No US$ Auctions active?

To all before whom this posting appears: Greetings!

So I decided to try out a business idea in SL - a HoloDeck Studio Region, and have been engaging in the US$ auctions for the last week or two. Needless to say I've been outbid every time, and have had to up the amount I'm willing to bid (a lot). Over the weekend the last of auctions closed. I expected more auctions to show Sunday.

Uh Oh. Nothing. So, my assumption was there will regularly be Land available from LL on the US$ auctions - is wrong?

It's like buses, nothing turns up for a few days then they all arrive at once.

Sometime today you will see a few or a lot of new auctions.

lol. no auctions yet. i bet you feel stoopid now

Stoopid? lol ...no

Nothing SL does or doesnt do is suprising. Stay a while, you might learn something new.

i think you need to do the learning not me lol

I would disagree. Sounds like you are still in high school, so until you graduate, you would do better to apply yourself to your studies rather than wasting valuable time insulting people on teh intarweb

lol firstly... you lot in here have no sense of humour

secondly ... is everyone on this forum a geek who has no idea how to deal with banter??

thirdly .. was i talking to you??

* YAWWWWWWWNNNNN * This is what passes for banter these days?!

In answer to the OP, Porky is right. LL often clumps the auctions. We can't say exactly when new ones will drop, but it's a good bet that it will be a bunch of them.

On the bright side, I believe auction prices tend to be lower when a ton come on the market all at once, so you might get a deal.

Current theory is that Linden Lab releases sims to auction when land prices begin to rise in an effort to keep land prices stable. (A friend of mine believes the current magic number is around L$10/square meter- if base price goes over that, the Company dumps a bunch of sims all at once on the market.)

But if you're starting a business, why not consider an island sim over a mainland one? You can get them whenever you want, and put them nearly wherever you want on the grid. You get much more control over the terrain and sim settings, and the start up price is a LOT less than mainland sim auction prices (which are still going at around $2700 USD). The monthly cost is significantly higher, but if you think about it though, for $1700 USD, that leaves you with $1000 that you would have dropped on a mainland sim, that you could use to cover your monthly expenses for four months while you get your business off the ground (your first month is free). If you bought a mainland sim, you'd be out the full $2700 and liable for $195 a month before you've even rezzed your first prim.

What's amazing to me is that resellers still seem to be the ones buying mainland sims, but at the prices they've been selling for, you have to list the land at almost a full L$ per square meter over the current base price just to break even- and this is before LL's 3.5% cash-out tax! Why are resellers still buying these sims?

Fully agree. Buy an Island! Who's this friend of yours, WW? Sounds like a smart person.

Was wonderin' when you'd come sauntering by!

Yeah I'm the one with the L$10 per meter threshold theory. Right now now the lowest price per meter for mainland is $L9.8. Watch when it creeps to $L9.9 or $L10.0. LL will then drop more sims to auction at that time, keeping the base price from going much higher.

By holding out and not dropping sims over 5 days or so, when they finally do arrive, they will most likely be bid up to prices where it really makes more sense to buy an island.

Unless you are planning to divide the sim and sell part of it off, I suggest you go island shopping.

Lol.... It took me a while to find my post.

thanks for the responses. I read that there's no particular pattern to LL auctions, and I shouldn't read anything (personal) into it.

My read on Islands is that there are problems with sliding out from under the Tier fee, if I develop a hankering to lower my holdings by selling off bits and pieces. Because this is a new business venture (read game with an excuse) sanity could bite me at any time (read Wife) and afford me the opportunity to review my commitment.

So, a mainland SIM with some water and lots of buildable land seems a better bet for unloading down stream.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Why a whole sim? Why not start smaller? BTW, you could always rent out part of your island to cover your tier...

Raymond, in direct truthful answer - 'cause I wanna!

A more analytical response...

After a careful examination of the principal quandary's facing Scene developers today, I can find no happy maximum other than that imposed by LL in the number of prims available on a SIM. Therefore to impose no artificial limitation on the creative process I've deemed a Full Sim (Region) as optimal for my experimental purposes.

A business facet response...

The best investment in this untested scheme is the land it's built on. Mainland appears to offer the best potential for sale, and the greatest flexibility in the near term.

A Geek's response ....

how am i gonna know what i need til i start doing it?

kinda thing

Well at least you are thinking about it LOL.

My last suggestion: Before you get caught in a bidding frenzy and buy an overpriced Mainland sim, talk to a few Island owners (Desmond Shang, Sarah Nerd and Rockwell Ginsberg are three that seem open to talking with inquiring minds) and see if there actually isn't more flexibility with renting part of your Island to others. You've got nothing to lose, especially given the fact that there are still no mainland sims up for auction (meaning they will be fetching a premium whenever they finally show up unless they dump 40 at once.) Good luck!