Are Prices of Content falling too?

As a consumer, I find the search engine to be a huge roadblock to finding the things I want to buy. There is so much crap to wade through it is almost impossible to find the quality merchandise.

I think there is a certain amount of similarity with what I remember of RL businesses.
People won't want to keep paying rent, advertising fees or tier for businesses that lose them money. In RL lots of businesses who make good products don't get anywhere because nobody knows about them or because there are too many others in the same field.

One big difference between RL and SL,though, is that in SL you can have a business with a wealthy RL backer who pays for you to have an island where you can make stuff all day to give away free. That don't happen in RL, I don't think!

When it's working!

?? Where do you get that idea? The exchange rate for selling Lindens has been study at 265/$ for months.

I'd be happy to do that if it were something that I could hang in my living room!

I don't think he was talking about value relative to the dollar, but rather value in terms of how much stuff in SL costs. Of course, by that metric he actually got it backwards; if stuff is dropping in price, that means the currency is becoming MORE valuable.

I've had a lot of repeat customers also. I don't spend much on advertising - because I don't sell much, and I just do it for fun - I end up giving a lot of things away and making furniture/houses for friends. When I had a larger store, I had a completely furnished home for sale - one girl had to have been camping for money - every two days or so she come back and buy another piece of the set ... it was really cute. =)

I make "country" type items ... I tend to gravitate towards things I like - and ... *ahem* are sorta girly. I only set out a few pieces at a time - I have a HUGE inventory - but low prim land, lol.

Shopping in world is maddening at times so I usually only shop through SLX. Even though I may miss out on finding great products had I been searching in world, it is a big time saver.

Besides SL's search being terrible, there is alot of competition out there. Just when I feel I am ready to sell a product, I suddenly see that someone else has a similar product that is either better than what I made or selling for far less than I would want to sell it for so I end up keeping it for myself.

I appreciate all of your comments. There is no single thread of thought--but it is all interesting.

I believe what we are seeing is freebie junk--and let's face it, stolen stuff, being packaged
and then sold at lower and lower prices because price is the only thing these guys can compete with. They are too lazy to create anything on their own.

Without a very healthy population of Content Providers--all that will be available is the same old stuff everywhere--and it will be boring as hell. THAT possiblity is real and growing. It could be the biggest nail in the coffen because it takes a long time to bring talented people back--maybe too long.

I love SL--but it's sure different than it was. Sighs

Why do RL automobile dealers all cluster within a few kilometers of each other? I don't know the answer, but think that it might have something to do with the demand for content falling.

Someone mentioned above that falling prices means a stronger currency. That's only one possibility, another is that demand has dropped driving the equilibrium prices lower. There are plenty of hypotheses about reduced demand in this thread but I'll add one more. If the playerbase growth has slowed drastically, most players have already purchased the things they will purchase because there are no consumables and (barring asset server errors) the goods are infinitely durable.

My sales have steadily risen since I got into "serious business" in June. One thing I have noticed is a shift in my sales away from SLEX and almost entirely in-world. Not sure if that reflects a general trend.




Nomatter what the scumbag BYOB resellers and thieves try to push, there's something they will always lack- the cutting edge. There's always room for innovation, creation of entirely new markets, or reinventing old ones. I strongly believe that if you make something awesome enough, you'll have no problems finding customers. It's that damned "innovation" thing that is hard to find

Yes to shopping being a nightmare........ I reckon the 'search' button might as well vanish. I find myself checking out the new products forums more and more often. Or I search for stuff on SLX and depending on the item might then check out the in-world store to take a closer look.

As to your second point...... I totally sympathise. I've so far only made stuff for the fun of doing it. Put some stuff out for charity events run by friends, which I was pleased to see raised a lot of money. Give lots of stuff to friends. But every time I think I'm ready to open that shop I get a disheartened by the same things you mention. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and go for it eh.

The more people own something, the less valuable it becomes though. I won't shop in stores I know will keep their inventory around for years to come (or will dump their inventory for a few pennies in a massive sale 2 months later) .

For well-known designers, limited editions (in time or amount) sell like hotcakes and they'll earn a total of US$600+ per design in a matter of hours. Hardly underpriced for the work involved and what you actually get.

