Rip off listed on SL exchange

I was just on SL exchange, doing a search for women's pants. After I narrowed the search a little, to business pants I believe, on about the third page, I found some black leather pants being sold for L175.00. (I hope that I have given correct instructions so that anyone can find this, and I hope that giving these detailed instructions is not against the posting rules.) I wish I could tell you the store owner and seller, but I know that I can't here. These pants are the same second life black leather pants that you can find in freebie boxes all over SL. I find this really annoying. I thought that slex would at least attempt to screen the listings there, so that their customers would not have to be concerned about being conned. Please also understand, I know that it is hard to police everything, but good lord, these pants are everywhere! You would think that these things would stick out like a sore thumb and be obvious to everybody except a day old noob.

I just wanted people to know, because I have appreciated all of the warnings about scams, cons and griefers that have been posted here in the past. I hope that everybody will accept this in the same way.

Oh and yes I know that I have to post a question. Actually now that I think about it, I have several.

If I complained to someone at SL Exchange, would they listen - or are they as unconcerned and uncooperative about these things as the Lindens?

If SL Exchange doesn't care about their reputation and integrity, is onrez any better?

There is a place to post comments. Could I leave a comment there warning people that these pants are actually freebies and not to buy them?

Unfortunately a couple of people subscribe to the "get rich quick" allure and resell freebies. In some cases they don't even know that they are selling freebies, because they bought the stuff in one of these (pretty expensive) "business in a box" sets.

Personally, I would leave a comment on the SLX site indicating that the product is available in-world as a freebie.

1) they are as probably 'helpless' as the lindens until the original creator files a dmca notice to them. (complaints will help bolster the case against a particularly nefarious poster.)

2) they care!! and so does onrez. but unfortunately, in the real world... look, start your own 'open selling market' website, and see how many probs/counterclaims you may have to juggle and get legal counsel for... in the end, you may find the only truly legally-advisible reason to pull someone's account is due to how many dmca's they get, not how many 'critical comments' they get. :\

3) hmmm different sites will have different policies, and i can't advise particulars of each. you would have to confir their own forums and tos to decide for yourself... but frankly personally i would say 'your opinion is yours' and post away. either others can lend credence to your accussation, or rebutt it...

In a free market the value of goods is allowed to rise and fall. If it's not worth what they're selling it for, they'll go out of business. If goods were only allowed to decrease in value but not gain value, it would only become increasingly difficult to make any money creating content.

In a perfect market the value of goods is determined by their utility to the community. If it's not worth what they're selling it for, they will be removed by the state.

Oh, that doesn't happen either.

I wonder if it's possible to create a Firefox extension for SLX. I don't know much about that sorta thing, but it'd be a neat utility. The idea: cross-reference a list of good/bad deals or freebies/genuine products. Those items deemed to be freebies being sold for more than L$1 might have text shaded red, or their product image replaced with "FREEBIE" notice. Or a "VERIFIED GENUINE" seal of approval could be added to product pages that meet the requirements for being truly genuine.

Of course someone would need to manage/verify the reference database, but it's yet another way for a group of users to control a bad situation, rather than wait for SLX management or someone else to deal with it.

well if they cant handle the responsibility of being a marketplace they should not be around, the excuse of "its too much work" doesn't fly, thats why linden labs is loathed by their paying customers, and ultimately almost 8 years after they started, they have not gotten any better than the novelty or toy they were when they started

SLExchange not only lists freebie items for sale, it lists items ripped off from the creators. I constantly see items ripped off from the original creators. These are fairly well known items too such as the Owenimations Chimera. If you notify they will remove ripoffs but I don't know if they will remove freebies.

i saw an outrageously priced collectable original prim on there. Obviously it is a plywood cube. The vendor would probably defend themselves by saying it is a joke.

I just think it is pathetic.

