The Sweatshop, the Witch and the 10L$ Wardrobe

Mrs. C, a famous landbaroness, recently got it into her head to dominate the SL market by flooding it with a wide range of items for L$10, starting with virtual furniture produced in her facilities in China (some would call such facilities "sweatshops".

Two days ago, a new item category popped up on SLExchange. SLX did no longer only sell avatar accessories, vehicles, weapons etc., but also items that fall into the category "landbaroness name) 10Lindens". Apparently Mrs. C had bought into SLX as a silent partner about 2 years ago, and now decided it was a good place to start her price dump.

The owner of the virtual marketplace SLExchange.com removed the category for now, reacting to a protest thread on the SLX forums (which has been locked within an hour). According to him, the link will return in a different form, to show the most popular items offered for L$10 regardless of the creator. Of course only one creator will be willing to offer furniture and other content for less than 4 cents USD.

Link to the locked thread:
Another reason for the temporary removal of the new item category, and a temporary withdrawal of the products offered by Mrs. C's 10Lindens brand: her furniture turned out to contain full permission poses made by a renowned content creator.

Aside from apologizing for the full perm poses, Mrs. C also states her plans for the SL economy (I almost wrote "her plans for world domination", on page 10 of the thread linked above. Apparently she built up a market presence in another virtual world called IMVU (www.imvu.com), where her company, according to SLX owner Mr. S, has "helped to significantly improve the quality of available content there and is now bringing those resources to Second Life to try to do the same thing".



We should all be grateful for Mrs. C's brilliant market strategy. It will only help the SL community to grow at a faster rate, resulting in more land sales and land rentals of course. We content creators have the choice to either lower our prices to L$10, thereby also helping the growth of SL and Mrs. C's land sales, or to "strengthen our brand's focus", whatever that means. I suppose it's only in LL's and our best interest.
Or not? (<-- notice the question mark, valid resident question, aside from being of general interest to the content creator community).

Thanks for explaining this ive been wondering what was going on.

Perhaps im naive but i dont think its cause for real worry unless you start seeing a deduction in your sales. I think there are many out there who actually enjoy paying a higher price, much like people do in RL. The whole "I buy expensive things!" ego is even in Second Life. Not only that, but we all have our shop preferences and many are loyal to their favorite creators.

Her $10L products are just that, $10L products; basically freebies. In my eyes that means something all the noobs will have, no one wants that, eventually they will move on to things with a real price tag that not EVERYONE has. Freebies dont harm our businesses, I doubt this will either.

Even though its virtual property, I tend to look after better something I spent more $L on, I couldnt care less about a $10L item, i`m sure i`m not alone on that one. It has no value to me, if the game eats it big whoop I`ll buy another.

This thread will get locked.

Couple points.

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The internet farming activities in China arent necesarily bad jobs in their economy. Its easy to look at their miniscule wages by US/Western European standards and decide they are, but its being culturally biased.

The bigger issue is the China trade policies. Until those become more fair these sorts of situation will continue to crop up in various industries.

Since China refuses to play fair, and no one wants to stop trading with China, thats not going to happen.

The unfavorable wages in China, and the competitive advantage they bring thus are not an issue people in Second Life can do anything about.

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The 10L being 4 cents issue is meaningless since theres no production costs. The only thing that matters is recouping the creators time and effort for their work.

Not to mention-
If you sell 100,000 10L items and make 1,000,000 L it is exactly the same as selling 1000 1000L items as far as your bottom line.

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Lastly, what do you propose be done about it? Prevent creators from selling objects for below a certain minimum in each industry?

That's true. In my opinion, most SL items are already ridiculously underpriced. I've created content for both 3D applications like Poser and for the SL market; the amount of work is the same. But while content for Poser sells for $10 - $30, most SL designers sell their works for less than $2 (L$540). If anything, the market could use higher prices.

Someone who wants to establish a new brand should produce decent quality, price it higher than usual and advertise it as quality ware. Underprizing is a shot in the own foot, since most people don't want "cheap" content. Cheap prices are thought to reflect the quality, and often that really is the case.

