XStreetSL and me.. or rather, without me.

In a recent blog post, Linden Lab (owners and operators of both Second Life, and the web-based marketplace, XStreetSL) announced that within 30-90 days, a new fee structure would be introduced. Clothing this price-hike in the flag of “We’re doing this to make shopping easier”, the following changes were announced.

1. Minimum Sales Commissions.
   Each time you sell an item on XStreetSL, you are assessed a sales commission fee. Generally speaking, this fee is 5% of the purchase price. Linden lab has added a “minimum amount” per transaction. So now it’s 5% or 3L$, whichever is greater.  This means that the “break even point” on that commission minimum is now 60L$. (5% of 60L$ = 3L$). This minimum fee per transaction INCLUDES items priced less than 3L. charge 3L, you make nothing. Charge 2L$, you actually OWE them money.. and charge 1L$ and you owe them 2 more. Commissions are not assessed on free items.
   .
2. Monthly Listing Fees. (NEW!)
   Previously, the only cost of listing and selling an item on XStreetSL was the crushing amounts of time it took to set up an attractive listing, and the sales commission. Now Linden Lab has added a recurring monthly fee, JUST to keep your item visible. 10L$ a month per item priced 1L$ or more. For a store like mine, with over 50 items, that quickly turns into 500L$ a month. While many people like to dismiss this as complaining about trivial amounts of money, that 500L$ translates to roughly $1.85 a month, or $22.20 a year, on top of the $72 annual membership fee, and $60 in annual land ownership fees that I already pay to the company.
   .
3. Monthly FREEBIE Listing Fees. (NEW!)
   Free items are apparrently the worst thing in the world.. if you listen to Linden Lab.. because LL has added a new monthly fee just to cover freebies listed on XStreetSL. In fact, it seems that just ONE freebie is as bad as 10 for-pay items.. because Linden Lab has decided to charge you 99L$ a month per freebie you list on XStreetSL. I have two freebies. A “demo” of a pair of boots I sell, so people can get a feel for the sizing before buying.. and a very popular box of “Megaprims” (a building aid… basically “free lumber to build houses with”).  Those two freebies would cost me an additional 198L$ a month.. that’s $0.73 a month, or another $8.76 to add to that pile of money I send to Linden Lab every year.

Well, this has met, of course, with some pretty emotional responses.. and I am not immune either. When I read about this new policy, I deactivated all my XStreet Listings, including those megaprims (which served 3 dozen people a day). I don’t do a lot of business through XStreetSL. Sure, I make money there, but it’s piddling small change compared to the real core of my sales that come through my inworld shops and affiliate network.

Do I make enough to “afford” these fees? Yes.. I do. I make more than enough that these fees really wouldn’t create a major issue, in terms of my bottom line. But I am not at all happy about these fees, this “double dipping” of charging us for listing, AND charging us again for a sale. I especially don’t like how it punishes people for giving back to the community, making freebies into some sort of advertising “swag”.. because now the only people who will pay to list freebies, will be the people who can “make” 99L a month from the chance to advertise their brand.

For now, my items are deactivated.. and I’m looking into alternative marketplaces. None will have the reach and presence that XStreetSL enjoys.. being owned by LL, they get advantages that other sites never will*. The ones I’m looking at are:

• slapt.me
• apez.biz
• metaLife

I’m sure there are others, but so far these are the only ones I have heard of. I will post here to my blog, my reviews of each site as I go along.

As some of you may know.. I had deeply embraced XStreet into my business. I had created “loadURL” buttons below the vendor of every single item in my shop, that when clicked inworld, would take you to the XStreetS listing of that item. This was my preferred method for solving my store’s “buy as gift” problem. In exchange, many ER customers became new XStreet users. Whatever service I end up liking most, will likely benefit in a similar fashion.But for the meantime, I have no “buy as gift” solution.

One last thing, before I close.

Will you ever re-activate your XStreetSL Listings?

That is a very complicated question. The answer is, “it is probably inevitable.” Eventually, due to market pressure, I will be forced to re-activate some of my listings on XStreetSL. But I will probably only re-activate the “big seller” items, resulting in (sadly) less selection for XStreet customers. I will probably also be forced to raise the price of the Megaprims from FREE to 3L$. THAT really hurts me greatly, because I beleive that they are a natural resource and should be available to all.. but I am not going to pay more than 10L a month to share them.

For now, my listings are offline. But eventually the reality will set in that I have bills to pay too. In the meantime, presenting ER products on other services and exploring other options seems to be the best use of my time.

* – important note. Linden Lab engages in what could be called anti-competitive practices. Any mentions of, or links to, resident-created alternative marketplaces are deleted from forum posts by an admin. Yes, they actually go in and edit other people’s posts JUST to remove any mention of sites like slapt.me, apez.biz, meta-life.net, etc… making it impossible for Second Life users to discuss the web-based marketplaces they prefer to use. These services aren’t outlawed, but for some reason, mentioning them is.