Linden Dollars On Ebay

Hello,

I was over my monthly buy limit so I decided to search for L$ on ebay..I thought they would have costed me more than what they are worth here on LL, but I found out that their cost I 3/4 or even less of the average market here, I decided to buy a small amount at first and they came to me in 1/2 an hour, how is it possible for someone to sell 200k at 550usd when they would cost about 700 here?...Is there anything I didnt realize yet or seller is just out of his monthly limit and wants to give them away quickly?
thank you

I have known another player sell L$ on ebay below the market value because LL would not increase their trading limits. it was their only option to turn the L$ into US $ due to the restrictions imposed on them by LL. If they are that low you should buy the lot and then just sell then through lindex, make yourself a bit of a profit.

You're likely buying L$ from scammers who can't use a third party exchange to exchange L$ for US$ and who wouldn't really care about the exchange rate, just as long as they get something in return for their ill-gotten L$.

Even if you don't really care where the L$ came from, this is an excerpt from the RISK API:

Linden Labs is good in covering their own interests from what I see here. But when their residents get ripped off they don't do a thing about it.

As noted, when you buy directly from another avatar instead of a trusted exchange, such as LindeX, SLX, etc., you run the risk of not getting your money, all the way up to having your account locked and the funds seized.

Buyer beware, like Dad always said, if its too good to be true, it probably is. The risk API is indiscrimatory, just like in real life. If you buy a stolen car IRL, you ain't going to get to keep it, and the law isn't going to reimburse you for what you paid for it. Same holds true of L$.

With this in mind, if I run across a scheme where somebody facilitates that "a Second Life user may purchase Linden Dollars for real currency through any means other than LindeX", how is this to be reported?

Good question... the answer is: I'm not exactly sure, but you could try simply emailing Linden Labs support. Keep in mind they might not do a darned thing about it, but you never know.

There is nothing wrong with offering L$ for US$ (or any other currency), it is not against the ToS, and LL does not forbid it.

What is wrong is fraud and theft. In the event that LL is able to detect a case of fraud or theft, they will seize up to 150% of the illicitly-obtained L$ from the original culprit or anyone he's passed L$ on to--unless the second party uses LL's Exchange Risk API to avoid this. If you join LL's Exchange Risk API program, they will help you evaluate a potential L$ seller; L$ purchased from an "acceptable risk" seller are not liable to seizure. Presumably well-known exchanges such as SLEX make use of the Exchange Risk API program, but as far as I know there is no way for a resident to know who does and who does not.

So buying L$ from a third party is risky. They could have hacked someone's account or stolen their payment information, and want to use you to launder their ill-gotten wealth. On the other hand, they could merely have exceeded their LindeX limits (true newbies can't sell L$ at all for six days, and for the rest of their first month they're limited to selling US$300 worth through the LindeX), need the US$ sooner than two weeks from now (about how long it takes to process a credit to PayPal), want their cash in a form different from those offered by LL (PayPal or check), or realized that selling at the market rate, paying LL a 3.5% fee on the proceeds, and paying the additional fee to process their credit means they could offer their money on eBay at a lower rate and still end up getting the same net amount.

Like cHex says, there is nothing stopping you from doing it, its not againt the TOS or anything, its just riskier than buying it through 'trusted channels'.

I really didnt know it...well I will no longer buy L$ on ebay then..

yes it's so much riskier you can even lose more lindens than the amount you buy from a 3rd party supplier. You know there are many scammers around in SL so 1 out of 2 can be a con artist that could cost you a ton of money. Again a case where honest people can get ripped off because of some stupid policy measure.

I generally buy on the Lindex, but if they keep screwing up the billing prcess as they have done 2 months in a row, I gotta go elsewhere. I bought form an ebay seller once so far. the rate was close to lindex so I'm guessing it was legit. The transaction went smoothly

Buying on LindeX is not usually the problem. Neither is selling, not at market rate, but sometimes exchange rates can be better elsewhere. What is problematic is the process credit function. I think that many, many people cash out using SLX or the banks. This would explain why buys pretty much always exceed sales on the LindeX. I could be wrong...

I've also read that eBay provides no protection at all for intangibles (like L$). If someone sells you a slice of bread on eBay and doesn't deliver, centuries of contract law come to your aid; not so for L$.

Theres also Supply Linden which sells Lindens into the system with the idea to keep the Liden at a stable value evidently. So depending on how much Supply sells it would make the buys seem higher than the sells.

