Ok, I got a question.....

When you are in the market for a certain item......does price equal quality to you??

The reason I ask is two-fold. The more I learn new skills......the more I value I place on what I see other creators doing......but, at the same time, I'm also a little bit more wary of people charging a high price....just because that's what the market will allow.

I'm not going to go into detail.....and I'm not going to insult anyone's hard work, that is not my intent. But the reason I ask is I put a lot of work into what I create...I have the luxury of time....so I choose not to charge out the ass for my stuff....it's my choice.....it's my way of giving back, and because I do actually enjoy the process. But I'm kind of wondering too......is the price point affecting people's attitude about whether the product is quality?

I know that my initial reaction is often just that.....but I've also learned to be a really savy shopper and I've learned that a lot of the coolest stuff out there, is NOT the most expensive....in fact some is so cheap it feels like stealing. And by the same token, I've learned that high cost does not necessarily mean best product. It's just as true in the real world.....tho usually crazy low costs IRL translate as crap product LOL

So....wondering what your habits are....and no....nothing I read here is going to make me change my own selling tactics. But I will be honest and say that after checking out a recent new release of the same product type as mine.....for 4x as much.....I was really kind of freaked out LOL It just wasn't anything special.....and I'm not being a snot or an unfair judge....I love the creative stuff that people produce in here....and I applaud artists for their hard work and I'm am such a loyal shopper...... but man it just killed me to see that when I know what kind of time I put in.....and how many crap pieces I trash before I decide I'm happy with what I do (and I'll never be 100% happy lol) So, how often do you equate price with quality.....or, do you only make that call with certain types of items?

Hi Milla ~ I can tell you from experience, with men's clothes, if they are quality, I will pay whatever the price. Often, I find that high quality items are not expensive.

Also, I shop for vehicles, e.g., boats, airships, etc., and quality is the number one consideration especially when it comes to scripting. But again, some fantastically built vehicles are very reasonably priced.

Bottom line, for me, price does not equate to quality.

In SL I do not see a correlation between price and quality. There is a lot of expensive garbage and a lot of amazing high quality items that are inexpensive.

.d

price doesn't equal quality for me

price is just whatever the person decided to put on it

I have found stuff that is really nice for low price and crap for high cost

(If I thought price was an indication of quality I would be charging more than 100L for my stuff heh)

While shopping for men's clothes today I found a fairly nice suit for L$850. I thought that was way too high for "fairly nice."

On the other hand, it's been my experience that freebies and L$1 - L$10 items are that way for a reason. They are good enough to get the newbies and new alts by until something better is found, but are otherwise pretty low quality.

So I would like to pay a handsome amount, but not an extravagant amount.

Personally.. No, but I find that in general, the "majority" of items in the quality range I'm seeking WILL be roughly about the same price as similar items I know are top quality.


Honestly, it may. Anyone who's been victim of the "great vendor photo, great price, bad product" scam is probably going to be more cautious about lower priced items.. I know I am. I'm always critical about what I buy, but if I have any doubt about the quality judging from the display or vendor photo, a much lower price than normal DOES ring up as an additional red flag to me.

Sometimes. Occasionally, like today, I run across something that I love but am leery of the price. it was too low. I bought it, tried it on and........yeah it was crap. tossed it. Shame. Experiences like that do tend to teach you you get what you pay for even in SL. I've never had a bad experience, with something that was higher priced. Maybe just been lucky. Everything I've ever had a problem with has been a lower priced or 'sale' item. That makes it hard for good creators such as yourself, who are just trying not to gouge people.

Hey Milla dear - so I think your real question here is how people determine value, right? There's tons of psychology studies out there looking at that. Personally I like the attitude the ancient teachers had, when they defined wealth as "the ability to be happy with what you have". You get enjoyment out of making your products? - there is no amount of money that can buy that feeling. In the end, most of us know that no amount of money can buy the beauty inherent in anything - so do what you like, and ignore the silly money ))

Unlike the real world where price/value comparison has become increasingly feasible, the market in SL is pretty ignorant as increasing numbers of new and uninformed consumers flow into it. The widespread availability of freebies of wildly varying quality means that many snobbish consumers will ricochet to the other end of the market ("let them eat cake!" and assume for a while that high prices must mean high quality. Until they find out that it doesn't necessarily.

The best sales strategy? You only have to sell to one sucker at $2,000 rather than 100 discerning shoppers at $20.

Pep (and your reputation doesn't necessarily get dissed because few buyers will be willing to admit to snobbery)

I've always done it the other way round - I'd rather sell 11 @ 100L than 1 @ 1000L, and it seems to have worked for me. But then I didn't do it your suggested way round, so I don't know if that would have worked better.

You are making the assumption that the sales transaction costs are similar for all sizes of sales. If it weren't Sunday morning and I have to settle myself with a case of beer in front of the Monaco GP on TV I might initiate an ultimately futile argument with you about low value sales costing more each than high value ones.

