It boggles the mind how much people have invested in SL: For example.....

I was searching for land and noticed that Praetorian Industries has at least eight new sims in Corsica, which is probably only a drop in the bucket as to what they own. I mean if they sell all the land and make a profit okay, but jeez if SL ever goes under boy is it going to hurt. And if they don't sell the land all at once, just think of the tier fees. Just these 8 sims alone has to be what, around $20,000US.? I also happen to think they are ridiculous as far as their asking prices, but you know somebody will pay.

This leads to my next question, What do you think the repercussions would be if SL ever really did fold? Does everyone here believe that this can go on forever?

Is it me or is this just crazy.

What's on the land? Or are they flipping the property?

Any investment/business has risk. Some are taking a gamble IMO putting a lot of money into SL when it's so unstable, yet it's the early bird who gets the worm. People who take risks frequently make money even if it's after one or many losses.

What would happen if SL went under? A lot of people would be out of work. A lot of people would lose money. Life would go on.

What type of business is Praetorian Industries?

The prices they ask for these sims is more then ridiculous. But as you said as long as people continue paying for them they will continue selling them and increasing the prices as we can see them doing it now.

If sl ever did go under and thats always a possibility cause nothing lasts forever, those who have gluttonize their way on land will definitely feel hurt.

It looks like they are flipping for really obscene amounts.

I know life will go on for most, but I have a feeling that alot of people are putting their nets worth into it and for some of them life will not go on which is really sad.

I know someone vested in 80 + sims..they can barely keep a positive cash flow. Basically if more than 5 sims arent insome type of rental state they're losing cash.((this is why they try to get all their contracting work for 'free")

~Lana

Greed is a bitch.

The funniest part about spending that kind of funds on a sim is nuts unless planned to be flipped. But with the recent decline in "ACTUAL" SL residents the day's of the Anshe Chung's are far over.

Not to mention the rapid development of OpenSim which is basically your own Second life if you have the server resources and the knowledge to deploy it. And if you can afford to spend 20k I would want to imagine that you could afford a few dual Xeons and join one of the massively growing private grids.

-D

Typically you need something like 65% occupancy rate to stay cash-positive with rental sims, though, who knows what they are charging. 65% is pretty typical however, considering reasonably competitive rates.

So 65% of 80 regions is 52 regions. That means if 52 were full, the other 28 could be starkly empty, and they would be at financial balance (though, ick, not a great situation to be in).

* * * * *

Statistics-wise I can only speak for myself:

Class 4 regions at pre Nov 06 rates: 9 x 1250
Class 5 regions at pre Nov 06 rates: 1 + 4 openspace = 2 x 1250
Class 5 regions at current rates: 11 + 8 openspace = 13 x 1650
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
total: 35200 USD

3 months tier reserve: 3 x 5980 = 17940 USD

35200 region costs + 17940 tier reserves = 53140 USD.

Incidentally, if I billed the time I spent building Caledon at my career-lowest consulting rate, that 53k USD figure would look like chickenfeed - approximately 20% of total.

it must be nice


I wish I had that kind of money... heh the heck with SL, I would get myself out of debt in RL first

yes I figured the "numbers" being passed to me had been handicapped to make the realtor not look so greedy. Very nice to see honest objective numbers being posted..

~Lana

$20k US is not really that much of an investment for those who have a pretty penny to play around with. it sounds like a lot when you think in terms of L$276 = $1US, but if you remove SL from the mix and jsut consider it a new "toy", it's not that much.

Sl will be here for awhile

you can bet that if they can put this amout of money on the table, they have more available as backup

in the end, what ever you do with money, RL or a game, is a gamble

from expirience, cover your own ass and don`t worry about the others, if they gamble BIG time, it some times can come back with a vengence

but then again, if you don`t gamble some times...

Personally only way I would spend that much on tier or land is if I made a lot of L$ and never planned to ever have it leave Second Life.
Yet there are people in real life who have no problem spending that type of money and have very large disposable income.
I guess if I had that much extra for dispose on. I would spend it on things I create fantasy environment that I can create anything. help friends,etc,
I would either invest it here for recreational purposes.
I must confess I thought and daydream long and hard on this about what I do if could spend no holds bar on virtual Real Estate and on virtual economy what I would do.
I must confess it would have very little to do with wise "business" practices but more to do
with fun, creating community and experimenting.

I don't care what you can make in return, there's no way I would ever invest big dollars in this place. There's more of a chance you won't make anything then there is you making a gain. In order for you to make any real money and I don't mean the chump change most shopowners make, I mean good money, you need to make sl your only means of income. I'm sure many have tried only to fail. Most likely only a handful probably make it.

