Buying a sim

And it's asking for both an Estate name and a Region name. What's the difference? I thought they were the same.

An estate can span multiple regions.

Ah, ok...thanks, Cristalle.

If you only own one sim, they usually are the same. If you were buying a second or subsequent sim, you can use the same Estate name for each new sim, and they all share the same Estate-level settings for Estate Managers, ban lists, access, and the like.

Excellent to know...thanks much for that information!

If you plan to buy one, why not save a few hundred $ and buy it second hand. You would be helping someone else out in addition to saving money for yourself, and now it is safe to buy second hand sims due to LL's somewhat new transfer process..

I've been watching for weeks, only to have one transaction after another get pulled out from underneath me, or the "sale" not be a full sale. I purchased one sim and already have that now, if I decide to go for any others, I'll continue to look at the second hand ones

If you get the right one you'll save a fair bit this way, I was considering buying one the other day, not only was it cheaper than LL price with a full month's tier, but no VAT either!

Buying secondhand was absolutely the direction I wanted to take, but the last guy sold his sim to someone else, mere moments after I had talked to him. I had cash in hand, and had he told me there was another interested party, he'd have probably gotten a little more from me. *shrug*

Because it takes 2-3 weeks to process the transfer.

Good point. I wouldn't have saved as much as I was thinking when you take this into account,

I haven't transfered a sim lately but with the new automated land store, I'll bet it takes a fraction of that time to transfer a sim these days.... My guess is a week or less. And when you figure you can buy a second hand sim for $600ish (and dare i say less?) wait time still equates to savings, and again - you are helping a fellow SL'r get out of a jam in many instances...

Here's your guy HoneyBear

/114/49/267497/1.html

Oh I still do it when it makes sense to. But some people JUST HAVE TO HAVE THE SIM NOW OMG!!! You'd think the Land Store would have sped things up, but it hasn't. I reckon it's because so many people are buying islands now that the number of concierge residents is growing, but they're not staffing up to meet the demand. I bought a sim from a friend after the land store went live, and it took 2 weeks to process. (A note to anyone selling a sim: Expect the transfer to take 2 weeks and factor your tier date into the sale price. You don't wanna let go of your sim for a stupid low price and have to pay tier for it while the transfer ticket collects dust in the support queue.)

$600 is low, but not unheard of- but don't forget that $100 transfer fee. If you find someone selling sims for $600 or less including transfer fee, drop me an IM please.

Sadly, I heard about this after I had pushed the submit button

Yes and my smile wasn't meant the way it may have came off

If the time factor isn't a loss (in money), read: it's not so urgent that you can't wait 1 or 2 week, as other suggested buy it from a private; there's another big reason to do so for some people, they are those ones who lives in Europe, and it's about the VAT.
When you buy a new island from LL here, it will costs to you 1000 + 20% (i'm from Italy... VAT is 20% here), so it's 1200 USD.. while i may find a SIM for 800-900 USD.. it means i may save from 300 to 400 USD and having exact the same product.. i would save it even buying at full price (1000 usd).
And (and this is because of the LL sometime-strange policy), if i need a new SIM and i don't find any used one, i may ask any friend from USA to buy one for me for 1000 USD, then he will pay 100 usd for the transfer and the total amount would be 1100 vs 1200 usd... not worth the 100 usd saving, but still "crazy".