over a dress for 40L and walk away. You've spent time sorting your inventory (which by all accounts is large enough to require its own server), putting together the boxes, creating textures for posters and signage, paying for the space the sale sits on, and advertising it.
Creator or not, you are merchandising the stuff and are incurring merchandising costs.

I do agree that a buyer may feel 'ripped off' if they find your pieces elsewhere for less, but them's the breaks. You can't possibly know what the going price for all of this is.

That said, I would drop the price of this particular item, though, since now you know its price. Seems only fair, especially since the seller contacted you. It's a tiny price to pay for good will between you and her and a personal peace of mind.

Wow - never thought of it from that angle. I can definitely see how it could work as free advertising and help drive more traffic to you.

I don't shop at this particular too much anymore, but mostly just cuz she went into a groove of making stuff I really didn't care for much - and then I basically forgot about the store until inventory cleanout time.

I will hand it to her on one thing -- she said "xxxxx gown retails for 500L so you can probably get quite a bit more than you are asking for it if you want to try marking it up".

I will mark this one dress down, but it is nice to have a variety of thoughts and opinions on this in case any other designers contact me.

Many of the lucky chair & MM board items from Dare Designs are transfer, and quite good.

Me wonders how she knew what you were selling at the yard sale in the first place.

My guess is a customer recognized it and told her.

Yes - this is what she told me.

LittleMe - you might have a creator contact you, if you are doing this as well:

On your land description, you have written an ad up for the yard sale, and you've stated that you have quality items from Famous Freddy, Ego-Tripping Ed, and Prima Donna. And you've got your land set to show up in search. Or same thing, and you've run a Classified Ad on it - even if it's an inexpensive ad.

When someone does a Places search, and types in Famous Freddy, to get to Famous Freddy's store....and say that there are no other names even similar to the Famous Freddy name....a list of locations will pop up, and there is your Yard Sale right there on that list... tempting someone to go to your place first, to get a Famous Freddy product, probably discounted, rather than going to the Famous Freddy store. Same thing with All search and Classified search.

Now, of course, you have done this innocently, and you were only trying to list a sampling of what they can expect to find at your yard sale....and Famous Freddy's stuff is in demand, so yeah you would mention that in your ad.

There are some Famous Freddy's who go ballistic over this.