Long ago, I tried to understand the tricky craft of setting prices in second life. I quit even before I started. It is a weird game. Market is too big, with too many players, with too many motives for what they do. But it was easy for me to quit. I don't make my second living by my vendors. But for somebody that actually has a shop in second life, setting prices is a huge puzzle.
Check ArminasX' post about pricing products in virtual worlds. He tries to follow some logic and sets five ways to determine the price:
- Give it away!
- Price based on Effort
- Price based on Value
- Price based on Competition
- Price based on Volume
All of them very reasonable ways to go. With the right combination of them, depending on the actual product one might hope that price will be right. But what I said back then, in last September, is still very true: In second life, logic is not rezzed yet.
More than once I saw people paying several hundreds of lindens for a single piece of an outfit. One would expect some imagination and lot of great texturing for that. But no, there is noting exceptional about it. Except the price, of course. So what's the trick? Usually trick was in the brand, shop and the price itself.
People love brands. Brands are the best brand our civilization invented. Put a name on something and you've doubled its price. While the trusted name on the graphics card is worth extra money, I cannot see why name makes a group of pixels more worthy. While with scripted things one should search for brands that will promise less lag and no bugs, clothes and other visual stuff is "what you see is what you get". But still, those are exactly where brands are playing the big role. They just make you feel good.
Location and the look of the shop are the other big factor. Place yourself near the popular and fancy place and you can charge more. Actually, you have to. Not only that the nearby merchants will expect you not to ruin their biz but your space will cost more. And customers will expect to pay more as well.
Shopping experience comes in the game here. It is not the same if one is shopping in an ugly mall on the mainland or in a fancy, well-built shop near the trend-setting club. It is not just what is offered, nor even how the environment looks, it's who you can meet there as well. And how do you feel. Shopping is not just getting things for money. It's the game on its own. Very complex one. Female readers know what I am talking about. Most of the males won't get it no matter how much I try to explain it.
The last but not the least is the price itself. Yes, price of something determines the price of it. Forget the recursiveness of this statement, and learn to live with it. It is actually very simple. If you buy 50L$ dress chances are that you will meet another avatar in the same dress. And you don't want that to happen. If you pay 500L$ for it… well, you are much safer from the unwanted encounter. More expensive the thing, bigger are the chances that you'll look unique. And that counts in the value of something.
Let's help our creators rip us off, what makes you pay more?
I think you really got the point with this one. Setting prices for land to rent and prims allowance is tricky too. I am still trying to understand why until a couple of months ago prices on my sim were broadly considered too high and now everyone want to rent…
Would be very interesting to understand what’s behind this.
“More expensive the thing, less are the chances that you’ll look unique.”
?
Eidur, no matter how the prices of everyday goods are crazy, land is three times crazier.
csven, thanks for noticing it. It should say: “bigger are the chances…” It’s corrected now.