Why your may be having a hard time buying First Land

A short collection of ideas from the real life avatar of Yonder Doesburg.

The ability to buy your first plot of land at L$512 is well worth waiting for & many people are willing to do so. The Forums are filled with requests for First Land. There have been few offerings of First Land in the resent past. There are many ideas why this may be, but few answers have come out.
I believe there are four possible reasons why there is a shortage. Additionally these may be the reasons why First Land may become a thing of the past.

1. Demand: Since Spring of 2006, the population of SL has increased at an amazing rate. Currently we are approaching 2.5 million accounts. Even if we ignore alternate or dead accounts, we still have a lot of active residents in SL. When First Land has been offered, it sells quickly and is easily missed by desperate premium account holders
When a new Sim is designated for First Land it can only hold 128 plots of 512 square meters each. It could possibly take hundreds of First Land Sims to meet the current and near future demands.

2. Cost: Each new Sim designated for First Land earns less for Linden Labs than if it is sold in open auction or as a private Sim.

First Land Sims earn $ 245.45 (L$65,536), with no initial monthly tier payments.
Private Sim sales earn $1675.00, plus monthly tier payments.
Auctioned Sims earn $ 3500.00 to 4000.00, plus monthly tier payments.

US Dollar to Linden Dollar value calculated at 1 to 267. Auctioned Sim priced based on 1-8-2007 completed auction results. Additionally First land sales are conducted in Linden Dollars. This virtual money is then removed as a “sink”. Essentially Linden Labs makes little or no money. This brings us to number 3.

3. Business: I would think that Linden Labs, like many businesses, must produce a profit to stay viable. They must surely pay their employees, computer upkeep, power bill, rent/lease/mortgage, taxes, etc. Perhaps the costs associated with SL have gone up.
Additionally, being one of best online communities, they are potentially setting up the company/Second Life for eventual sale. Google and many other internet companies have sold for unbelievable sums of money. To interest buyers you would need to show a potential for profit and growth. Limiting First Land and allowing unregistered accounts has certainly added greater profits and grown the population in SL.

4. Greed. First Land is an incredible deal at only L$1 per meter. A first land buyer would potentially be able to sell his/her First Land for L$10,000 to L$20,000. Such a profit has in the past certainly spawned alternate account abuse. Creating many alternate accounts to buy up first land could easily make a lot of money.
Perhaps this type of behavior is known to Linden Labs, and the reduction in First Land availability is a temporary solution to combat this problem.

These are my thoughts on the First Land problem. I tried to keep it as short as possible and still get my thoughts across. I have posted this to share and not to incite flame attacks on my ideas or to denigrate any one else’s ideas. If mine is not the first posting to address these ideas, I apologize you had to read it in another form. In regard to SL and Linden Lab; I think SL is the best online community and I really enjoy being a resident.

Thank you for this. Information is like gold and so little of it is handed out. And though it makes sense from a $$ perspective why LL is not releasing first land, it shows lack of good faith and caring about its customers. Hope this greedy phase passes. Going now to upload a texture for $10, rate someone for $25 and sell some lindens so they can take a fat commission...