Interesting. I just signed up at SLX this past week. My views on the China trade issue are definitely not appropriate for this Forum, but an interesting angle . I don't know what effect it will have, I slept through my economics class in college. But in a sense is this a case of SLX becoming the equivalent to WalMart. I hope not, as I have never spent a dime in one of their stores and never will.

Not sure I agree with that. atleast not in SL. There have been times when ive seen new brands emerge and price their sht HIGH, higher than established brands known for their quality, Its like a slap in the face IMO. But do what you gotta do I guess. I just think sometimes they should price lower so people can get a feel of their work first.



Yes and no, hard to say. I agree and disagree. Its different for everyone. Sometimes I think "Well this is more expensive so it must be better" (Both in RL and SL) but thats really not always true. And other times there are shops quite cheap whose quality certaintly isnt.

Personally I try to keep my things affordable, but when I do go out and visit SL malls I realize there are people selling things for way more than I charge for it and I wonder if my cheaper prices cause people to think the product is crap.

Not if it stays civil



That's true, and I have no doubt that Mrs. C pays fair wages for Chinese circumstances. But even fair wages allow to have SL content mass produced at prices that wouldn't be viable for any Western European or American business. Nothing against that... it's a free economy. But usually the idea is to buy or produce cheap in order to sell at a higher price and maximize the revenue, not to ruin an economy.



Sufficient advertizing opens a third option: selling 100,000 items at 1,000 L$. Selling quality content at L$10 items (if it really is quality content) and trying to cover the whole palette of SL wares can only have one goal: to ruin other businesses. After dominating the market, one can raise the prices again. I think that's what might be the plan here. Could be a futile effort, could also be a Wal-Mart success story.



I don't think that anything needs to be done about this, other than informing the public who pulls the strings at SLX, and what's behind the new "10 Lindens" brand. I'm sure customers will make the right decisions.

It depends on the quality of the wares. If it really is as good or better than items offered by established brands, the high entry-level price is justified. And the established brands can only profit from a newcomer who sells at higher prices.
All luxury brands had to get into the market at some point; low prices are contrary to the idea of establishing a luxury or high-end brand, and a later price raise is likely to alienate the customer base.

I guess, im not into "luxury brands" I just laugh at people who post products at ridiculously high prices.

Jeans for $700L? Ridiculous in both SL and RL(usd).


But the human mind set is still present, regardless of if its sl or rl, people will always think a higher price means better items and theres a pride in being able to afford it.

I don't shop at Wal-Mart either and never will. I do look for the union label, always have. If someone started a Creators Union guild type thing that used a small trademark in their ads and packaging I would shop there first and I'm sure a lot of others feel the same about the race to the bottom that's been going on in the world both virtual and real.

I gotta agree with this .. albeit grudgingly!
I might be scanning through my inventory for a clothing change and think "Hey! I spent a fortune on that - better get my moneys worth and wear it!"
10L$ is virtually freebie territory. My fiancee will go on a freebie hunt. Me, I steer clear .. can't be bothered for the most part though must agree there are some very creative items out there.
Somehow, something I spent hard-earned dosh on just gets more attention from me.

If the whole BiaB trend hasn't stopped legitimate creators from creating and selling thier wares successfully, why would Mrs. C's 10$L content?

Sure it will - you are generally not allowed to speculate on other residents like this around here.

Civil or not.

Business-in-a-box wares are junk. There's a reason the creators decide to sell their wares full perm for resale, rather than trying to make money by selling to the end customer.

Same with freebies. Mostly junk, offered at places that are badly advertised. Nice for the countless unverified teens without money, but most people don't want to work in their spare time by sorting through a box with thousands of freebies, in order to find the few halfway decent items.

A virtual Wal-Mart, backed by highly priced classifieds (and an own SLX category) might have a different effect on the economy.

