A Relief; Pillars and Posters

I logged on today to find that my over-limit 512 had sold. What a relief!

If I'd still owned it when my monthly payment came due, I'd have owed $15 more for the month than I will now owe. So I'd have been willing to abandon it, at the last minute. This isn't the type of 'property' that appreciates with time---that's not how the Second Life system works. So it would be better to click that Abandon Land button than to be liable for the extra $15.

I didn't make a profit on the sale: I'd paid about $13 US, and sold it for about $11 US.

But that's okay. I had only about 10 days to sell (I'm not sure exactly how the system figures tier--if there is a "zero hour", before which we can click Abandon; or more likely, if their accounting requires a day or more of 'notice' before recording the transfer). And I knew it would be foolish to buck the dropping-price-of-land trend. This is a very nice 512 at the moment: in front of it is my remaining 512 (which I may convert into a low-key, low-height outpost of the shop I plan), and in front of that is a 2048 that is both genuine waterfront, and still unsold. But of course there's no telling what may happen to the view when the waterfront piece finally sells.

I lose track of time in Second Life. It IS just short of a month since I first looked at that land. I wasn't able to buy it until three days later, because a) it took me two days to complete my researches and finally decide to become a Premium member, and b) the SL system won't let you buy any Lindens in the first 24 hours of going Premium if you choose the Annual method of payment.

I do think that's unintelligent. Clearly they set up the limitations to head off problems with kids getting hold of their parents' credit cards and joining and charging thousands of dollars before their parents could find out, and speculators wanting to muck about with the exchange rate of Lindens, and that sort of thing. And that's perfectly legitimate.

But the intelligent thing to do would be to make the dollar-amount limitation EXclusive of the fee to become Premium. As things stand, people who opt to pay by the month can still buy some Lindens---and thus buy an moderately-priced 512 right after they go Premium--if they choose. But people who are clearly the more excited about SL, those people who opt to pay the full year's fees in advance, are NOT permitted to buy land (because the $72 annual fee automatically puts you over the first-24-hours $50 limit on spending).

Dumb.

Anyway, it didn't turn me off SL, and it's to be hoped, that's true for most who opt to commit to a full year. It does put in one's mind "wow, they either didn't think this through, or weren't willing or able to make a simple change such as 'the Premium fee doesn't count toward your first 24-hours' spending limit'". And that means that people are not beginning Premium SL life with an attitude of respect toward Linden Labs. I think they'd be smart to change that.

Anyway...

So, all my plans on how long I'd leave the ~$11 price up, and what day I'd have to Abandon Land, are now moot, I'm glad to say. It's much nicer to just be able to put that out of my mind (I'd been fretting over how that plot might fare if it DID end up being auctioned after I'd abandoned it, though since ad farms aren't a possibility, I suppose the fretting was unnecessary.)

Last night (before getting the good news about the land sale), I'd started offloading the mass quantities of freebies I'd acquired at YadNi's into some pillars I'd made. I'm not entirely happy with the pillars, but they are 1 prim apiece, and they will serve to hold up the roof in the open-air shop I plan to build when I've made enough stuff to justify it.

I also want to make some storage-prim stools to offer as freebies to those who visit my land. I have learned since my first round of making storage prims to be careful that everything I put in one has the same pattern of permissions. The stools I'd made a couple of weeks ago are attractive, I think (I like the texture I put on them), and of course they're one prim apiece. Well, we shall see.

Today I made two posters, or 'oil paintings', on the freebie easel I'd gotten in my first days inworld. I'd taken snapshots of my original land before I started dismantling and moving the buildings and ponds and things (to clear the one 512 for sale). Applying two of them to copies of the easel, I ended up with some 'paintings' that I think are attractive...and of course, they are a nice memory-jogger for me.

And oh, yes: I had my first experience with making a sign in Microsoft Paint, and uploading it: a For Sale sign for the 512. Turned out pretty well, though I see what everyone says about the limitations of Paint! I definitely need to look into Photoshop!