Weekend sales taking over?

[Prokofy Neva]

There are more and more sales because the economy is hurting in SL and RL.

If they didn't get buyers there wouldn't be so many of them.

Meanwhile there have been a lot of Lindens trying to get out the door, and people selling for less than the "usual" 240.

So somebody is making money and trying to cash out.

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

24 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

There are more and more sales because the economy is hurting in SL and RL.

If they didn't get buyers there wouldn't be so many of them.

Meanwhile there have been a lot of Lindens trying to get out the door, and people selling for less than the "usual" 240.

So somebody is making money and trying to cash out.

 

It's always interesting when a person who routinely talks about 2006 like it's last week is in a tizzy because of Lindens trading over the "usual" number of 240 when they had a thread in 2020 saying how the economy was booming because they were trading in the low 250s.

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Theresa Tennyson

[Sid Nagy]

Most merchants don't get well payed for the time invested in creating their merchandise.
There are who do, sure. But the majority, nope, 
It is no more than recouping tier and maybe some pocket money or a small addition to RL income for most of them.

[Annie Nova]

7 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

I am avoiding the single colors... until I see something I like so much that I buy them. I am very flexible with the rules I set for myself. 😄

But fatpacks is very tempting. The odds of me buying them is much bigger, even if I am not 100% taken with them. How many sandals with straps up the ankle can I have? It is some pair(s) in every weekend sale. I am sure I have lots of pairs I haven't unpacked, because they were fatpacks. And it is 60 or 75 L more in the creators pocket, instead of me giving the single color sandals a pass.

I am not sure about what it costs to participate in the Happy Weekend, Fifty Linden Friday, Saturday Sale? It can not be free?

But it is cheaper than a booth in one of the big monthly events, isn't it? And it is four times in a month that they can sell their goods, even if it is at a lower price than in a monthly event.

I think the weekend shopping sales is taking in a lot more money than counting on selling at full prices, and that the creators can see it.

I avoid them myself, UNLESS it's a really cool color then I will weigh the pros and cons of buying it. The thing that gets me is why are there always sooooo many jeans outfits??? I mean how many pair of jeans can you have before it's too many? I have no clue as to how much it costs to be in one of these weekend events, but cheese and rice, couldn't they at least put something that looks good on sale??? I've tried so many demos and thought, "my lord, I wouldn't put that on my dog" LOL. I just wish the creators would look at the sales from a customers point of view. You know? And, oh, I'm sure they are probably making tons of lindens doing these sales, some stores I have TP'd to have a crap load of people there, but usually I go away empty handed. 

[colleen Criss]

I look at all things listed on Seraphim and sent from my groups and I immediately decide. I do not always shop big events these days, and do mostly shop weekend sales. Being thrifty with our money is a must IRL and ISL. 

I want everyone to make some coins but tbh if I could not pay my rl bills I certainly won't be paying theirs.

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, StarlanderGoods said:

I wonder how many fatpacks at 60L a merchant would need to sell, to pay for event fees, and for the time it took to create the item.  The time it takes to make an item will change depending on how complex it is, but even with a perfect streamlined process, you still need time to simulate the clothing, rigging, texturing, baking it, assembling it in SL, and packaging it to be sold.

From what I see in many of the weekly sales events, a large proportion of the items are template clothing that only requires texturing work, and many of the ones doing that don't take enough time to do a really good job at it.  Only a small number of participants are making their own items or putting in a lot of effort to ensure a template is well textured.  

IMO, it is the larger group that uses templates and simple quick texturing, that tend to sell the fatpacks at the super low price.  

I'm guessing that the ones being hurt the most by the weekly sales are the ones that do create their own items or put in lots of time doing good texturing work.  Those folks will often participate in the weekly sales events, but usually each color is sold individually at the sale price, with a few also offering a good discount on the fatpacks.  Unfortunately, many people won't care enough about quality and will go buy the cheaper fatpacks.  

Yes, there are exceptions to the above, which definitely is a generalization, but a pretty good generalization based on my experience.

[Marianne Little]

I still have not heard how much it costs to be in a weekend sale. Can any creator join, or do they need to be invited? It is a list that are posted in Seraphim and sent out to subscribers and group members. And some has a Facebook gallery and maybe a Flickr too.

But compared to an event like Uber, who has a full region and a cam region, the price for a booth there must be much higher. Because someone has to cover the tier, and it is a lot of work to make the region look beautiful.

