What happens when a mainland auction sim has no bidders?

...and the secret super special announcment on SL5B is....

SLpectacles to see SL in 3D ?

somehow i fear its nothing like that.. , but i really WiSH it would be

One of the big problems for LL is the lack of consumer confidence. Uncertainty of what they will do in the future combined with horrible performance is what drove me out of the land market.

How do you hedge against uncertainty as a SL resident? Pay as little tier as possible until things with the new CEO shake out and we find out what LL's plans are for tier, sim dumping and the land economy.

This is why full sims with high tier are going unsold while tiny Bay City parcels with moderate tier are being bid up to ridiculous levels.

That would be great were it not for the landbots that would greedily snap them all up. If they could work out a lottery or something for premium members who do not own land it may work.

There is a possibilty, and I stress only a possibility, that the above is because all plots not bid on are then bid on by Linden owned ALT's just for that purpose .

No evidence except that it is possible, and conspiracy theorists would love it.

People who go for low tier + high initial price are those who intend to stay for the long duration.

One easy way LL could sell mainland sims is for them to cut it up and use the normal in world land sale mechanism. Basically cut out the mainland land baron middlemen.

No worries
My post was to do with the situation where LL just wanted anyone puhlease to pick up the tier on unsalable land.

Ah, I see.. that would be a great idea.

Lots of people out there who would take some plots over to build on. Even if they are not in desirable locations, etc it could be a big help for LL and residents alike.

They would be in big trouble if they were found out to be doing that:

*snicker* Maybe they're gonna bring back a "New and Improved" First Land offer? I have no clue how they'd do it, but if it pulls in more premium accounts...

That is pretty darn plausable. It would be *just* enough of an announcement to make LL look like they were doing something to help residents without them having to commit to something they will never complete.

Seriously maybe the plan eventually will be to have land priced as zero upfront costs and just tier? There are a few advantages for instance, people would abandon it quicker when they no longer wanted to pay tier for it instead of holding out for a recoup of their "investment". Also all those little yellow signs on the map that never change (because of outrageous prices) would disappear, you know the ones that make SL look like it is going into liquidation right now lol. Another thing is that it would (at least at first) encourage people to take land who would not want to pay upfront, but are happy to pay ongoing costs (benefit is when you are done there is nothing stopping you moving on - no resale to worry about) and that might stimulate more creativity in world. In effect it would turn the land market into a Linden operated rental scheme, which is close to reality in manys ways anyhow. Land would be claimed on a first come first get basis if that is the case.

Obviously, this would not be popular with those who make a living by reselling/sub-leasing land but as LL have shown, this is not their first consideration.
Let me be clear - I am not advocating this, I am just saying that it is one possible direction LL takes with land management in the future.

It won't go to zero. The success of Bay City style sims shows they can still make some money upfront in addition to tier. But we might see it go to something like $1L a meter with sim auctions starting at US$250.

Yes they can now, I am not saying it would happen now but over time it could I think end up going to zero, mainly because they will have to entice people into tier if the auctions start to get passed in more than sold due to a massive land glut, the map is full of not selling land mainly due to people having left because of stability/inventory loss problems. Lets not forget the business bubble bursting of making your fortune in SL which is why a lot of people came to SL when I was new (no that was not why I came lol).
I think you are probably spot on though short to mid term.

With all the unsold sims, maybe LL will bring back first land

oh dear, maybe I should read previous comments better. just pretend I don't exist.

Didn't First Land get canned because of the alt abuse practice of getting more than one FL using alts? i don't think it was because they ran out of land, therefore it follows that now there is a glut, there would still be no incentive to bring back First Land, unless they really don't care who gets it.
Further more First Land is tierless land...not sure that is on LL's agenda myself.

Yep.. The cost of doing one months premium was far less than the price you could get for a 512m2 of land.. That was over a year ago, though - it's not much of a win any more. (edit: but anything that isn't an actual loss will still be gamed)

I suspect an awful lot of land from older residents isn'tbeing reclaimed either to make old mainland look good still, rather than let it get brought & carved up into adfarm hell. Like happens withe every sim in SL now.
There are agents at work deliberately buying land to carve the road & waterside skin off it for adfarming.