The Problem of Landflippers

[Czari Zenovka]

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emilia Avindar wrote:

Thank you and everyone for your thoughts, please drop in to "The Outands" anytime, because all of Clyde is welcoming, and as you know, some of it is for sale.

 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Clyde/185/64/38

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Thank you for posting the SLURL and the invitation.  I'll be headed that way soon.

(And I am sorry to hear you didn't get the land you wanted.  I am so attached to the parcel/sim I'm on - as silly as it sounds to non-SL'ers...or maybe even som SL residents...lol.)

[Czari Zenovka]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

As a flipper, it wouldn't matter if you lost most of the auctions you targeted, as long as you won some of them sometimes.

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This thread is reminding me of a lot of places I want to check into in SL.  Reading about land flippers reminded me of the guy who purchased land to flip when Bay City was first introduced.  One particular property had builds on it so out of the Bay City theme it was obviously done to get a neighbor to buy him out.  It was a huge 2-story Colonial type house with a helicopter on top, several tall For Sale signs scattered around it (prior to the policy for height of For Sale signage went into effect) and, to top it all off, the parcel had a perpetual thunderstorm.  What always provided a giggle to me when I went there was hearing water splashing sound as if I'd walked through a puddle of water....on completely dry sidewalk.

/adds going back there to see what's on the parcel now to list of sites to visit

[Czari Zenovka]

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Conifer Dada wrote:

What surprises me about this is that there are still land flippers in SL!   All around my home there are large and small plots of abandoned land, all for sale at LS1 per sq m - and not selling for weeks and weeks.

 

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I suppose for some hope springs eternal.  Having lived on the same sim for the majority of my SL I see the cycles of sales/what parcels sell for what amount, etc.  This sim is protected on two sides by Linden ocean.  On one of the sides there have always been a row of 512 sqm parcels.  Occasionally someone would purchase several and join them but when sold, the land flipper cut them back into the 512's.  During the SL land boom times these parcels sold fairly quickly due to facing water and open access to an ocean.  The prices were always extremely high - iirc around 30L sqm give or take while parcels in the middle of the sim went for approximately 12L sqm in 2008 (this is also a water sim) to 3.5L - 4.0L sqm in 2011 when I last paid much attention to the prices.

About six months ago I opened the map to see the majority of the sim abandoned and set at 1L sqm. (I was wondering why our sim never had any land for sell, not even one little parcel, after the land prices crashed...apparently much of the land had been abandoned for some time and LL just placed it on the market.)  A few of the parcels were purchased by residents who live there but, as expected, land flippers grabbed all the 512's facing the ocean.  Actually at that time a corner area had been joined into a 2048 but was promptly cut up after sale.  They were set at 13.5L sqm for each of the 512's - and are still sitting there for sale.  One of my daily habits when I log in is to open the map to see if any of them have sold.

 

[Melita Magic]

I do not know if we are talking about the same person. Since that time, others have bought up parts of the former TG and now it's owned by more than one person.

They could not have been protecting it against fugly builds because they put up some of their own, even though they did not use them.

They could not have been protecting it against other flippers because they would not resell the plot in question at a reasonable price even though they knew I was not a flipper.

They could not have been protecting it against being 'sliced and diced' because that land is not able to be repartitioned or changed in any way. 

They just wanted it.

[Czari Zenovka]

I'm a bit confused - does the TG still exist or are you referring to the time prior to it being closed down?

[Jadeclaw Denfu]

The Teen Grid still exists, of course without the limitations, it had back then, the sims are now normal General,
but the continent still exists - minus the second Bay City-sims it had on the western end.
Here is the old welcome area: secondlife://Card/248/6

It would be nice, if it gets a coastline and some holes filled, plus moved closer to one of the other continents,
so it would have a direct land connection.

 

[Jadeclaw Denfu]

Pussycat Catnap wrote: "I happen to know one of the land flippers who 'bought up most of the former TG',
and also a lot of Zindra."
Is this the one with the violet circular logo?
I'm asking, because I see this logo all over the place, the land isn't selling and a quite a lot of it stays unrented,
as it is too expensive at L$1,8 to L$2,-- per week.
( Other landlords ask for L$1,-- to L$1.50. per week)

 

[161488303349]

is quite interesting what linden could do with the old Teen Grid. it being all G-rated

one of them is that linden could fill/finish it with more sims. the coast line.

then offer all the people on the old mainland who are on G sims a move. if they want

then flip all the other old mainland to M. or sink most of them to make lake waterfronts

so end up with: A mainland continent (Zindra). G mainland continent (some new name like Prude maybe q; ) and all the rest M

i always been supportive of that idea

[Czari Zenovka]

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Jadeclaw Denfu wrote:

The Teen Grid still exists, of course without the limitations, it had back then, the sims are now normal General,

but the continent still exists - minus the second Bay City-sims it had on the western end.

Here is the old welcome area: secondlife://Card/248/6

It would be nice, if it gets a coastline and some holes filled, plus moved closer to one of the other continents,

so it would have a direct land connection.

 

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Thank you, Jadeclaw   But now I'm a bit confused...again.  If the TG still exists why did LL shut it down and bring the older teens to the main grid?

[161488303349]

the Teen grid sims were connected to the main grid after linden closed the TG programme

when the TG accounts were transferred to maingrid then their lands/parcels got transferred as well

[Cerise Sorbet]

There never really was a teen grid. TSL was always a part of the main grid, and individual account restrictions determined what regions could be used.