The weekend sales must be less work for the creator, an extra vendor in the store and no pressure to create something new?

I am not sure I am saving money because of the weekendsales. No, wait, I take that back! I know that I buy many more cheap items than I would have done if they had full price. And I see it on how often I buy lindens. My spending has increased. So the stores participating must see that it is worth it for them. Or else they would quit?

[Sid Nagy]

35 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

... that only requires texturing work...

Have you any idea how long it takes to 'only' make a new texture?
We are talking about 60 L$ sales here.
A new texture costs easily an hour work. If you sell 100 copies, that would bring you about 24 USD minus your costs for the event.
I don't think that the majority of items will sell that much during one weekend if at all.

And then there is the extra work of testing and packing each body type version, making pictures and proces them etc.
That is at least an extra hour of work.
So 100 sales still brings you less than a minimum wage in RL (depending on the country you live in).

The other textures for the fatpack are much easier produced, but than you have the hassle to get it working in a hud for each different body.

Edit to add: And then I forgot about creating a demo for each body type.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[LittleMe Jewell]

24 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Have you any idea how long it takes to 'only' make a new texture?

I was not talking only about making "new" textures.

There are many template buyers that simply do recolors of the provided textures or buy texture kits to apply to the templates.  The events, both the weekly sales events and many of the monthly/quarterly events are filled with clothing items that truly look identical except for the color.

 

If you read my reply carefully, you will note that I differentiated between those that quickly slap on textures versus those that spend lots of time ensuring that they are doing good texture work:

43 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Only a small number of participants are making their own items or putting in a lot of effort to ensure a template is well textured.

 

44 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I'm guessing that the ones being hurt the most by the weekly sales are the ones that do create their own items or put in lots of time doing good texturing work. 

 

 

I swear, sometimes I think people simply skim over posts looking for something to be offended about.

[LittleMe Jewell]

43 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

I still have not heard how much it costs to be in a weekend sale.

I poked around on various websites and looked at many applications, but very few specify the fee up front.

30L Saturday is 250L each week.
Fly By Friday is 500L each week.
eBento Weekend is 800L each week.
Wanderlust is 1500L for one week.  The web page and app says you only participate one week per month, but I'd swear I have seen creators that are in every week or at least every other week.

I couldn't find costs for any of the other ones.

[Sid Nagy]

43 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I swear, sometimes I think people simply skim over posts looking for something to be offended about.

Hey I'm not offended in any way. I read your entire post.
I just tossed in some extra information and quoted that part of you post that was relevant for my information:

Even a simple  texture on something complicated as clothes is far more work than most people think. And badly payed for in the end most of the time.
That's all.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Prokofy Neva]

6 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

It's always interesting when a person who routinely talks about 2006 like it's last week is in a tizzy because of Lindens trading over the "usual" number of 240 when they had a thread in 2020 saying how the economy was booming because they were trading in the low 250s.

 

I wonder why you're resistant to seeing the obvious here.

You also apparently can make any claim you like, confident that no one will look up some thread from 2020.

But I couldn't possibly have said "the economy was booming" then because it wasn't. Also, the more Lindens to the dollar, the *worse* the value, i.e. it takes more of them to buy a Linden, so they are worth less. So 250s is not "better". 

It's true that the Linden was worth more when it was possible to trade on third-party sites like GOM.

2006 was 16 years ago and I can hardly imagine it was "last week".

 

[Prokofy Neva]

2 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

From what I see in many of the weekly sales events, a large proportion of the items are template clothing that only requires texturing work, and many of the ones doing that don't take enough time to do a really good job at it.  Only a small number of participants are making their own items or putting in a lot of effort to ensure a template is well textured.  

IMO, it is the larger group that uses templates and simple quick texturing, that tend to sell the fatpacks at the super low price.  

I'm guessing that the ones being hurt the most by the weekly sales are the ones that do create their own items or put in lots of time doing good texturing work.  Those folks will often participate in the weekly sales events, but usually each color is sold individually at the sale price, with a few also offering a good discount on the fatpacks.  Unfortunately, many people won't care enough about quality and will go buy the cheaper fatpacks.  

Yes, there are exceptions to the above, which definitely is a generalization, but a pretty good generalization based on my experience.