Pep (Difficult to develop demand-supply curves when OBE doesn't apply)

There's 2 hours yet before the GP, so fire away - but I'm off for a nap

I think you need to look round your market and position yourself within it - and then price competitively. Get a general feel for whether you are top, middle or bottom or in a niche market etc. It is a mistake to price yourself out of the market - but equally bad business to seriously undercut yourself.

you have been lucky to have not gotten crap at a high price

sadly I was a victim of the too good to be true vendor picture

when after purchasing said item, seams did not match (realllly bad) was not drawn at all the way it showed in the pic, etc

when I do my ads, I do not retouch the pics other than to remove the white background

if the pose causes a crease or something like that it stays

(and I am low priced but I definitely do not consider my stuff crap)

so not all low priced places are crap (and heck if someone doubted for a sec my stuff is good, just buy the really low price one I put out when I release new stuff, or hit the midnight mania board, or camp the lucky chair or guess and win game, to get one of my items for free, to see for yourself it is not junk.

Not to me no, but I know it does to other people at both ends of the spectrum. A customer told me they'd purchased a product from me, purchased a more expensive one after that which offered more features and then gone back to using mine because it worked better but they had initially been wary of buying my product because it seemed to be too cheap, so they assumed it was rubbish.

I rarely look at the cost until after I have decided to buy. If a dress is a bit expensive (hmm...purely subjective amount, say over L$500), I will think about it for a minute longer and truly check I'm choosing the right colour. Sometimes I'll defer the purchase, but if anything is really beautifully made I know I'm only stalling and will return for it. I actually enjoy the process of deciding what is the perfect choice, and don't mind taking the time over it.

I think most freebies have passed through my inventory at some stage. I like trying them all, especially recent samples by good designers, and I give them all a fair look before judging. If they are good, I go back and buy.

But in general, you get what you pay for. Everything in my wardrobe I wear daily has been something I've forked out for. I never planned it that way, it's just the way it is. And I'm happy to pay for well made, original things. Go all you creative wonderful brains

Speaking as a consummate shopper and one has spent likely thousands of USD in world on items over the past couple of years, I have to emphatically say that price does NOT equal value.

Whenever I shop, my first concern is quality (although some products do not allow me to really know this until I begin working with it).

Second concern are permissions (most clothing and all vehicles should be modify and if they are not, they will not see my Lindens).

And my last concern is that of money.

HOWEVER, I am most displeased when people charge exorbitant amounts for an item that I know truly is not "worth" that (i.e. rugs should be no more than $10 as the textures are taken from the web etc.). I will think twice before buying something that I feel is excessive where the creator is clearly in SL for the sole purpose of earning an income.

I am a firm believer in creating what you enjoy and charging a reasonable amount or less (whatever one's interest is).

Cheers

I recently found a creator selling very good quality Macs. The items were all sold separately. While I might consider paying more for the Mac itself, there is no way I would pay the asking price of 160L$ for the mouse (a stretched half-sphere with a texture on it) and 60L$ for the mousemat (a flattened cylinder with a texture on it). Great though they may look, there's no way I'm paying that for them.

Yes Eveline, you've pretty much hit it. And thank you, you're right.

As an SL consumer for three years I think I have a pretty good grasp of what the market will bare....and I guess the truth is.....people continue to pay for what's worth it to them. But I am admittedtly a bit frustrated because my 'gut' feeling is that with some things especially, price sends a messege.

I don't touch up my ad photos either....aside from adding the log and cropping.....I definitely don't mess with the integrity of the item I'm selling.

Thanks for the feedback gang....

And maybe to add insult to injury, it's likely the person was selling marks that belong to Apple at those silly prices..

Thinking more generally about things, I have to conclude that the market, more than anything else, is going to drive one's pricing strategy. It matters not how much effort and time one puts into a product, consumers aren't interested in paying for that effort and time. They are interested in paying a fair market price for a quality finished product. Unless you're introducing something new, and "never before seen in Second Life" then you already have a price range determined for you by the existing market.

I think I tend to agree with Phil however in that volume is often key to success. I don't agree that there's some sort of "cost per transaction" in the SL economy. $L transactions on the USD end are usually done in bulk, whether cashing in or cashing out. The in-world exchange of Linden Dollars is zero cost in transaction overhead. There isn't any.

That's not true. Almost all of my rugs are from a local RL rug merchant.

There is probably a significant difference between clothing and other things like funiture. With clothing, you are trusting that what you see on the picture is what it will be like when you wear it, but with things like furniture, you see the actual items, and you can examine, use and try them in the store before buying. So quality doesn't come into that type of item - it's right there on display, and can be examined in detail. The same applies to any animations that are in the items.

Never






very true, i have a dilemna at buying expensive items either they dont fit right and no mod or not as pretty as what you've seen in the pic and what made me feel frustrated is when that certain expensive item has a similar kind sell in other store which have a better quality and is cheaper...i cant help feeling like i've been robbed. lol

Yeah, that ^^

I'm certainly not adverse to spending a lot of money on quality items, but far too often in SL I see a lot of overpriced crap and just think to myself "Do they really think someone is going to pay that?"


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