I totally agree with Malachi here. Premium accounts are not increasing--most of the
resident increase has been free accounts and alts.

The preimum people have already bought the stuff they want--and bought it a long time ago on the belief that SL would be ongoing and prosperous.

So what's left? Free accounts expecting stuff for free or nearly so--and business people desperate to make tier payments so they cut prices in the hope they can stay alive.

That is not the sound a vibrant Economy makes.

It can't be that surprising that demand in SL marches alongside demand in RL, can it? We are in the middle of the biggest economic hiccup in 20 years. People are being squeezed on their disposable income as never before. Only the rich, or an idiot, would carry on splurging away while the lending institutions think up a method of hiding a few trillion in unrecoverable loans.

Sit it out until Easter and things will turn around.

I bought two gowns in the last couple of weeks. they were both in the region of 900 linden. The first was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than the picture on the vendor and i was totally thrilled with it.. its the loveliest thing i think i have in my wardrobe and looks like holding that position for a long time. The other was just... ok.. and probably lower in quality than i expected for the price.

Guess which shop i will be returning to?

imogen

These mall owners are the ones making out on rent per week, I suspect that the JIAB people will pack it up in time seeing that no one is out rushing to buy their
junk-in-a-box. They have to camp to make the $100 a week rent.
Possibly big empty malls for a while then them selling off their land for $500,000 which will set forever.
I don't recall ever seeing this junk being sold before it threw up all over the place.

Do you mean inventory or actual Wardrobe?

or you can buy a wardrobe now and actually hang your inventory in it.?

I meant inventory.. of wardrobe... of clothes...

imogen

Hello again Larrie! LOL
I just looked up wardrobe in a low-spec dictionary expecting to see it come up as collective noun as well and noun but it simply says 'cupboard or small room for storing clothes; wearing apparel in general' .... like a 'box of tricks' not *really* being a box.

At least, that's what I think Imogen meant

Prices on items falling in sl?

You can't be serious. Not with so many of these greedy people who own shops it's not.

This is sl, not rl so comparing prices doesn't matter. Whether 1000L is less then $5 US isn't revelant. A 1000L for a gown is in the expensive range as far as sl goes.

So you spent an hr or more making an item. That's up to the person doing it. No one is forcing them and to say that's the reason for selling it for 1000L or any other high price is not justifiable.

There are so many badly made items such like in clothing and still you're hit with these high price tags which are much more then they should be. The fact it may be low in rl money has nothing to do with this.

In sl there's a proper price range for everything. Going over that is for the most part just greed.

Maybe it's just that now I am working in SL I am paying more attention to it, but I am finding the demand for quality well-made goods increasing. With demand increasing, we don't need to drop prices.

I think the bar for what is considered "quality" has risen, though, as more sophisticated products get rolled out by designers who are constantly improving.

We have just opened a new asian-themed market, the Hosoi Ichiba, and have been very pleasantly surprised at the reactions we have been getting to it, and the new customers and business.

Personally I think it's great that newbies can come in-world and get a basic level of decent looking stuff for free, or very little (I abhor the idea of stealing though). but at some stage you want to go that extra step - whether it's to furnish your domicile, or just to look that little bit better than anyone else.

Maybe at the start of SL there was a free buck to be had - "build it and they will come" and all that. But nowadays the market has moved on from that to something much more sophisticated.

Just a minor point on quality:
I've bought clothes that look great in the picture and front and back they do look very good ... but the seams at the sides make them look like two different garments stitched together.
Not expensive I hasten to add, but as Malachi said here or elsewhere, you have to put a lot of trust in the picture.
The 'b' side is there really is some lovely content going free. Fiancee modelled a gown the other night where the seam was almost invisible. It *can* be done!!!
It can be very 'hit and miss'. We need a Which? consumers magazine in SL!!!

The problem with the seams too, is that they can become distorted based on av size.

Unfortunately, the scaling of creation isn't the greatest model in the world.

Some things that look FAB on me, look absolutely awful on a huge boobed, big butt model because of stretching going so far across the av. When I do shop, I tend to look for pics that the model is in close range to my av size.