HOW LONG can you be a premium member for $US72??

Probably longer than you realize.

( Optional secondary thread title: How cheap can premium membership REALLY be? )

The following is something that has been rattling around in my mind for some time with the intent to post/share it here eventually. Since I have no plans to attend any of the alternate forums after the curtain falls here I suppose that "eventually" = NOW, or not at all.

I have wondered how long someone could remain a premium member, academically speaking, *if* they were to purchase an annual membership and then repeatedly fold their stipend back into renewals without spending *any* Lindens elsewhere.

So I did the math ... honest. Following is the breakdown. Skip it if you like - the bottom line is, ummm, down near the bottom line.


Begin:
Buy annual membership for $US72. Over the course of that year you will receive $L15600 stipend.


12th month:
Sell your $L15600 on the Lindex for $55.90US.
Change your membership to quarterly and renew twice leaving a USD balance $10.90
Get $L7800 stipend


18 months:
Sell $L7800 for $27.95, bringing your USD balance to $38.85.
Renew quarterly membership for $22.50, leaving $16.35 balance
Get $L3900 stipend


21 months:
Sell $L3900 for $13.98, bringing you to $30.33
Renew quartery membership @$22.50, Bal $ 7.83
Get $L3900 stipend


24 months:
Sell $L3900 for $13.98, bringing you to $21.81
Change membership to monthly, renew twice. Balance $1.91
Get $L2400 stipend


26 months:
Sell $L2400 for $8.61, balance $10.52
renew monthly membership one last time, leaving $.57 balance.
Get $L2400 stipend.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Total: Twenty seven months of premium membership for $72.00, a monthly cost of $2.67 and at the end you still have $L2400 to spend.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Two-sixty-seven per month. IMO that's damned well not bad for unlimited hours of entertainment, although I know many of you would just rather focus on something you can complain about.


Add a little careful camping, selling, or inworld employment and your membership could probably be perpetual.

I used this argument to talk myself into going Premium again...

...but at the end of the year, I had $L0, and a whole closet full of shoes.

I get L$24000 per 12 months so sell that for US$85.99 at the end of the year

Renew membership for $72.00 leave remaining $13.99 in my account then after 6 years I have a free years membership and still change left over

Hahahahah sounds right

Thanks guys.

you just identified another juicy low hanging fruit for the pinchers at LL to cut down.

Like how they noticed the classifieds forum on this site and put to the knife

Are you taking into account the 3.5% service charge for selling L?

well, like the rest I actually make a profit on the subscription.

LL benefit because they get my (and all others) content creation labour free and they use it in their marketing to attract new players.. the moment they recognise their debt to us and they treat us with something approaching respect then I'll consider the 72 value for money. I may also be a bit happier if they'd provide decent support with tickets and a myriad of other things that companies who actually have to deliver to keep their customers provide.

the couple of usd I end up with at the end of the year really isn't much of a recompense for the sheer aggravation and the overall poor quality of the game.

thanks for the thread, I've never had a chance to say that on a linden owned site before.

Every figure was taken by plugging numbers into the Lindex, not just calculated on the exchange rate.. so, yes.

Why pay $2.67 per month instead of $0.00 per month? What does that $2.67 buy?

Power beyond belief..it was too much power for me though so i went basic power..less lives are lost now.

actually, it could be even longer.

Your premium membership gets you 512 of tier. Does Elanthius Flagstaff still buy/sell tier? Elanthius used to pay L.15 per week. If you don't own land, you could pick up another L77 per week at that rate.

Emm.. I didnt understand all that math lol

So.. theres a way to get cheaper premium rates?

/me sneeks into her closet, giggling as she grabs an arm full of shoes and runs out the door... you have what!!!

LL benefit because they get your money.
The L$ you receive back, they just pull out of thin air.

Yes you can exchange them back for real cash, but that's not LL's money. It's yours and mine.

This is the approach I'm taking!





Did I, ah... overdo it?

Land Ninjas still has tier available to rent (thank goodness) but they do not pay you for your unused tier anymore. From what I can see LL has screwed Elan until he's pretty much surrendered and Skye seems to runs the continually shrinking farm single-handedly. I only hope and pray that Des doesn't end up the same way - I've got "family" who are very happy in Caldeon.

I ran a rough draft of those "if Elanthius still paid" numbers for my own curiosity. It was impressive but I didn't publish them because they are irrelelvant.

I used the tier to buy a cheap 512. Then I sold it for slightly higher. I repeated this process about 30 times so far during this year's membership time. By the time my membership fee is due I'll have made about US$150 including cashing in the weekly stipend (which for me is $500 a week).

I'm still thinking of going basic, even though the membership will pay for itself with the stipend alone because I don't like supporting the worst run company in the history of the world.