Question for skin makers, hair, clothes etc?

Hello

At the risk of sounding ignorant I have a question about creating avatars and selling them. I would like to create avatars and sell them using some really nice creations, like skins, hair, and clothes from top designers. Is this possible? Or allowed rather by the designers? I could sell only shapes but I really would rather sell a complete package, a total look. Of course I would always mention skin by ___, hair by ___, clothes by ___. Just thought id toss this out there and see if this is even possible for me to do?
Thanks!

There's not a simple answer to this, or rather there is, but it's not a useful one. You will have to ask each designer in turn about it. They almost certainly won't let you directly do this (that would mean selling you copy, transfer versions of their hair, skin etc.), but they might well accept an invitation to sell from your shop so at least there would be a one-stop shop for it.

There are scriptable solutions where they could license you to sell their stuff, but lots of the big names aren't so keen on them to be honest.

Eloise,
Thank you for your helpful answer! The only solution I can see is just creating shapes wearing skins, hair, etc that I have bought for myself, and then including the information on where to find those items in a notecard for the purchaser of the shape. For this complete look: skin is by _ called _, etc. It would be really neat to offer a total package for the consumers but I understand that the creators of the skins, clothes, hair would be very leery of that, to protect themselves. Contacting the creators was one of my thoughts as well, but IMHO they are usually too busy creating, and have no reason to trust me or even listen to my idea. Probably the only way to do this is to have friends that create those items, people that know you. Or to just make them yourself . Which is something i am contemplating! LOL

Thanks again!

Aleri, one thing that you could do is include a voucher for a skin in the package that the buyer could redeem with the skin maker for the skin. That would get around any need for a skinner to give you full permissions which most would be unwilling to do. It's not too hard to set up a vendor box that splits the sale between more than one person. It won't be immediate gratification for the buyer (but you could include a demo version of the skin so they could see how it looks right away) but it's an easy way you could handle it.

It's always worth talking to the creators - a two minute conversation, "This is what I'd like to do, what can we do to make it work?" gives them a clear line for another potential outlet, which a lot of folks like, especially if you say something along the lines of "For the products I want it's rent-free. If you want more items the pricing is..."

If they don't and you offer a notecard remember most shops let you create landmarks anywhere, include the landmark to stand just in front of the vendor if you can. Back to those dimly remembered days of red columns from the landing point!

Good luck with your ideas.

With the ability to create unlimited accounts, create a new "unverified" account. Do not give any real info on sign-up. Now, from your main account, give the new account some $L to go shopping with.

Make your new avatar look the way you want, skin, clothing, shape, etc...

Take some great snapshots of it and advertise that you have a "pre-blinged" SL avatar for sale.

Charge enough to recoup the costs of various products purchased in creating the avatar and add a profit.

Once you have been paid for the avatar send the buyer the account password.

The buyer can then take over the account, change the password and, if they choose, move up to a premium account with it.

Plenty of people will gladly pay for "pre-blinged" avatars of all types, sexy, furry, military, etc...

WHY would people pay for these?

A few reasons:
1) to save time
2) to get a "designer" look from a talented avatar creator or shopper*
3) the learning curve of good avatar design can frustrate some newbies
4) some people just SUCK at avatars ... need proof? look at mine LOL

This will be a booming business in SL.

Sinatra

p.s. be sure to pick cool names for the new account

*shopper? yes some people know how to buy and coordinate clothing, skin, hair, make-up, etc., better than others.

Only trouble is, last time I checked selling accounts was still against the TOS.

As someone else said, selling an existing SL account is a TOS violation. Linden Labs won't allow it. There is also the issue that someone who purchases it would be unable to change the name, or the initial bogus user information, other than the e-mail address. It's an interesting idea, however.

Working out numbers on any kind of a deal like this will certainly be difficult, and the more designers you try to bring in, the whole thing could be quite a big mess.

My recommendation would also be to set up a vendor space and invite them to set up shop there together. See if they're willing to donate a few items of their catalog in exchange for you putting up ensemble photoboards detailing exactly what components you've used so buyers can see what it looks like together.

Buyers still pay the creators directly, you get a cut for composition and advertising/shop space. If you're terribly worried about getting everything to fit correctly, you can have the displays dispense (or sell) preconfigured body shapes, or notecards detailing how to match the sizing shown.

You may be right.
Let's say that at the moment LL would not condone the practice of "pre-blinged avatars", is it possible that LL may re-think their position if they realized the good service this will be to content creators and new customers?


I would love to hear from a Linden on this one. Now that they allow us to create these "unverified" accounts, which I believe is a great boon to SL, maybe they will consider the positive nature of of my idea of allowing people to create, advertise and sell "pre-blinged" avatars, even allowing name changes if someone upgrades one to a premium account.
By the way, they can still say "no" to the sale of "verified" accounts. Giving new customers the ability and choice to purchase an avatar already "looking great" may help soften a bit of the "learning curve" frustration that may cause some newbies to give up on SL.

I suppose another way to do it would be contact hair/skin makers and ask them about possibility of 'bulk' purchase of their items with permissions set to transfer (+optional mod) rather than copy/mod. Then you could have say, 10 compiled packages of your shape plus these other items needed to get the complete look, in your vendor machine... and if you get close to running out, purchase another set etc.

This approach would require quite a bit more of initial investment and risk, obviously, since you'd be paying other makers in advance o.O;