Discussion - Where and how to sell Lindens?

hi

what do you think, where is the best place to sell my L$ to US$?

Depends. Do you want fast, or do you want good value?

tell me about two of them please ...

Best value is on the Lindex

(and it just feels safer to me)

i normally buy and sell on slxechange.com, have been doing so for about 10 months or so and have zero complaints about it. faster than lindex, and no limits.

I also use slex, no problems with them.

I notice a number of vendors on Ebay selling L$. Anybody ever deal with them?

I used to use GOM

Then when Linden Labs pulled the rug out from under them and offered a similar service- Ive used LindenX ever since.

Basically becuase this is the system thats seems to work the best, the buys and selling prices are transparent so you know why they are what they are.

My experience is the L$ on eBay are highy inflated in price and you ahve no guarentee of actually getting anything. Stick with the known and trusted exchanges and never buy directly from another avvie.

That used to be true... you used to get a very unfavorable exchange rate when buying L$ on eBay. But as a recent thread has pointed out, right now multiple sellers are dumping L$ on eBay at sharp discounts, on the order of L$ 350 /US$.

Nevertheless, buying L$ on eBay is very, very risky. As per Linden Lab's Risk API, there is a big risk in buying L$ from an unknown buyer, outside of LindeX or known third-party exchanges like SL Exchange. If LL suspects that the seller got the L$ fraudulently, they will take the L$ away from the buyer, without compensation. In other words, even if the eBay seller actually delivers the L$ to you in SL, you might still lose them anyway.

The sharply discounted eBay sales are unlikely to affect the overall exchange rate, since the volume of L$ traded on LindeX is far greater than the amount of L$ sold on eBay. The eBay tail isn't going to wag the LindeX dog.

Still, something very interesting is going on here. Has anyone been following L$ sales trends on eBay? How recent are these sharp discounts? If it's very recent or sudden, any number of theories suggest themselves. Perhaps there is a Ponzi scheme out there about to implode... how far do you trust your in-world financial institution? Or perhaps someone has discovered an exploit in the server code allowing them to generate L$ out of thin air.
Or perhaps garden-variety credit card fraud has gotten out of hand. It seems almost certain that these sellers fail the Risk API check, otherwise they'd be selling their L$ on a reputable third-party exchange like SL Exchange at a rate much more favorable to themselves. It's a mystery.

I totally agree with Something. SL isn't like other games where you have to go through alternate channels to trade money. I liken buying L$ of off eBay or any other avvie to avvie transaction to buying a Rolex from the guy on the corner: It's either fake, or stolen, either way you are going to get burned.

What exactly are the legitmate reasons for selling L$ outside of the slindex?

Time of turn around is the main reason to use Slexchange etc over LindenX

My husband and I sold a few lindens at the same time. He used LindenX and I used SLexchange.

Within 4 hours my transaction was complete on Slexchange and the funds hit my paypal account within 2 days and my bank account within another 2 days. so 4 days +4 hours.

My husband had to wait several more days than I did.

Also, I feel more confident that I can actually contact a human being who cares at Slexchange.

The cons to Slexchange was a few dollars difference in payment to me. (like 3 dollars)

Hope this helps. I had the same question as this was my first sale of Lindens.

I just have a strange suspicion that the "authorized" sellers of L$ are involved in some sort of scheme to limit large amounts of hard US$ leaving too quickly and that outside sellers are involved in trying to liquify these assets. Possibly to do with taxes.
I find it a little hard to explain but if you want more info about my paranoia have a look at the Gambling thread that is currently hot and have a look at articles like this:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/02/technology/sl_taxes/index.htm?postversion=2007030214

cheers