Guess Who Bought 10 of 15 Sims in the Last Four Days

BTW, don't take the above post as a moan, or a plea, its just an explanation of how things stand at the moment within the rental market.

Instead of bashing Anshe,, has anyone ever thought to think for a moment... " this women is an incrediable busniess person, the ability to forcast land sales and the SL economy. To be able to take a game into a RL business"


Dayum i think to myself.. i wish i was her...

Not really. Why not just buy it from each other? Talk to each other, work out who wants to stay and expand, and who wants to sell and move elsewhere.

Why does Garnet need to come in, buy from your neighbors, and sell to you?

I always advise first landers to talk to their neighbors if they want to sell, or expand.

Selling first land has always been the way to make enough money to buy elsewhere. It's a given that it will make you a profit. But selling it to someone who wants the land makes far more sense to me than selling it to someone who will just add a profit margin and sell it on to people you could have sold to directly.

I'd be quite happy for people to sell to their neighbours. If they don't then perhaps it just isn't the right time for them. Land buying was never my main occupation here so if there were suddenly no plots to buy I'd just spend more time building

For anyone dipping their toes in sim auctions I recommend reading all the above advice on costs, but also please note it can be terribly tedious and boring trying to sell all those carefully carved plots. How anyone spends the majority of their time doing it is beyond me.

What? You're kidding me, right?
Tight margins are precisely what drives amateurs off the market.
Back when you could make hundreds off of assembling and selling computers, there were heaps of amateurs that could live off of it.
These days margins are so tight only major corporations who do it in very large volumes with efficient factory processes can make an appealing profit, and most of those mom'n'pop computer stores are dead.
It's the same for every industry really... its the natural evolution of a market, and we call it "commoditization".
Reselling server space isnt a new thing, and the fact that its disguised as "virtual real estate" shouldnt matter.

I am lazy today, so I am not going to read this all...

I think that it is gREAT that Anshe is buying 10 sims in such a short time. That must mean that there is a demand for the land to be BOUGHT. These are not sims that are just rented, but sims that land is sold on. If she feels that 10 sims worth of land will be bought quickly, that much mean that more people are coming inot the world and more people mean a beter time for all!

Eggy, your English is way too good... are you sure you're not someone's alt?



Hey... I thought you promised to remove that hidden web cam...

I am not afraid of people with million$ budgets. They lack the skills to do what I do effectively and they would never bother to do it for margins I charge. Just look at IGE as one example. They are multi-million$ company with hundreds of employees. I made one killing from their inflexibility and slowness in reacting to economic trends in SL.

Content developers are much more vulnerable to professional big budget companies than service workers and speculators.

What I am afraid of is hungry and smart people in developing countries. I still believe sooner or later they will come and take over the service sector of SL economy and drive most of us out of business.

Anshe has hit the nail on the head. Of course you need some capital, but the biggest factor in the equation is the hard work and determination involved.

Heh, thanks, I can write pretty well but if you heard me on Skype you would see just how portuguese I am

(if any of you have skype, i'm "eggstasy", feel free to add me - i could use the english practice hehehehe)

Seconded, Anshe and Hiro. I have no problem providing the capital for a handful of sims, but I don't want the work, I don't like the risk, and I don't consider the margins big enough to compensate for them. I did a big spreadsheet, planning out a land baron business, varying occupancy estimates, and land turnover times etc etc, and those were my conclusions. Which suggests to me that there is nothing too wrong with the way things are going, and no-one is being terribly exploited.

Though I would like to see Anshe getting a bit more competition. But we can't really be sure how much she's got, except in looking at her auction purchases. She may have a hidden competitor, even of equal size, with a business split discreetly between multiple alts., and a deliberately low profile. We wouldn't know, if some of the other barons are all one person.

My question...is there ANY opportunity for a normal regular member with 2nd or 3rd tier to acquire a plot of land directly from LL or is it pretty much a given that anyone wanting to buy newly released land will have to purchase it 2nd hand and marked up?

No, we have to buy it 2nd hand and marked up. No other way.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson

You intrigue me Ellie, interesting wording. From your own research, you state that no one is being terribly exploited, yet I am guessing you would gleefully go into business if the potential gains outweighed the risks, dependent upon your own position on the risk-gain scale. Now does that mean that if there was evidence of exploitation, you would see that as a great business oportunity?

Or from another resident. I bet their are more sales between those not involved in the land dealing business than purchases from land dealers.

But yeh, if you want a plot in a brand new sim, you would have to buy a large plot at auction. One way would be to get together with friends, bid on a plot and divide. Its not ideal I know, but its an option.

Ahah, if I was anshe I'd be worried about the fact that Philip is threatening to get rid of tier!

The fact is, Land barons are a side effect not a core need to LL.

Content developers are king, and LL will do everything in its power to support them.

Haha I wont be fished in Blaze. Nice try tho

Wasn't directed at you, but rather Anshe.

She has this habit of dissing content developers, when really, that's what this whole place is all about.



Content developers are not vulnerable at all. Big budget companies are not going to play second fiddle to Philip and Crew. Or, when they do, I'm sure they'll happily hire us (the experts) at that point.

Land baroning, while interesting, is not apart of the core mission of LL. It is wholely vulnerable.

Same thing that happened to GOM and will happen to SLExchange / etc. Their protected existence is contrary to the core mission.

The fact is, if Anshe gets turfed tomorrow, you'll see a lot of groaning about the mis treatment of business people but all the content developers will continue to make money. And, frankly, there will be a large number of content developers that will be happy as they do not believe a middleman for land should exist.

Everything will continue to exist.

If content developers get screwed, say like an Aimee or a Cubey Terra, then SL ceases to exist as nobody will want to develop for SL anymore.

We are completely protected.

I'm not saying I like this. I like Anshe. I like Hiro. I'm just saying that the reality is that content is where it's at in SL.

Thanks. I really think LL should set aside a few sims where people can buy individual plots and ban the known land barons from buying plots there. It seems to me LL supports the Land Barons by only auctioning the large plots of land. Couldn't they just set some land aside that you have to be on certain tiers to purchase from? Just seems there ought to be a way for the average Joe/jane to purchase land straight from LL instead of having to pay higher costs for 2nd hand land...Give the common folk a fair shot at some of the newer land direct from LL.


One thing I noticed in the closed auction list....about half of those auctions had 1-3 bids only...not exactly high demand. What I am just amazed at is the over $10,000 US spent on those sims. Guess I didn't realize how much $$US some people had tied up in SL. Is it really that much easier/better paying than investing in mutual funds, stocks, or bonds???

It wouldn't make a difference, someone would still buy it and resell it to the Land Barons. How would you prevent LB alts from buying it? And of course the LB's would scream discrimination to the high heavens.


For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson

I guess the only shot the common person has at origionally priced LL land is First land...and if you want to pay anywhere near the origional LL prices after that you have to find someone who doesn't know what they're doing when they are selling. I know nothing can be done about this but it sucks none-the-less.

I never ever, not in one single instance ever dissed content developers. This is nonsense. You confuse me with Prokofy. In fact, I have been one major content developer myself before turning to land business.

I dont see how you can say this while yes SL is totally dependent on content developers there is no protection from companies that could bring in a labor force that is trained and produce content on a faster & professional level then many here can as individuals. While I dont think it would eliminate all indvidual content providers, I would think you would need to be one a content providers who is on a professional level to survive.

I just wanted to note that a number of threads have gone by in the last few days on an historically highly contentious subject and that the discourse has remained civil and people holding broadly divergent agendas have been appreciating the stance of others.

Have we accidentally matured as a community? What a pleasant possibility.