Are You Really Surprised?

Land Store and new pricing, as seen though the eyes of Jack:

“If for some reason we have to push that back a week, then the new island prices will move back too.” ( Jack Linden 9 April 200

“So no new Land Store today I’m afraid. I can’t offer a final date for launch, but hopefully it’s not much more than a couple of weeks away.” ( Jack Linden, 16 April 200

So the geeks have a problem and Jack is fooled once again by them,lol

And your point is?

Let me guess. You're moaning about the launch being pushed back because it's not ready yet - yes?

Let me guess. If they launched it without it being fully tested, and something went wrong, you'd be moaning about it - yes?

Looks like the damage to Mainland values will be happening first then:

Jack sez: As stated previously, any whole mainland regions we put to auction from today onwards should have the new starting price of USD$750. We’re busily preparing the new continent, carving out Linden land and ensuring the waterways are protected. I’ll blog again when we are ready to begin offering that land at auction.

There is a reason for this to happen in this time frame..

If the land store was ready, mainlanders who have now decided to move up to an island because of the price reduction will have to wait.

This means they can't sell their mainland at a good price now unless they want to be without for a while (hard for business owners).

So, when they are ready, the price of mainland will have been forced downward by the new pricing/land dump.

In my experience, the only thing that really affects mainland prices is how much land they dump, or threaten to dump. Cheaper estates will take a few mainland landlords away, but it won't have as much impact as the addition of a new continent and a ton of sims dumped at a starting price of $750.

Giving the land owner less assets to play with? That's a good thing?

The starting price is a non-issue for me. So what, it never sells anywhere near the starting price. There is always someone willing to bid up the price well above it. Until land consistently sells at about 1k or less, the 750 USD floor is a non-issue.

Then why did they bother to change it?

I didn't say the starting price would be a factor anyway. It's the first sentence here that is the factor...

My guess !

To attract new users,people who get drawn in with "auction fever" .

Simillar to a gambling addiction.

To make more money.

With online auctions if you lower the starting price you often end up with a higher price being paid in the end. More people will bid, more people will feel they have an "investment" in the auction, more people who don't want to "lose", the higher the price goes.

Rule number one... people are stupid

Yeah the "never let anyone buy direct" Landbarons with dozens of unrentable sims, finally worked out they were bidding land against their own alts