I think all of you would be happier with the weekend sales if you completely ignored all the clothing, jewelry and avatar accessories ads, and only focused on buildings, furniture, and decor. I think you would all be happier because it's seeing a dress that has merely been re-coloured that gets you all so mad. Whereas a recoloured chest of drawers you might not be as irritated at. And usually what's on offer isn't merely re-coloured if furniture.

[StarlanderGoods]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I think all of you would be happier with the weekend sales if you completely ignored all the clothing, jewelry and avatar accessories ads, and only focused on buildings, furniture, and decor. I think you would all be happier because it's seeing a dress that has merely been re-coloured that gets you all so mad. Whereas a recoloured chest of drawers you might not be as irritated at. And usually what's on offer isn't merely re-coloured if furniture.

You underestimate our capacity for outrage, what about all the repeated animations in furniture?

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I think all of you would be happier with the weekend sales if you completely ignored all the clothing, jewelry and avatar accessories ads, and only focused on buildings, furniture, and decor. I think you would all be happier because it's seeing a dress that has merely been re-coloured that gets you all so mad. Whereas a recoloured chest of drawers you might not be as irritated at. And usually what's on offer isn't merely re-coloured if furniture.

I actually stopped buying clothing and accessories, for the most part, quite a while back.  Most of my spending on those items has just been using up gift cards that I have.  I won't be able to wear everything I already own, even wearing something new every day.  

I do still buy a bit here & there from Home & Garden stores, but my spending even in that area has dropped drastically in the past year.  Part of it is being burnt out on the sales and events and part of it is spending more time on my alt and her kitty cats.

[Tarani Tempest]

7 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Wanderlust is 1500L for one week.  The web page and app says you only participate one week per month, but I'd swear I have seen creators that are in every week or at least every other week.

 

Wanderlust has an extra week available for members to sign up for.  Also occasionally fill ins are needed when and if someone needs to drop out. So sometimes you will see a designer more than once in a month.

[Prokofy Neva]

12 hours ago, StarlanderGoods said:

You underestimate our capacity for outrage, what about all the repeated animations in furniture?

I've long since defaulted to expecting the most repetitious and stupid animations in furniture, so that I am pleasantly surprised when there is something smooth and different.

[Marianne Little]

I see something that is 'perfect', I buy it full price. No hesitation. I have other nude lipsticks, but I saw some on the marketplace that caught my eye. I could buy 4-5 sets of nude lipsticks in the weekend instead. But these nude lips was just right. Or the tattoos I bought for 625L, because they are different from the ones that are up in the sales every weekend.

On 2/20/2022 at 6:36 PM, LittleMe Jewell said:

I poked around on various websites and looked at many applications, but very few specify the fee up front.

30L Saturday is 250L each week.
Fly By Friday is 500L each week.
eBento Weekend is 800L each week.
Wanderlust is 1500L for one week.  The web page and app says you only participate one week per month, but I'd swear I have seen creators that are in every week or at least every other week.

I couldn't find costs for any of the other ones.

Oh, they have to sell many of an item then. If the price for Wanderlust is so high, I believe is is even more for the two biggest sales.

[Charlotte Bartlett]

On 2/20/2022 at 8:04 AM, Sid Nagy said:

Most merchants don't get well payed for the time invested in creating their merchandise.
There are who do, sure. But the majority, nope, 
It is no more than recouping tier and maybe some pocket money or a small addition to RL income for most of them.

On the weekly sales

Generally for us New releases mainly first go through them and annually the product income has remained stable over time (I don’t do fashion so may differ).  Customer gets a bargain and I know we have gotten new people who have found us due to Saturday Sale.  It is also flexible so if time doesn’t allow you can not do a round or revisit an old release.    Monthly events that I have been in may have rules that sometimes make it incredibly difficult if RL interjects and disrupts your time planned.   You lose at minimum the fee and perhaps your spot etc plus make extra work for the organizer which isn’t fair on them.  Again I am sure very unique to just my situation. 

My main concern is related to what Salt mentioned, and does it depress other products and if you slow on volume you suffer.  I think that’s potentially the risk and these sales are all getting larger to the point the whole grid each weekend will be one sale.  Does that exhaust customers too by that stage I am not sure. 

Prices have been racing to the bottom since 2006 but volume has relatively remained higher and stable particular in the last few years.   If the volume goes then it will be interesting to see what creative minds come up with.

The commercial merchants I know are doing well enough (especially those who buy in their mesh from offshore teams as their volume of releases is insane and they make high returns as a result).   

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Charlotte Bartlett