I'm happy that my SL business pays all my tier (business and pleasure) with some extra for further product development and, yes, pocket money. I purposefully pay all my business tier week by week and constantly keep at least a month's tier in reserve. If I ran into enough of a slump, my store(s) are on a total of only 4096 sqm of land, so I could release the rest in a heartbeat.

I don't own any full sims, nor do I aspire to. I do, however, applaud those that take that plunge. Otherwise, I'd be hunting around mainland for my properties. The weekly rental option afforded by privately owned sims appeals to my business sense.

The group mentioned in the OP have had those Corsica sims from the beginning (July/August 2007).
It's not classic land flipping.
Since then the sims have just been sitting there empty behind ban lines.
They only started to put just the outside lots for sale in some of them in the last few weeks.
Yup. The asking prices are ambitious, but I haven't noticed any (great) movement there yet.

There are 8 sims that you notice because of the yellow around the edges. There are another 4 encompassing an island to the SW. There could be more, but who's counting? Not moi.

The 12 sims all have Linden water bounding them with ocean sims and/or 16m channels.
The 'land' is coastline, water and islands.
They bought them at auction for around the US$2500 mark.
Considering recent auction prices for less attractive sims, that's very cheap.


See landmachine.com
There is a name in the "Top 5 Land Holders (not for-sale)" list in the third column that comes second only to Governor Linden. It's considerably ahead of the next 3. There's probably more than that.

I love some of the Profiles in that group
Those guys have attitude!

I learned the techniques for getting out of debt in RL. A way to arrange your finances and a proven method for getting out of debt and enjoying life no matter your income level.

1st - DO NOT use credit counciling services or debt reduction services.
2nd - DO NOT lease an automobile.

There is a totaly workable plan and method if you truly want to live debt free.

"CX"

Greed is not to be pitied, surely?

If I spent anywhere near that amount of money on SL I wouldn't need a good divorce attorney but rather a good undertaker! My husband would KILL me!

While there are risk takers and those bent on making money in SL, I think there are a contingent of individuals who have a certain amount of expendable income that they don't mind sinking into SL for "entertainment" and are content to never get it back. The foolish are those who blindly invest tens of thousands of dollars without a clue how to really turn that around into a profit.

What if SL folded? There are those who already admitted that may happen even when putting money into this world (self included). Any money going into SL is considered gone. In this case, if SL folded, oh well. But there are those who have invested more than just money -- they've invested themselves personally, and for them, that will hurt.

But as always, there's something new lurking around the corner every day. Always an adventure. Nothing is forever, but seize the day and live for the moment!

$20,000 U.S or even $100,000 or more is really not a lot of money for many people you know. I think some of us are assuming those putting up this money are investing everything they've got but that is probably not the case. We also don't know anything at all about the buyers really. For all we know, the avatar doing the buying could be some kind of RL business entity conducting an experiment--in which case $20K is chump change.

I'm one of those with "expendable income". SL is my entertainment, and since I live in the country without much entertainment around, it works. I'm spending in SL what my hubby and I easily spent driving into town and going to dinner and a movie once a week. I lease my sim, so I didn't have to pay that big chunk down, and then pay the full tier on it.

I'm running a club which I opened, being fully aware that there is no money to be made and that it's just a money pit. I get some donations (10k in February), but considering I spend 86k just on tier, it's a drop in the bucket. I have a staff to pay, people to tip, party popper to pay. *shrug* No big deal, as long as I don't exceed my budget.

All I spend on SL is my annual Premium subscription and $15 tier, +VAT per month, bringing it to about $17.50. While it's nice to make an income or cover one's costs, I'm happy to spend that much for the pleasure I get of having a place where I built my home.

So my point is, while my RL can afford to let me have what I have, other RL's who are much richer can doubtless afford to sink much bigger sums into SL without necessarily expecting a return.

If one's bought several sims purely to build a dream world, there's a limit to what one person can do in the available time.

My RL has a 2-sim OpenSim standalone island (free download, not connected to the net). With standalone one can keep adding sims but they are lonely places so I can't think anyone would need more than 4 to play in!!

And please note this: Some successful people in the SL land business never invested an actual dollar in SL. They started out by creating and selling things, then bought land with their profits. There are others who did make some kind of initial investment, but who reached a point where their businesses were self-sustaining, and profitable enough that they could buy islands with income generated in-world. I belong to the latter group; my last 3 islands were all bought with money I generated in-game, so it wouldn't hurt as badly to lose everything as if I had bought everything out-of-pocket.