This arrangement still exists, but it is not called TSL any more. Now, there are private estates using the same kind of account for under-16 users, with access restricted to those estates.

 

[161488303349]

yes thats technical true

the TG/TSL sims used to be way up on the top left of the Map. used to be able to see them on the map when logged into 18+ SL.

they got moved to where they are now after the big burn

[Czari Zenovka]

Ahhhhh, ok.  Thank you 16 and Cerise.   For some reason, in my mind I thought of the TG as an entirely separate entity.  This isn't the best example but the best one I can come up with before I have more caffeine: In many MMORPGs people playing the same game are connected to various servers, each having a unique name, which are chosen when one first logs into the game.  Although the content is identical, a person on server A only sees/can group with others on server A; she can't group with anyone on server B because their avatars only "exist" on server B.

I had no idea the TG was actually located within SL itself.  So I'm assuming adults could log into SL as usual and then visit the TG?   It would have been fun to have visited there back in the day.  Ah well.

[Melita Magic]

Adults could not visit the teen grid while it was the teen grid. it was for minors. The only ones allowed in were pre approved or were Linden staff.

The former teen grid land was put up for auction when the land itself was folded into the regular Second Life. 

The land is double prim and cannot be changed, similar to Bay City, which is what made it desirable to flippers.

At first, one would see former teen grid residents (they were somewhat obvious by their profiles) hanging around their old haunts. Still see some occasionally. I always thought the land should have been theirs to keep. I guess not all could make the transition as they were still too young, and of course, the prices in open auction were too expensive for most teenagers. For anyone, truth be told.

I'm not sure why but it seemed they were not given first dibs. Or maybe they were and I don't know it.

[Qie Niangao]

As I recall, the teens got to keep their land if they were old enough that their accounts could be migrated; LL reduced the minimum age at the time of the merger. Almost all of them sold it, however, once they came over. Pretty sure some parcels they'd set for sale intending the price to be absurdly too high, sold immediately after the merger.

There were also some estate sims owned by teens. No idea whether they kept any of those.

Besides the Bay City replica sims, the part of the teen "mainland" that is double-primmed and city-zoned is their copy of the Nova Albion sims; the rest is single-primmed and can be terraformed, as far as I know.

It would be interesting to know how many eligible teens stayed after the transition, and how that compares to retention for that age group before the change. For that matter, it would be interesting to know how many in that (self-identified) age group join now, compared to before. It may be, however, that we'd find that more interesting than the Lab does.

 

[Melita Magic]

I would find it interesting. 

I remember there was a whole sim sort of in limbo for a while. I eventually stopped buzzing by to check it out. It seemed like it might have been a former TG sandbox, but I am not sure. There was always a group of former TGers hanging out there, and that seemed to gradually dwindle, to one or two dots on the map. That's about when I stopped flying by to see if it was going up for sale or auction. I couldn't buy it, but was curious.

It's good they got to keep their land if they were able to stay in SL. At least if they sold, then, they got to keep the money.

I didn't know, or forgot, there was also regular single prim land in the former TG.

 

[161488303349]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

I had no idea the TG was actually located within SL itself.  So I'm assuming adults could log into SL as usual and then visit the TG?   It would have been fun to have visited there back in the day.  Ah well.

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yes some could. like RL teachers for example. they had to be RL verified to do that tho. well the ones i knew who could go on both had to go thru that process. linden were pretty strict about that seems like

 

[Czari Zenovka]

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16 wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

I had no idea the TG was actually located within SL itself.  So I'm assuming adults could log into SL as usual and then visit the TG?   It would have been fun to have visited there back in the day.  Ah well.

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yes some could. like RL teachers for example. they had to be RL verified to do that tho. well the ones i knew who could go on both had to go thru that process. linden were pretty strict about that seems like

 

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I'm getting the picture now   Thank you 16 and Melita.  I recall when the TG was scheduled for closing reading some forum posts by RL teachers using the TG for educational purposes.   Makes sense that only approved adults could be on the TG - it didn't even cross my mind is my prior post if *anyone* could get on the teen grid...well, let's just say it's a good idea they couldn't.

 

[Rufferta]

Thank you for your post. The information you gave, and that followed, was very helpful.  I looked at the land in Clyde and it is quite lovely, but currently seems way too expensive. Perhaps if the land goes unsold for some time the current owner will be willing to sell it to you at a reasonable price.

As far as auctions go, outside of S I tend to try different approaches - there are the "walk around with your hands in your pockets and pretend you are not interested at all until you rush over and bid at the last minute" and the "put in such a high bid at first that people who were expecting prices to go up gradually get discouraged" approach.  Neither is always successful. It does seem, though, that there is more competition when there are a lot of bids, so I might wait to bid in SL auctions until the last minute for that reason alone.

On EBay the 'last minute bots' I believe are called 'snipers'. I don't do Ebay much anymore, because I found myself paying high prices for things I really didn't need, because I just wanted to 'win'... ()

I don't dislike landflippers that much (I tried it myself, but I found myself losing money) but I do dislike the people who "slice and dice" . I remember looking at some coastal land that had been split into long thin 512's with the narrow edge facing the water so that everyone had an ocean view, but the parcels were so narrow that you almost had to move sideways...

Take care.