I utilized a couple of linden buying and selling services over the last few months. After buying a bunch of lindens at what I thought was a great deal from eBay, I was quite pleased to find them delivered quickly and the whole process went smoothly.

Seemed strange that the delivery was in 10 smaller chunks to make up the amount I bought.... But! Transaction was successful and I was happy.

Till I got an IM from a Linden asking me to source my linden purchases. We chatted around about the issues for awhile, and it came out that the source of the lindens I purchased were fraudulent credit cards. People steal them, sign up on SL, burn the card as fast and hard as they can, then pull the lindens out.

Thankfully, I wasnt penalized for buying stolen lindens. But they were able to track the stolen cards being researched at that time to the accounts that sent me money, and were quick to question me. I was also told in a kind and easy manner that I should be wary of deals to good to be true, and next time... TOS would kick in and I might loose more then I bought.

I am just testing the Australian ebay market trying to sell a small parcel of $L 3000.

I figure there are lots of unverified accounts out there who do not like using paypal or credit cards, but may like to pay by direct debit into my bank account. I am not offering any discount and only allowing payment by direct bank debit.

Just trying the market . . . . .

perhaps all these cheap lindens on ebay are from LandBot Merlin tring to cash out his/her mega profit that was made recently......

If that IS the case, then i <heart> land bots

Beware, beware of eBay Linden sellers. There are reputable Linden dealers on eBay. However, there are a lot of scammers and theives as well. I know from personal experience.

I purchased Lindens on eBay at below market price. Note that I purchased from two people with a good deal of eBay feedback and a 100% positive rating. Nothing at all was suspicious about the seller. After purchase, they both even left me a positive feedback rating - something scammers don't usually do. I have been purchasing on eBay since it was born - and I've never made a bad call on a seller yet - until now.

A few days after purchasing the Lindens and having them deliverd, my account was suddenly disabled with no explanation or notice given. It took repeated calls to Linden Lab to finally get someone to even tell me what was going on. Finally they told me that the avatars that had delivered the Lindens to me had been purchasing Lindens from LindenX with stolen credit cards. Thus, they froze me out for having received the stolen Lindens.

Originally I was threatened with having my account closed and all funds and land taken unless I agreed to pay back 150% of the amount of the Lindens to Linden Lab. After a very long, and somewhat distraught conversation - they backed off with the understanding that I was a victim as well and that this was the first time anything weird had ever happened to my account.

However, they also told me that if anything like this ever happened with Linden purchases affiliated with my account again - I would be cancelled and everything in my account - Lindens, cash balances and land would forfeit to Linden Lab. With no possible recourse on my part, period. They advised me not to purchase Lindens on eBay, period. Two strikes and you are out, no arguements, no exceptions.

So, yep - if it looks too good to be true - it is.

And for those of you still thinking about purchasing - the two people I purchased Lindens from that were indicated as the theives - are still auctioning Lindens right now. Linden Lab and eBay are investigating them, but so far no action has been taken to shut them down. The seller likely is using multiple avatars, multiple eBay IDs and multiple stolen credit cards.

Now, that is mighty professional of them. I understand the TOS, but they could have at least sent you an IM (even if you were not online, you would have received an e-mail). That alone makes me want to sell all of my mainland, cancel my premium account and just buy from a private island owner.

I recently looked at an ad in a SL paper and it took me to a website that offered cheap lindens.

The website looks fairly professional and they deal with several other games, including currency and leveling-up services.

Even though they seem established for a few years, I fired off a email to support with the URL. Can't be too careful I guess.

If the Lindens says its an acceptable site, me will be very happy.

Hmmm, you actually expect to get a reply from a Linden?

I doubt that they will comment on a third-party site, if they repond at all.

Good luck with that

Max

Yea, I expect an answer by early 2008

Seriously, you don't think they will advise on something like this?

A call to billing a couple of weeks ago about buying on eBay got me the warning that ebay doesn't adhere to the Risk API and as such any L$ I purchase that was delivered from a stolen source would be confiscated at the 150% rate. So buyer beware. When you buy from eBay even thought the seller delivers the source may be from illegal operations and you lose it all. The people who used to routinely upgrade trading limits now spend all their time investigating fraud which explains why it is so difficult to get upgrades these days.

I have just sold a very small quantity of lindens (3K) on ebay australia but no cheaper than I could cash them out at. I was paid by direct deposit into my cheque (check in the usa) account so the only fee involved was my ebay listing (60c aus).

This would suit someone who does not want to use a CC with LL or slexchange or does not want to be bothered with international exchange costs.

I earned the L's through my commercial efforts.