I'm not speculating. I only quoted her, without even naming her. She wrote herself, it's her goal to force the prices down, supposedly to accelerate the growth of the platform.

Im totally confused

When did people start getting paid ONCE for something?

My 11 shapes package (the first one) - sells for $300L ( ~1$ US) it took me probably 90 hours to set up, maybe more. So it was easily my most labor intensive set. I was new at it all. Lot of effort to sell something for a dollar, I guess.

BUT WAIT - Ive sold THOUSANDS of copies of that set. So Ive made well over $1000 on it.

Ill continue to make money on it till LL decides to change the avatar shape system. My other shapes sell too, and took me less time to come up with. Im actually pretty fast now ..


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The same is true in other industries probably moreso. Ive known one of the more popular lingerie designers since long before either of us heard of second life. She put a huge effort into getting set up, its true. A lot of effort to sell something for $150L.

But heck now she has a private island, bough all new tires for her car, has put some money in her RL rainy day fund, etc.

She doesnt spend large hours designing now. But her sales keep coming in on stuff she worked on 2 years ago ..

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ok

W/E

I never said that. That's why I compared SL prices to a similar market: 3D content for apps like Poser or Bryce. Same system; create it once, sell unlimited copies on contentparadise.com or renderosity.com.

there are obvious exceptions to this rule. once a person reaches a certain level of 'celebrity', the rules seem to loosen.

Isnt demand in SL apples to oarnges for those things though?

For example if I sell Poser animations on the net - its mainly for people who want the animation for some video game project. SO a fairly small group of potential customers, a specialized product.

If I sell animations in SL, its mainly for people who want to walk or stand in some way, or cuddle, or get freaky. Fairly large group of potnetial customers. A broad apeal product.

Warn me before I become famous like that.

Please note also, among other arguments, there are some that create VERY high quality content... FOR FREE!!! I met on such individual that creates high quality custom water features for free, and she even showed me the sections of one project she made. The reasons for the sections was I did not have enough open land for her to rez and put the whole thing together. Needless to say, if I ever find myself in need of a large elaborate water feature without the will or time to build my own, I will be looking her up.

Not everyone is in SL to make mad cash from virtual items. Even my own items when they go up for sale will likely be below market value, at least until initial versions. I to did not come to SL to make real $, my sales will more be to help provide walking around L$, if I start making enough to convert to real $ enough to cover my tier, so much the better.

I suspect peer pressure will have a lot of effect at controlling the effect of this in that as I think Collette has pointed out previously, playing house is an economic staple in SL and if you are showing off your house and your friend goes "oh, a $L10 C stands for crap chair", it isn't the response you are hoping for.

I am concerned though with so many people building and scripting without really being participants and not really being paid much, that these skill sets will become even less well paid then they are now. Who is going to bother to learn the skills with their steep learning curve when you can just buy the stuff? And C for Crap workers start to build houses, etc...I am afraid that really talented people are not going to be able to spend the time it takes to make good stuff in SL because the money they make will be too pathetic.

And I'm also concerned that the "designs" and textures C for crap will be "inspired by" current creations so that we end up with a nonbot copy bot..if that makes sense. Already, the furniture that was put on SLX had full permission poseballs in it. And I wonder if the creator of those animations realized just how much furniture C for C was going to make with it since the full permission pose balls were created for content creators who make custom work. Was he paid extra for the volume? I doubt it.

I really don't like this at all and of all the weird stuff SL and LL has thrown at us, this one gives me the most doubts about whether I want to be here or not..or can even afford to be.

Wasnt me it was Jesseaitui Petion



I tend to make my own simple furnature on the spur of the moment.

I can, have, and like will buy $10L items if they look good though, It would save me time. 10L is after all pretty darn cheap.

Course I dont really have the keep up with the joneses mentality in either life.

That's self-understood. All of us content creators cover only their tier, plus getting some play money to spend within SL. If we lose business, we won't lose an income, only the means to pay for our virtual land. Hm... who may want to buy it? Well, I don't want to speculate here.