Xmas shopping blues

Sellers dont make it very easy to buy goodies for friends and relatives do they...?

Most of the stuff I want to get is no transfer which means instead of being able to give pressies on xmas I have to be in the shop to try and locate a gift terminal assuming there is one, get the seller to send the present ( very likely on xmas day) or hope the item is on xstreet - and still mess about on xmas day ...

come on sellers a little more thought next xmas please !!!

SL itself makes it very difficult to send gifts. I wouldn't blame the sellers.

A few shops has vendors where you pay and then get up a blue dialogue box where you choose if you want a no copy/transfer or a copy/no transfer option. I saw Miriel had it, and Illusions has it still. Then the one who buys it can gift it in a nice box, with "must not open before Xmas" and all.

I always wonder why I don't see more stores with such vendors. Are they difficult to set up, is it really so much more work packing 2 different versions of the things you sell, or don't sellers know they have this option?

You are correct, Maelstrom!

Later today, I'm going to set out some boxed packages of 6 gifts plus 6 gift packages - all transfer of course. Bulk buy price on some sweet gifts and the wrapping is done for you! Hopefully, some more will get your message. Thanks for the info.

I've been going through this hell myself.... 2 weeks now trying to do christmas shopping, but anything worthwhile to buy, that was on 'wishlists' was no transfer when I went to get it. I'm not buying gift cards, that's just way to impersonal, and i'm not going to sit on x-street christmas morning to send it that's asking them, and myself to avoid real families to do it. Merchants are loosing sales by not offering some sort of transferable item or only gift cards, but then whine that this years sales are lower then last years and SL must do something...

even if it's not the full stock... hell maybe one colour out of the 12 they offer etc might help.

Thanks very much Mickey and happy Xmas....


I think the easiest would be the way one very helpful entrepreneur suggested to me earlier today... for salespeople to offer items for xmas gifts as 'one off' transferable goods..... that way I can see the look of delight on my gf's face as she has her goodies there and then.

( I really hope she likes the giant space battle cruiser I'm getting her )


wicked sniggers !!!!

The permissions system in SL makes it tricky to gift by default.

My own products, by nature, HAVE to be copy perm, because of the way they operate, and because they're likely to get lost on sim borders, lag, or anything else. So I'm certainly not going to also sell them with the transfer permission...

My only alternative would be to put a scripted vendor in that has a delivery option... But the location where I have my biggest store, they get very... restrictive... about the scripts that are allowed on the sim, since they're already using almost all the resources on other scripts.

My suggestion, as a merchant myself? Just contact the seller, tell 'em what you're trying to do. Most will do their best to be helpful and find some kind of solution.

Last year I went on a mission to obtain a vendor with a gift option - that allowed the purchaser to choose delivery date. The few scripters that I discussed it with suggested that the idea was fraught with peril from bad merchants (and we know there are a few of those out there) who might collect up payments in the weeks prior to Xmas and then disappear on Xmas day before delivery of goods would start.

So, I ended going with a Hippovend system that has a gift option. Plus items up on XStreet, which has the same gift options. The no-trans thing is a problem, but merchants who don't have the sense to give their customers options (and easy to find ones at that) are just as big a problem.

I'm happy to take $L directly and forward the no xfer stuff directly to someone. But setting up two types of products, one xfer and one mod/copy is just wayyy too time consuming to maintain.

I wrote an article about this very subject for the DC District mag this month. It is so sucky doing the gift vendor thing..asking someone to stay still...dont breathe...move...tp..go brb....so you can gift something..and how impersonal is that anyway...ughhh.

I have stuck to my guns this year and ONLY bought from stores that offer transfer. So I myself can box them up and give them..big thank you to all creators who do transfer goodies !

There's some irony here. In most cases, I don't want no-copy goods. I especially loathe no-copy clothes as I can't put them into outfits. I'd rather receive the goods from a gift vendor such as the HippoVEND than as a no-copy/transfer item from a dear one in SL.

I actually bought that script that lets you choose which type you want a long time back, but then got so much feedback from people who didn't really want to use a vendor.... It's hard to choose sometimes hehe. Right now, I'm glad that I didn't use it, with upcoming parcel script limits (I also bought a giftcard system that I don't use either...right after I bought it they started hinting about upcoming parcel script limits...I didn't want to do all that work just to have to undo it later).

I also would be more than happy to send something to another, or even, if requested, make a transferable version of something and sell that to someone (so they can gift it themselves). If it helps, I feel your pain....I was in Earthstones today looking for a christmas gift for someone.

And now, with merchants not listing everything they sell on XSSL, it will get even harder.

I use the script spoken about by several above with the ability to offer both copy or transfer items with minimal prim useage.

Yes the script limit worries me a little but after having spoken to the creator of the script should there be an issue with the script limits they will recomplie the script to make it more 'economical'. Though in the scheme ofthings give then it only actiaves upon paying the prim i doubt it will actually be an issue at all.

