Price Increase for Islands...Poor Timing?

Anyone who has bought a sim in the past 30 days can cancel it. You lose 100 restocking fee but you come out 600 ahead. I called conceirge and asked. They said the blog wont tell you this, but its policy

You can measure a man's character by the choices he makes under pressure.
--Winston Churchill

Desmond, one reason you might be calm right now is because you have created something of great value. It's a labor of love and it shows.

If the day ever came when you wanted to sell Caledon, today's news would not have much of an implication because your unique sims will certainly fetch a premium. Here's hoping that day never comes.

Probably will be $100 for an island by Q2 09.

Thanks so much for finding this out and posting it here. Also very glad you were able to post it on the blog before comments got cut off.

Tell that to everyone in the USA who bought houses in the past 3 years. Tell that to all the amateur land-barons who got clobbered this time last year when LL started releasing vast swaths of new mainland. Buying land as an "investment" is stupid. Buying land in order to create a revenue generating business model is the name of the game. Resale value on the land is no where near as profitable as what you do WITH the land.

How much profit do you think Island owner are making?

All I can say is that just like in RL, Real Estate is not always a good investment!

But with tier fees as high as they are, it's a nice backup plan to try to time the market with your sim purchase and sale. Thankfully, that's what I lucked into doing.

That's a crash, people who hold onto their land will generally be ok if they're patient.



Again you're talking about a crash, those who held onto their land have seen mainland prices increase have they not?

The vast majority of land in SL is estate, the vast majority of land in SL has just been devalued.

Or putting it another way - Desmond really does have the "poseballs" lol


I have no idea but if your plan does not include the ability to recoup that cost over time then you are already in trouble without this announcement. Once that time has past and you have recouped your costs - all else is profit or potential profit.

Depends on the business model. Someone who is has a rental business is capped by market rates. Someone who uses the sim to house a successful content business could be making much, much more.

I don't know what to say! I just can't believe LL would devalue so much asset for so many people. It seems they just truly don't care about us. I mean there are thousands of estates paying monthly tier and according to their stats.. Hundreds of new islands being sold each month.
I understand that the monthly Tier is the real cake for LL. The residuals are the key. But DANG how the hell can they just pop up and devalue so much asset with out any notice? There is just no way this is a good business decision unless they plan to undermine the Private Estate business model completely. That would be the only explanation for the blatant slap to all region owners.
Devalue EVERYONE'S regions.. Then dump huge amounts of land into the market.. Linden Lab clearly wants to get control of ALL the land. Maybe the corporates have decided that along with gambling and all the rest of the "bad stuff" they need to clean up the "Land Barons" . And put forth more control on the Estate Lands by having us devalued.
The smaller Estates will no doubt see very hard times. As residents will be getting their own Regions rather then keep renting from Estate Owners. I know plenty of residents at Tanglewood who will now be very much in the market for their own. Residents who have been with me more then a year. All Estate Owners will see this effect. I beleive this is an intentional undermining of Estate Owners. Linden Labs has been considered Very Expensive for a long time to the average resident. Now they will be able to get the Tier monthly from the residents instead of the Estate Owners getting it.
Now I would like to say that I truly believe that everyone should be able to have their own regions and I like that it is more affordable with the price drop.
I just very much dislike the business practices of Linden Labs and their willy nilly way of changing major parts of Second Life on a spur of the moment!


Thanks for letting me vent!

Blake Dwi
Tanglewood Estates

Between the announcement that mainland auctions are starting at $750 and the fact that they will be dumping 10 regions a day into May, I think you can safely assume mainland has been devalued as well.

I like the word deflated better than devalued

"It's not dead, it's resting!"

The "value" of anything is what someone else is willing to pay for it. Grandfathered $195 sims will still hold their value because of the lower tier (until the tier changes...) Resale value of $195 tier sims is higher. Resale value of $295 tier sims is lower.

Even at $1000 the extra $100 a month in tier gets eaten quickly, so it really isn't a deal in the long run. The smarter move is still to buy a $195 tiered sim for $1400 or so.

On the OpenLife Grid a "region" (read, SIM) costs $90 plus a $15 set up fee and tier is $75 a month.

No, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of SL ... not yet anyway. But it will. I'd call it pretty direct competition.

Personally, I'd hold off buying any land right now.

In March the average price per meter of land sold in SL was reported on the economics statistics page of this website at 6.2591, which was down from the month of February when it was reported as 6.7190 per sq meter. This month so far its at 5.3426. I know those numbers really don't mean anything ... or do they? With LL, who's to say.

Six months, a year from now?... land is liable to be really really REALLY cheap. Paying for it now, with the price/vaule being cut at its knees by the people producing it, seems a little unwise. Especially with more changes promised.

With so much of this platforms economy revolving around land transactions, either thru Linden Lab or thru it's residents, what does a 40% cut in the initial value of those transactions mean? Will it really help people realize a profit from their land investment faster? Or will it just make a lot of people pay a lot more tier on their cheaply gotten land, which is recurring income for LL?

I just don't want to wind up feeling like the folks that paid for Woodstock tickets.

hahahaha nope he has shuffled off this mortal coil!

Pie..I bought 2 regions in Openife and can't get them delivered after 3 weeks. And there is no Support to contact either.

Can I get some of whatever the hell it is they be smoking at LL?

madness total madness...

I think beyond lowering tier costs this is the best thing they could have done. If they do the tier lowering too then they could have a runaway success on their hands - look how the Open Space announcment was greeted - people were buzzing about it - both on the forums and in-world.

They didn't devalue any assets. Your sims are what they are. They cost X dollars X time ago. You still have to pay $295 a month to maintain them. The true value of the sim is in the tier that you pay.

If I lease a car in 2007 with a deposit of $2000 and then pay $300/month lease, it's basically the same as leasing that exact same car in 2008 with a deposit of $1300 and $300/month lease. The dealer just lost a little up front cash, which is NOTHING compared to the monthly payment over the long haul.

Sure the up front cost is less but I still have to pay that lease, which is the real "value" of the car. A Mercedes lease costs more than a Yugo lease. Don't you think the dealer would rather lease you a Mercedes than a Yugo? Sure they would, because they'd make more money in the long run. If I lease a Mercedes, at the end of the day it's still a Mercedes, and at the end of the day a Yugo is still a Yugo. If you're paying Mercedes monthly lease, regardless of up front pricing, you'd better be driving a Mercedes car, and not a Yugo.

What would be interesting is if, God Forbid, LL decided to lower the tier on Class 4 private sims, or raise the tier on Class 5 sims.

Value is based on "Perception". That is true in all Value cases. Including vehicles.
Linden Labs just lowered the perceived value of regions.
And as any salesman will tell you: Perception is reality!

Perception differs from person to person too

Exactly !