Tulipmania - properly medicated at last?

It has been a number of weeks since this little exercise has taken place, and I'm curious what the longer term effects (if any) will be.


Facts since then:

Tulips at one point sold for over $L 1000, a 10,000% markup. Perhaps higher but I can't confirm. Some may still command significant value; it's hard for me to say.

Some tulips have been given away since then.

The views to the thread made it 'top five viewed' in the Land and Economy Forum.

The entire incident made the Herald.

Some folks made some fun events in a similar vein. Though I had no intention to make a circus of it, perhaps the spectacle was more fun than the economics?

I haven't made any more tulips, nor do I intend to.

Any 'publicity returns' I gained by all this would safely fall under the $L 5000 range; more likely, less than $L 2000. Per effort expended, I would have done myself better in camping chairs. I can't back these numbers up easily, save this: try it yourself and see.

After long and careful investigation, I have determined (with the help of some 'white hat' folk who shall remain un-named) that yes, it IS possible to duplicate the tulips in their entirety, security measures and all. Though I doubt this would stop many, the terms of service have to be violated to duplicate a tulip (unless I personally decided to destroy my reputation and do it myself).

It's far from worth it monetarily, and I'd also guess that the odds of getting it flawlessly correct - enough to fool even me - are rather poor unless the duplicator is insanely meticulous, and expects the unexpected.

As such, I doubt I'll ever make anything quite like the tulips again - should I succeed in making something of true collectible value, it would become worth duplicating. And thus possibly destroy my name and reputation.


Sooo... what of the tulips in the coming weeks, months, years?

- a waste of $L 10?
- a flower that nobody will even notice in another month?
- unique items that will one day again accrue significant value?
- a reminder of a silly, sunny day when everyone had a laugh?

I wonder what people think.


TuleX: /244/fe/88655/1.html

Mine are in a vase on my office desk where they will remain untill a sim crash wipes them from eternity.




(or untill someone makes me an offer I'd be stupid to refuse...)



Talking of sim crashes.. what would happen if I took my tulips back into my inventry, then the sim crashed and had to be rolled back to a time before I'd taken them into my inventry? Would there be legitimate Linden created duplicates? or would the asset server be smart enough to realise that I had them in my inventry and not re-create them in the rolled back, re-started sim?

Yep, nope, this is one of those things that Cory (or Andrew?) talked about when people were complaining about Glintercept. (What I got from reading it) He was saying that SL would never be 100% safe. (I think)

I think I've found that there seem to exist more common (sarlet, possibly white) tulips than there are people that want them - I can't even give away the last 5.

Also, the percieved reasonable value of most tulips seemed to level out at around L$200.

Of course, I don't know much about economics and was just having fun with the hunting, so I could be reading it wrong.

I'll take a white one! <3... XD

Maybe it's just that nobody realises then...

Will sort you out next time I can get online.

They'll probably go the way of the Beanie Baby.

I don't think Tulip 'mania' was that big a deal at all.

I never saw one inworld. I never saw one for sale. I never heard any discussion of them inworld. I even managed to miss any discussion of them on the forums [1]. In fact, except for the Herald article (which planted the tulip meme in my head), I'd probably have skipped over this thread as well.

[1] Not that hard as this forum is extremely strange in the way it marks "posts you haven't read". Every single day I see threads started and finished (and active!) between visits by me - marked with the "no new posts graphic".

Sad to say.. I think it fizzled out pretty quickly. The flurry of trades and excitement lasted while the tulips were being released but faded soon after (at least to judge by the posts on the Tulex exchange Desmond set up).

My own interest followed that pattern. I tried to catch one when they were put out (and failed miserably), bought two for L$250 the pair IIRC. I then thought about trying to collect one of each type or all of the scarlet ones but lost interest. My two tulips live at the entrance to my place but I've found other things to interest me since.

Maybe I'll get around to trying to complete my collection, maybe not. In any case it was fun while it lasted and I really enjoyed taking part. Thanks to Desmond for this curious experiment; I know it was a PITA for you at times but I really enjoyed this.

This was an awfully cute idea (and cute tulips!), but unfortnately I wasn't aware it was going on. Anybody got a tulip I can buy?

coco

The tulip looks great on my front porch, and that's all that matters to me.

For me it was fun...bought and sold a few. Have two remaining at my shop. I just loved the thrill of the hunt and enjoyed meeting in SL or at least in IM individulas that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to.

Thanks Desmond!

My *cough* FOUR *cough* tulips will soon be gracing my abode in Caledon, which does need some brightening-up. Quite a lot of brightening-up really.

I have only just moved in, though.

I've seen quite a few of them around Caledon.