Land Auction Questions answered...kind of

New blog post
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/09/11/short-break-in-mainland-supply/

Auctions stopped bc/ a new auction system is being put in place. Sales will resume in a week or two.

Should be interesting...

So basically they're revamping the system just to finish off Corsica, and after that it'll be just recycling of old parcels? Hm,...that's a good use of resources. Does this mean that after September, we'll see a new landbaron war? I wouldn't be surprised if LL increases tier to offset their loss of income from new sims.

It would be nice if they allowed us to submit our own land for auction.

I really have a sneaking feeling that a tier fee rise is on its way anyway. They did say Private islands would have a tier increase, I think they might sneak in a general one.

I beleive it is the private estates that were grandfathered in at $195 per month will be feeling the price increase come November. If they really want more premium account landowners then raising mainland tier will not help this.

Sorry, yes it is the grandfathered islands, but it wouldn't surprise me if they announce tier fee increases elsewhere.

I also agree with you regarding mainland tier fees, tier fees are the big barrier to land ownership.

As an aside, if they cut fees drastically to try and get more premium members, would people be annoyed?

Most definitly people paying more would be annoyed. But then again, look at the condition of mainland. It really is a giant mess of chaos with the rare exceptions of course. So it is reasonable to expect that tier would be cheaper in a mess like that. Especially for those holding smaller parcels of land.

They may not even raise the rates for grandfathered sims. They may decide to bring out a new class of server and offer an upgrade path to those stilll using the old class 4s. It is what they have done in the past.

It might make sense to increase mainland tier if you wanted to stamp out ad farmers. But that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because most large mainland landholders would bail if they couldn't pass the tier increase on to tenants. It's ridiculous enough as is, with mall rental rates typically hovering way over 4L/m2. Residential rentals are competitive enough as is, with very thin margins.

Would I be upset if they lowered my monthly bill? No. I think I could deal with that.

I pay what's comfortable for me to pay each month. If they raised prices, I'd tier back down to whatever my comfort level is. Unless it's some puny amount of land - I'd probably downgrade if they did that.

If they cut mainland prices, I'd probably buy back up to what I'm paying/month now.

If they offered a way for me to get my mainland home upgraded from a class 4, I'd probably think about it.. For something like US$100-200, I'd probably do it. For more, probably not.

The painful thing about the way tier is set up now is that it doubles at each level. If I want to tier down, I'd have to sell almost 1/2 my land. If I buy much more land, I'm going to have to pay 80% (or so) more each month.

Agreed. If my tier was cut, I would probably go ahead and buy more land.

It would help a lot if the tier structure was proportionate to the amount of land you hold. If you're maxed out at the US$75 level, the next square meter you buy costs you US$50/month. If they made the increases more gradual, I think they'd see a lot more land being bought. There's been a lot of times that I've passed on buying more land just to avoid that extra $50/month.

I love it when you talk land.

Hmm...just went back and read the blog post again and noticed this

"new and much improved auction system that will initially be used to replace the way we currently auction new and recycled mainland"

initially?? what other things will they be using this system to auction other than new sims and recycled parcels? Seems unlikely that they would sell private estates (new ones) this way, maybe they are considering selling new land in parcels and not just sims? That seems unlikely too though. Maybe we can list our own parcels Ebay style? Wow that would shake things up.

Oh and for Figtree...
/me bats my eyelashes and twirls my hair around the tip of my finger...

land

Might mean you must have the fund$ for each bid in order for it to register in the bidding and that you will pay instantly on your winning bid.........something like when you buy land, you pay instantly.

No reason why you couldn't Auction land inworld now, someone must do it

Um, the only reason I can think of is that it's not possible within the current system. Last time I checked, you could not mess with the land sale code.

I guess a person could place an ad and take the best offer before setting the land for sale.

No, I mean a real Auction as they do in RL on site at a set time, The vendor would need to be onsite with the auctioneer and it's bot resistant too.

There is no reason why they couldn't code it so that we could auction our own parcels. Set time for the length of the auction, allow a reserve, and also a "buy it now" price like on eBay. I'd love to see such a system in place.

Wait, November? I thought the grandfathered price was safe until the beginning of next year? *scratches head*