Bitch heels on, my beauties, and let’s strut that runway of frustration. Today’s topic of ire?
LIMITED EDITION SALES.
Or, to be more precise:
LIMITED EDITION SALES GEARED TOWARD US-ONLY TIMEZONES.
Oh, Europeans, Asians, and Antipodeans, I hear you screaming, “YES!” at me, and I agree: it’s probably the biggest source of frustration for me in Second Life. There is nothing more annoying than receiving a notice from a store that you love, which says, “Only 100 available! Come and get ’em before they’re all gone; sale starts at 2am your time when you’re fast asleep because your alarm for work goes off tomorrow at 5am in your timezone you LOSER, but for hey all my GORGEOUS American friends it will be between 9pm (EST) and 6pm (PST), so they win!”
Well yes, I know those notices never actually say that, but they might as well. And sure, I understand that – when the creator of the items in a limited sale is in a US timezone – then of course their own personal store sales will begin at a time that’s convenient to them. But what about limited sale events? Ever notice how those always begin on a weekday at midnight? Do you stay up and then trawl into work the next day, yawning and fit for absolutely nothing because you were up past 1am battling to get into a crowded region (where nothing rezzed anyway) in an attempt to get that awesome 100-copies-only item? Or do you just give up and watch the bloggers all writing NO LONGER AVAILABLE under their amazing pictures the next day, as if they’re going, “nyah nyah!” at you because they are US-based and got in (or got sent review copies).
Incidentally, if I get sent review copies of something in advance of a limited-edition event, you will see them before the fucking event, not after it. And, if they’re sent to me at such short notice that I don’t have time to put together a look around them or even take a single photo of them? I won’t blog them.
I’m trying to understand these events. For most people, I suspect it’s just about exclusivity; the opportunity to own something that only 99 other people have. I never really understood that whole I don’t want anyone else wearing what I’m wearing mentality (which was behind those awful anti-inspection shields that lagged regions to the point of crashing and were easy to circumvent anyway). I guess that’s why I blog, and why – before I had the blog – I posted full credits on Flickr, for years. I don’t want to be selfish; I like to share where I got this awesome stuff, sending customers in the direction of the creator as a way of saying thanks for making said awesome stuff. Yes, I know my paying for the stuff should be enough, but if you stick to that mentality then why do people leave reviews on Marketplace? It’s a way of saying thank you and helping the creator out. No brainer, really; it’s just nice and it’s polite. (Why yes, I am English; how did you guess?)
What I don’t understand why the creators only want 100 sales and no more. As a creator myself, I’d be frustrated as hell if I had to put a high-selling item back into my inventory, never to be on sale again, after just 100 sales. And that goes for any item. I’ve even put old hunt items out for sale when I’ve discovered them mouldering in my inventory years after the fact, because I love them and I want to share them (especially since hunt items are usually very special creations for me).
I guess, if you’re a prolific creator, putting one or two items into a limited sale is water off the proverbial duck’s back. I’m not even going to try and tax my brain (currently suffering from my usual weekend headache, which is probably why I’m extra grumpy about this) by thinking about the stores – yes, one in particular, and my male readers will suspect which that is – whose entire stock is limited-edition.
*sigh* I think I need to just leave that group. That way I won’t be notified in advance that I’m going to be frustrated as hell every couple of weeks.
Bitch heels off, before I wring my ankle. I’m gonna find some more painkillers.
You have a good point, and I want to tell you that there is something being done about it. Some of the content makers at the Limited Project are releasing only a few copies at a time during the event. Death Row and Razor I think are doing this. If it works out well, I think they will be doing this again. My friend desperately wanted the DRD fatpack so I was helping her with my heavy-traffic-event-survival skills. It open and hour and half late. People were camming in to buy things before the start, and getting nothing but lost Ls. 65 people were gathered at the border 2 sims away. To shu people, they region restarted and then teleported visitors away after 15 sec. The other sims close by were all closed. … In a blink of an eye, the sim went from 0 people to 75. That fast! And surprisingly, the majority were all doing invisible avatar. If you did not look to see how many people were on the map, you would have thought the event was a flop! oO Two of my other blogger friends were not able to get in. One had to leave for work, but when she got back she was able to get her item of desire. My other friend was one of 10 people to get the DRD fatpack and it took her awhile before she could get in. After I had cammed around to see all that was there, the place had already cleared out to 45 people. Another friend who will be returning to blogging made of fun of me for caught up in all the hype. lol …. You should add your thoughts to the DRD idea page. Other suggestions could be to make items transfer so a friend can get it for you. OR doing a limited time releases (which I think they are already experimenting with). The Death Row group was giving notices when the next set of limited items would be put up for sale.
It’s great that some of the designers are releasing piecemeal, as it were (I did have to laugh when DRD’s Jaimy sent a group notice that the next collection would be going live soon, “if I can get in – lol!”).
Getting in wasn’t a problem for me – and that was with about 45 avatars in the region. The problem was the time I was able to get in. I wasn’t anywhere near a computer at the time the notice went out for the one thing I really wanted (a specific pair of boots). I managed to get in three hours later, and they were sold out.
What disappoints me is that these events are almost always geared towards US timezones. By the time the rest of the world gets online, limited sales are often (usually, in fact) sold out. And many of us have jobs to hold down, so we can’t just sit up all night to make sure we get a pair of pixel boots.
Eh, I was just bitchin’ because this is far from the first time this has happened to me. If I happen to be on vacation from work, then I can sit up late (or get up early) and grab what I want without many problems, but in the main I and everyone else who works or has other obligations (college, family, etc) that mean they can’t sit at a keyboard until midnight or 3am etc just end up missing out.