Tier – Page 4 – Ciaran Laval

Linden Lab have engaged in a weekend sale whereby you can pick up a shiny new estate region for a record low price of just USD$295.00 (excluding VAT). The USD$295.00 fee will be due upon delivery, which pays tier for the first month, this is how private region tier works, you pay tier in advance. The fee for the first month is usually included in the setup fee, which runs at USD$1,000 (excluding VAT) so you can make a saving of around USD$705.00 on this deal.

Homesteads are also available on this deal, although you need to own a full region to purchase a homestead, the fee is usually USD$375.00 (excluding VAT), with this deal it will be USD$125.00 (excluding VAT). Personally I don’t feel Homesteads offer good value at that price, but for those who want to add a Homestead to their portfolio, this is a good time to do that, I don’t see many Homesteads being sold second hand. the best use for second hand Homesteads is, I imagine, combining three and turning them into a full region.

For those whom were considering a private region but were put off by the whopping setup fee, this is a great deal, although it should be noted that there is a second hand sim market in Second Life, one which Linden Lab support very well and have over the years improved greatly to make much more secure, Linden Lab charge a transfer fee of USD$100.00 in these cases, so they make money on the deal but they also help facilitate it too. Inworld groups such as For Sale By Owner are quite active in this market, the problem is the transfer time eats into the value of the sale price as the next tier date moves closer. Having said that, sims can be purchased there for a lot less than USD$1,000 and even a lot less than USD$705.oo, so there is better value to be had for those who seek it.

However, in terms of this weekend’s sale, I have never seen a better deal than this, if you’re fortunate enough to want a sim this weekend, this is a wonderful deal.

Continue reading “USD$295 For An Estate Sim – This Weekend Only”

The recent Linden Endwonment For The Arts deal for the arts community to be granted the use of twenty sims for a year has once more brought the tier issue to the fore, tier is expensive in Second Life, however there are some cold harsh realities that even a British (Ok Half Irish) lefty like me understands. Linden Lab cannot give away land to all and sundry, they have salaries to pay, bills to pay, development needs, they can’t run the place on free air.

However, it is about time that Linden Lab looked at some alternative means of income, tier is still too large a factor in their business model, which gives them very little wiggle room when it comes to reducing it. Linden Lab’s other means of income appear on the face of it to be transaction fees on Linden Dollar sales, selling Linden Dollars directly and Premium Memberships, Premium Memberships are actually relatively cheap, especially when you take into account the three hundred Linden Dollar stipend a week, older accounts have higher stipends, such as four hundred and five hundred Linden Dollars a week, which basically pay for themselves.

There was a time when Linden Lab could also generate income from auctioning mainland sims, it was not uncommon for a sim to sell for USD$4,000 at auction, those days are long gone.

Continue reading “The Tier Conundrum”