I have a major complaint about how Linden Lab is selling Sansar dollars. Hear me out.
When you are signed into your account and you have not purchased any Sansar dollars, you get a link next to your profile picture in the upper right-hand corner of the website, as follows:
If you click on the link, it will take you to a page where you can purchase “bundles” of Sansar dollars (see the image below).
So can somebody explain to me WHY, when you buy Sansar dollars using the bundle option, it’s US$99.99 for 8500 Sansar dollars, BUT when you buy them using the SandeX directly, you can get 9999 Sansar dollars for US$99.99? That’s a difference of 1499 Sansar dollars between the two methods! I thought that the purpose of bundling is make it cheaper to buy something, not more expensive!
When I asked about this, I was told by Eliot, the Sansar Community Manager, that “The purpose of the bundles is to make it easier”. Easier for WHO? The link to the SandeX is right there underneath the list of “bundles” pricing:
Who in their right mind is going to spend MORE to get less? Here’s the “market buy” SandeX display, showing you how you can get 1499 more Sansar dollars for your US$99.99:
Bundles are a rip-off, plain and simple. An unsuspecting consumer in a hurry, might click on the “Get Sansar dollars” link, and buy a “bundle” of Sansar dollars, thinking that might save them time and/or money, when in fact it does neither.
EVERY SINGLE ONE of those “bundles” offered is more expensive than buying it directly from the SandeX!
Eliot goes on to day: “So the Bundles could not adapt to changes to the SandeX up to the minute. But instead of having to wait for someone to sell, you can get your Sansar dollars immediately with the bundle”. Sorry, but I’ve never encountered any delays in buying Sansar dollars using the SandeX, it’s always been instantaneous, even when buying large amounts.
So basically, Linden Lab is charging you for “convenience”. This is the same sort of “convenience” charge I get dinged with when I use an ATM from a different bank than the one I have my account with. And it absolutely drives me up the wall!
So, take my advice. DON’T BUY BUNDLES. Go straight to the SandeX and buy your Sansar dollars there. I’ve never heard of anyone who’s had any sort of delay in doing that.
UPDATE Aug. 1st: Medhue says on the official Sansar Discord channel:
This is no different from SL. LL does the exact same thing there. The Sandex is meant to be the deal Ryan, because sellers are willing to go lower to get their money faster. If the package deals were better than the SandeX, what exactly would be the point of buying on the SandeX? LL’s package has to be less of a deal, or we’d never be able to cash out our Sansar dollars.
Guess Sansar dollars are trading for significantly less than Linden hoped they would. If the SandeX market ever recovers the bundles might become good value, but while the currency remains tanked they aren’t worth it.
I suspect they might not want to adjust them because it could cause the value of the currency to drop further – although 9999 looks suspisiously like a hard stop.
Also, the bundle prices themselves don’t make sense. 80 for $0.99, is you buy five of those bundles you’d get 400 for $4.95 but the 400 bundle is more expensive at $4.95. Same happens at other levels, 10x 80 bundles is $9.90, 2x 400 bundles comes to $9.98 and 2x 2100 bundles comes the $49.98. They are only tiny amounts cheaper, but these sort of tiers are supposed to give better value the more you spend and that only happens on the 2100 and 8500 tiers.
Ah Sansar…
I came, I saw, I… took 15 minutes¹ to load an “experience”, which then crashed… I tried again with a different “experience”, with much the same result.
Basically it’s like they tried to re-write Second Life, with VR built in, but then forgot everything they ever learned from the earlier software. Perhaps the programmers left, perhaps they were just drunk, I dunno.
I’ll keep trying of course, in case it ever gets stable… and one day, I might even get to an “experience” with another person there at the same time, though right now I consider that unlikely.
¹ Timings approximate and should be considered about as accurate as a watched kettle.