"pathetic" is def the keyword. 'con-artists' are rarely very cunning or artistic. (not even in the 'cunning-linguist' sense

i awoke to an xmas tipoff to some new ripoffs myself. new years will stuff some dmca's into someone's stockin's.

merry effin' christmas!!

dah yah, the value of legal goods are allowed to rise and fall upon a fairly and openly traded market.



dah yah. or get
litigated

out of existance.



which is exactly why thieving things to sell is bad for the environment inwhich you exist in. you will only decrease the value of what you steal. absorb and dream on it.

Speaking of products and whether things are ripoffs or not, Nyoko's oils are the most wonderful things, and I hear she's gotten them ripped off? This is just such an unhappy occurrence. The oils are one of the great successful products of SL, I've bought them for myself and friends probably a dozen times now. Seeing her name in this thread - just had to throw out an admiring comment!

In the case described by the OP, it might actually be that the item listed on SLExchange is the original, and the freebies are rip-offs. This is happening with alarming frequency lately (says I who just had to buy a new skin because the very expensive one I used to wear has been hacked and is not turning up as a freebie or a L$10 item wherever you look).

Right. Another example is one of the clothing lines most commonly seen in the freebies places. It used to be sold with a closed resale scheme, but one of the resellers decided to put the stuff out there with full permissions and that was the end of that.

An odd different case is a line of prim hair that is seen in virtually every freebies place, that IIRC the creator still sells directly with explicit permission to redistribute freely. It's probably not smart for a consumer to pay for this stuff, but resellers of these particular items aren't really doing anything wrong.

And in a free market you are not compelled to purchase anything at all.

Caveat Emptor. Or, Ya pays Ya money, Ya takes Ya chances.

Absolutely. This made me think of another thread which was about the doom and gloom of the SL economy. Without derailing or resurrecting that thread, I do have a direct question related to it...

Does anyone know if the "monthly spending by amount" table in the economy stats page is quoting individual monthly spends (as it appears to) or is it individual purchases? If it is the former, then 330 000 avatars spending money in a month seems to me to be quite healthy.

And, the nearly 50 000 residents "making" money (table at the bottom) seems to be quite healthy as well.

YOU can easily add a comment regarding her stuff on the product page at SLX. Just click on "Item Discussion" right below the product name.

it`s impossible to police it, there are just to many items and you can add items at anytime you want
if it was with manually verifying this could be halted just abit, but there would still be tons of freebies/ripoffs that staff wouldn`t know about that will be passed as "ok"

leaving comments on the sold items seems to be the best way to warn people altho time intensive if done for every signle item from that person

It's a pity these people cannot be named and shamed somewhere.

soon™

several things will come once i`m done with my main product (wich can take several more weeks as it`s a frigging time sink to make...)

awwwww ty hon - well i wanted to repeat, if you see something that looks like a ripoff, try to contact the original, legitimate creator (if you know who they are), and pass the landmark to them to check out. my friends and customers have been the greatest detectives and it's so valued, since obviously many eyes are much better than only one pair. i and many other creators greatly appreciate it!!

I have seen quite a few things in SLX that are free all over the place. I have seen them sold in SL shopes as well. Even the black leather halter top and booty shorts set you see in every freebie market -- like there is a law that you can't have a freebie area if you don't have them -- you can find for sale at various prices.

There is nothing against selling anything you can. The "library chair" that everyone has in their library can be found for sale in world.

There is a sucker born every minute. Nothing is preventing people from taking advantage of that. The best you can do is warn who you can when you can.

Leave comments when you see it. That's what they are there for.

Well some may not use this measuring stick but I do and it helps. It wont guarantee if you get ripped off but it may lower the chances a bit..

I look at all these 3rd party sites and places where they list stuff that is sold in sl (as I think it should be). If the person is not known I go look for their ingame location before I buy. YOu can tell rather quickly if its a place where you would buy from usually. If the person does not have a an ingame location. Eg; you look up thier profile and see no stores or owned land and stuff like that anywhere in their picks or something. Then dont buy.