What happens when a mainland auction sim has no bidders?

I was hoping to be there when history was made. Up until the last minute, there was not a single bid for Vianustonic sim. Then, in the last few seconds, there were 2 wearied souls who stumbled in with lame bids, and $752USD won the victor 65,536 sqm (congrats BB!). That's L$3.13/sqm for those who are interested.

It's been quite awhile since Jack has posted about SL's intentions in the land market. The actions seem clear enough, though. Prices will stay low.

There are 3 more sims ending relatively soon. I wonder if they will get any bids.


Auction history data:
----------------------

Vianustonic (128,12 Mature 65536m

Winning Bid for this item: $752.00
Opening Bid: $750.00


Member Bid Amount Qty(Won) Bid Date (EDT) Status
Anonymous
$752.00 1(1) 6/4/08 11:39 AM Won
Anonymous
$751.00 1(0) 6/4/08 11:39 AM Lost

Someone was smoking crack with that sim name. Who would want to live in a sim they couldn't pronounce?

That is my theory on the low price too. I would never buy land on a sim named that.

Well we didn't have to wait long to find out.

The next sim at auction had no bids:

Exitros (128,12 Mature 65536m

Teleport to this location

Current bid: $750.00

0 bids | Bid History

Price per m2: 0.01 US$

Open date: 6/2/08 12:00:00 PM PDT

Close date: 6/4/08 12:00:00 PM PDT

End Time: Closed

Ok.. that one does have a cool name.

I'm guessing they are releasing sims still due to a metric based on population

A lot of land is greatly overpriced and sitting empty.

Was it granite?

Nope. Slightly slope-y green. Not bad land. Could easily be cut and resold if there were buyers... oh. Perhaps I've just stumbled on something there.

Just about anyone who doesn't use voice chat, really. (^_^)

Heh, but it is long. I don't think I would ever be in the mood to type it. I'm misspelling the region my place is in all the time. (=_=)y

Upper Dryston (128,12 Mature 65536m

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Current bid: $750.00

0 bids | Bid History

Price per m2: 0.01 US$

Open date: 6/2/08 12:20:00 PM PDT

Close date: 6/4/08 12:20:00 PM PDT

End Time: Closed

Oh.
Snap.

Veenfurt (128,12 Mature 65536m

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Current bid: $750.00

0 bids | Bid History

Price per m2: 0.01 US$

Open date: 6/2/08 12:40:00 PM PDT

Close date: 6/4/08 12:40:00 PM PDT

End Time: Closed

Empty from your perspective but 100% occupied and tier fully paid up as far as LL is concerned. I don't suppose anyone knows how much land is abandoned to Gov. Linden and unowned right now but we do know that every parcel they've ever reclaimed and auctioned has been bought.

Isn't Jacks office hour today? Maybe somebody should ask him..

All things considered, is that going to be true going forward? 3 full sims not bid on at all... why should a reclaimed plot do much better? Is the 195 tier the only thing preventing a single bid?

Well only time will tell but a parcel in a full sim already has added value around it....in theory

Hence saying there is likely a metric based on population that they use to determine land needed. And most likely tied into land rented from them as well.

And most of that tied up land up for sale may wind up abandoned at which point LL will hold off releasing more land.

If reauctioned land starts going unsold then we are (or at least I am) really in trouble. It means we really reached the point where supply outstripped demand. Some people cite a lot of yellow on the grid as evidence that supply is exceeding demand but that metric is nearly meaningless. What matters is how much land consumers are paying tier on.

If reauctioned land goes unbid then LL are in a position where the grid is partially unoccupied. As far as I can see it if half a sim is owned and the other half is unsellable then LL can't delete the sim because of the existing owner. So we can get to a stage where LL are paying for servers but not making enough income to keep them going. If the population or land demand continues to dwindle there is nothing LL can do to correct the market since they cannot easily reduce the amount of land in the grid.

LL can easily stop the L$ from increasing in value by selling more Lindens however, I seriously doubt they have the cajones to buy L$ to stop a decrease in value. We have the same problem in land. They can decrease the value of land by increasing supply but they cannot increase the value of land by decreasing supply. Unless LL are serious about keeping the economy stable and can take some pretty tough decisions like reclaiming land from paying users and then erasing sims then it could turn into a terrible death spiral with just a slight dip in the population if you ask me.

there's only one thing left to "increase" land value, and that is lowering the tier ..i guess it would take atleast -30% to see some real results

In light of the Bay City land auctions going for close to full sim prices (or two, at these rates) for double prim plots, I think this is more of a referendum on tier and added value than anything else. People want more for their money, and are willing to pay more in the short term for the long term benefit of cheaper tier. Maybe a modicum of infrastructure other than unpaved Linden Roads is warranted to get empty sims filled... lighthouses, unique gardens, artistic structures... Linden protected green spaces that are actually pretty and give a sense of community, that may provide at least one guaranteed pleasant view that isn't going to change.

I've been grousing about how Bay City and the road system work is occurring on these old continents when they've released four new ones in the last year. I think my grousing is justified. The vast majority of land is now held in the four new continents, which are being ignored and deemed as having less value... or in the case of the hat trick, NO value at all. Instead of creating a large network of protected green spaces with interesting builds, they created a short-term money machine that sapped the value of the rest of the market.

Chickens coming home to roost, if you ask me. LL cannot depend on business owners like us mainland landlords to keep picking up the slack by buying full sims.

I resemble that remark.

All that REALLY matters to me is that I can spell my parcel's name.

I'm not likely to give anybody land directions where the name of the region or sim would matter.

Even with a fully owned sim, would it matter if you have searchable places within it which are easy to remember? With regard to Mainland of course.

Kewl.
Buy a mainland sim for US$750
Cut out a 16m parcel or a 512 in the middle and abandon the remainder.
Now you have a sim for 16m of tier, or for free if it's coming out of your 512 free tier.

Buy a mainland sim in the middle of a bunch that are going to be unbidden.
Wait for LL to delete the surrounding sims.
Hey! A private island!

abandoned parcels do go back into auction by time or by demand and there may be no or a lower minimum bid per parcel auction.

Big time.

Maybe LL would even sell the unwanted land for L$0 or L$1/m - just to get someone paying tier.
They sell abandoned small plots (e.g. Ad Farm plots) at L$1/m.
First Land sold at L$1/m


They would need to keep a blacklist of Payment Infos to prevent people from serially buying cheapo land, using it for a month and then bouncing the tier charges at the end of the month.