I also dont understand why more peole dont offer both. I ahve policies in place that i will not replace unrecieved no copy items (unless there is a known SL issue going on) and that i will not refund no transfer items. Thsi has worked very well for me over the past year.

Even items whichartraditionally copy... why not offer it transfer?? or even why not offer a 'gift version' which istransfer but cmes with a notecard that thy can drop this on you and recieve a copy version if they prefer? It would allow people to offer it as a gift all nicely boxed. AND would allow them to haveit copy perms

There are so many ways around this. I just think some creators arent gettign creative enough to offer buyers what they want... the ability to gift

I tend to reason that way when deciding on permissions for my items. That 'here it is!' moment is fun, but then the recipient is left with an uncopiable item.

(That said, I do tend to offer more Transfer items at my inworld locations than on XStreet.)

My store is known for Eyelashes- these need to be mod and copy as it is too easy for the inexperienced to 'break' them - so they must be no trans.

What I have done is to send notices with the information that i will gladly send gifts to their loved ones- send me a notecard with trasacntion details and who gets what and i will send the gifts. I even made an email addy just for that - in case SL ate the notecard.

Exactly so, I have done this all week for customers. .... Plus I do not have a vendor system that will allow gift giving and the ones I have looked into are to expensive for me at this time to invest in....

it probably isn't, but I just am not willing to take the chance to do all that work only to have to undo it (and with my luck, the announcement of script limits will come about 5 mins after I have finished putting it in everywhere lol). I will most likely look at it again after the script limits change, to see if it would be feasible.

I don't know much about scripts, but I know that some of them 'run' all the time, whether they are physically being used or not, and if I have 200 vendor boxes each using one, that might be a lot (I wanted to buy a scripted kitty but I'm holding off on that too lol).

Once the change has been made regarding scripts, I will be looking at it all again (including my gift card scripts). Only then will I feel secure about it.

Some vendors do seem to shoot their own foot on this one.

Luckily so far the vendors I contacted to send gifts on my behalf have replied promptly and have been reliable.

I'd like to add that places that do a Secret Santa might stand to be a bit more informative and organized. Reply to questions, appoint someone trustworthy to collect and distribute gifts, etc. Finding a vendor who can and will send a Secret Santa note *for you* is not that easy always. That's *after* you find something that might suit 'almost anyone.' Yet that they might not already have.

They should realize that not everything is on X Street and also that an inexperienced shopper or SL-er might think they are being spammed when 'magic box' offers them something. Or worse. Lol.

nevermind

Yep. Buying "surprise gifts" on Xstreestsl is a waste of time and money. People are so spammed with blue pop-up windows that they push "decline" without reading. I wish Xstreet pop-up windows could get another color. And where's the fun, contacting ppl first: Hey, don't go into busy mode, don't decline anything before you read the text...

Electic had the golden idea, offering both transfer and no transfer items, and then even providing the lucky gift receiver with a copy version. Now, why can't we clone you, I wish all merchants could do this! It is something special to meet someone, hug them and then drop them a gift. You can't replace that feeling

That is a GREAT idea - and call it something other than "magic box"! Let the buyer have the chance to put a line in there instead of "Magic Box" similar to how you can when you offer someone a teleport.

I think one can type a line that goes to their email but how many people delete SL emails too?

Different color would be the best. Objects who take money has to be yellow. Why can't Xstreetsl be pink? I know I can write a text when i buy a gift on Xstreetsl, but then again... who read it?
I try to tp to a new place every day and unsubscribe from the subscribe-o-matics I have signed up to during these years. They make me totally numb, I hit "decline" automatic, so I understand why my gifts are declined...

Last night a friend asked me how to use Xstreet, and I went through the process with him, and while we were chatting....I had one of those blue boxes come up.....and didn't have a clue what was being sent or who was sending it. I kept reading it, and it just didn't make sense.....so was about to click the deny button.....when he said...."did you get it?" I had no idea he was sending something to me.....and I would have felt AWFUL if I had rejected it!

I wish they would change that! I think it would be cool if someone had a delivery service all year round. Where someone arrives at your doorstep with a pretty package in their hands. That would be awesome. But again....you have to consider the transfer thing. In that case, you would have to transfer it to another party, I suppose, before it gets to the recipient.

For my own personal stuff, I shop a lot at Eclectic because my preference is Transfer on clothing and very few stores offer that.

I really like Eclectic's idea for giving a Transfer item that includes a special notecard/object that can be exchanged for a Copy version. Worst case, if it is scammed, is that someone gives away the Transfer item, and keeps and uses the special object that will get them a Copy version.

Yes - I think if it said who it's from, or allowed the person to say "Hey, it's me, accept this please" or something - or "Happy Birthday Avatar Name" the person might pause. "Magic Box sent you bla, bla" sounds like a prank.

Having the pop up be pink or green or whatever would be great too.