Newbie question, you will get sick of me soon!!!

Okay so I am wondering if anyone can help me with this one.

I have been reading about buying $L, and slexchange and such.

I do not want to get a bad deal.

How/where do I go to buy $L? I do not want to use ebay.

And how much $L should I have? I have a shopping addiction but I mean, in your opinion, how many $L's are really needed to be able to just enjoy SL?

If this has been asked before, I apologize. I tried searching for this first and found way too many non related threads.

Some people don't need any Lindens, others need a huge amount. It's the old piece of string question, everyone is different in their wants and needs.

I would budget first for skin, hair and a few clothes. This would require about three thousand as an estimate ;o)

HI. You can buy Lindens in-game by clicking on the L$ sign in the top toolbar. Or you can buy or sell L$ from the Linden Exchange under your account on the secondlife webpage. Either way pays for the L$ by using the same payment type that you make your monthly fees in, ie credit card or paypal.

The current exchange rate seems to be about 260L$ to the US$.

How much do you need? You can find an awful lot of things free in SL but if you are itching to spend, spend, spend then just browse the shops from Search. Don't buy straight away and just visit several shops that take your fancy.

Enjoy.

SLX generally seems to have a better purchase rate, even with the small fee they attach, but it does require some extra steps. Rather than just clicking a button and filling in the amount, such as with an in-world Lindex purchase, you have to transfer a USD amount to SLX (I use PayPal...not sure if there are other options), figure out how many Lindens you can buy (might take a little trial and error) and make your purchase, THEN go to an in-world kiosk and withdraw your funds. Unless Lindex purchasing isn't working for me for some reason, I usually just do it the lazy way...I want instant gratification, damn it!

I use the in Game Lindex for the convienience. I usally buy 10k at a time( approx $38USD)
This lasts me from a week to almost a month depending on what I buy and how much I am InWorld

And how much I distract you from shopping

I would suggest not paying more than L$1 for anything for the first few weeks, while you go around and find out what is available for free, or for L$1 in world and on sites like SLExchange.

THERE IS A LOT OF STUFF THAT IS AVAILABLE FREE FOR THE TROUBLE OF GOING THERE AND SORTING THROUGH IT FOR WHAT YOU WANT!!!

We are talking about many multiple thousands of items here. Every category. Including some I guarantee you haven't thought of yet. Amid the dross, there are some gems - damn decent stuff! Also, you will get a pretty good idea of what your minimum quality standards should be when you do start spending money. AND when somebody is trying to sell you something that you can get elsewhere for free.

First, the freebie stuff available in most major newbie areas, like Help Island, The Shelter, etc. Then, click the Search button at the bottom of your screen, click on Places in the window that comes up, type freebie into the search field, and teleport, teleport, teleport!

If you are really a shopaholic, how sweet must it be to go on a worldwide, FREE!!! shopping binge?

Follow this course. You will be glad you did.

You really are quite the little shopper dear

Yes, there are lots of freebies in SL, but if you enjoy shopping there are also going to be a lot of temptations. And some of the higher priced items -- such as quality skins, prim hair and attractive clothes, especially shoes -- simply cannot be equaled with freebies.

The advice I was given by the friend who mentored my arrival into SL was to buy US$25-30 worth of Lindens. This would provide a comfortable starting allowance for shopping.

If you're on a budget, scale down from that amount, but if you can afford that level of play money, go for it.

That I am, That I am.

i perfer shopping on SLExchange only because i can hang out in SL and be with my buddies and play games or talk while shoppping...no hassle with TP failing, walking around busy store with rude people in them, waitin for the store to rez and searching the store for the item i want.....Web shopping is just easier for me and while im playing Yartsee with my friends i can buy a new dress and wear it before the game is over and i didnt even miss a moment.



as a new user i would go lucky chair hunting, join the lucky chair groups and get free stuff! if you like the quality of your free items then go back and buy from them...the lucky chairs are great i love em

You can become the avatar you want to be for a good L$2000, L$5k if you think spedning about $19 US dollars is worth it. After you become the avatar or 2 you want to be then shopping gets kind of boring unless you start making stuff, like your own stuff that you could not find shopping.

I play an alien so I was shopping for an animation to overide the default that was suitable for an alien, but there were none I could find so then I tried making my own and now I'm hooked on it.

Maybe for you you can try to make your own stuff you would want to buy, it can be very fullfilling, way more than shopping is, but I understand you want to be a certain avatar so spend about $10US and dont forget about free stuff too. have fun!