Tag: Lucky Chairs

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Ryan’s Eight Rules for Freebie Hunting

Here are 8 rules for freebie and bargain hunting that I have compiled over eleven years in Second Life:

  • Be patient: Freebies can come and go; freebie stores like The Free Dove and Ajuda SL Brasil rotate their freebies regularly, so it’s worthwhile to visit every couple of month just to see what’s new. It can take some time to pull together a complete look from various components picked up as freebies at different times from different stores and events.
  • Monitor the various freebie news sources: Here’s the best six groups to join for freebies. Here are four blogs and four Flickr groups to follow for news of freebies. And read my blog 😉 and other SL fashion blogs and Facebook groups for news. And watch the Cat Pink SL series of YouTube videos for more news about hunts and other freebies.
  • Join groups which are known for giving great deals and freebies to their members: For example, if you joined the Akeruka mesh heads group a year and a half ago, you would have picked up no less than six fully-adjustable Bento mesh heads (three female and three male), all for a single group join fee of L$150. That works out to only L$25 per Bento mesh head, a truly outstanding deal! Also join the Altamura group for L$50, which gives you access to the deals that Altamura offers on mesh heads and bodies at various events around SL, as well as many group gifts in the mainstore. Alien Gizmo’s regularly gives away L$200 gift cards for their store to their group members. Join these groups and stay in them, because you never know when there will be a bargain or a freebie available in future.
  • Watch for free group join periods: A perfect example is Scandalize, which has lifted its group join fee of L$100 from Sept. 15th to 17th (more info here).
  • Use the lucky chairs and panels: You can often pick up some great freebies this way. Here’s my list of the 18 best lucky chair and panel locations in Second Life.
  • Participate in hunts: Hunts are often a great way to pick up free or inexpensive items. The Free Dove picks three different designers every month who hide hunt items all over the store. A recent example was the August hunt by Sweet E’s at The Free Dove and Sweet E’s mainstore.
  • Visit fashion and gacha events: These can be another great place to pick up free gifts (be careful, though; some gifts at some events can be as much as L$10!). For example, the regularly held events run by the Gimme Gacha group have dozens of free gifts available for you to pick up. FaMESHed is another regular event with many high-quality freebies.
  • Don’t be too picky: Even though the free item might not be the exact style or colour you wanted, you can probably still make it work, and look good too. It’s the picky shoppers who land up spending a lot more money to get exactly what they want. For example, do you really want that expensive ballgown, when you can pick up that simple but beautiful Nadia ballgown as a free gift from Hilly Haalan (the group is free to join), with a HUD that gives you 15 different colour choices? You can probably make that work well with accessories already in your inventory, and look stunning.

Here is a perfect example of an avatar where I was able to pull together the entire look, over the course of a year and a half, for only a single Linden dollar! It is a combination of lucky chair prizes with free group gifts (joining the group when it was free for a limited time), plus store giveaways. Please click on each picture to see it in a larger size:

This avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head, Eyes and Makeup: Kenna mesh head (free group gift from Genesis Lab; the group join fee was free at the time I joined, but they have since raised it to L$99)

Mesh Body and Nails: Afrodite body by LUCYBODY (free from the Midnight Madness board if you join their group for free; more details here)

Hair: Ivy hair (free gift from Entwined; the 3 HUDs included in the package give you a total of 65 different hair colours!)

Dress: red and black Devil’s Heart Sweets dress (lucky chair prize from Alien Gizmo’s; enter the store at the main entrance, turn left, and walk along to the second courtyard near the far end to find the lucky chairs, or just use your map and follow the red arrow from the provided SLURL)

Choker: Nina choker by RxK (free from the Ajuda SL Brasil freebie store; more details here)

Clutch: Helena clutch (lucky chair prize from MODA; the HUD gives you 24 colour choices for the purse, and a choice of either gold or silver for the metal accents; enter the main store in front of you at the spawn point, and go around into the back room where the four lucky chairs are located or just use your map and follow the red arrow from the provided SLURL)

Shoes: Bijou pumps (lucky chair prize, also from MODA; the HUD gives you 36 colour and pattern choices each for the shoe and the platform)

Avatar AO: Your First AO Basic Female Mocap by Vista Animations (L$1; it’s located at the back of the Female AO section of the store, so use your map and follow the red arrow provided by this SLURL)

Bento Hands AO: Jenny Hands AO (part of the free Jenny Altamura mesh body package available for free at the Freebie Megastore in London City; it can be worn with the Vista AO, which does not have built-in Bento hand animations; more details on how to get Jenny here)

Ankle Lock: by Baby Monkey (freebie from the blue bag on the reception desk)

My total cost to assemble this complete avatar look was only L$1 (for the Vista AO).

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: The 18 Best Lucky Chairs and Lucky Boards for Women’s Fashion and Skins

Cynful 22 May 2018.png
The lucky panels at Cynful

Lucky chairs are a freebie institution in Second Life. How they work is simple: if the first letter of your avatar name starts with the same letter as the one on the lucky chair, you sit down on it and you win the prize pictured! Sometimes instead of a chair, you have a panel that you have to click (as in the image above). They’re not as popular as they used to be in Second Life, but they are still around if you know where to look.

Sometimes you might have to sit and wait a long while for your letter to show up. It goes much faster if there is a crowd present, especially if the word has gotten out that there are new lucky chair/panel prizes to be had! Sitting and waiting for your letter to show up gives you a chance to sort through your inventory or chat with other avatars who are waiting with you.

Here are eleven of my favourite lucky chair/panel locations in Second Life for women’s fashion and skins. Please note that the links given below are SLURLs to the exact location of the lucky chair section; in some cases, you might have to follow the red arrow to find the right area of the store if the store owner forces you to arrive at one preset starting point on the sim.

  • 7 Deadly s[K]ins (skins; 4 panels are located in the back of the store on the first floor; 3 require you to join the 7 Deadly s[K]ins group for L$225, while the 4th requires no group)
  • Alien Gizmo’s (clothing; located inside and to the right of the main entrance; join the Alien Gizmo’s group for free to play these five lucky chairs)
  • Baby Monkey (shoes and clothing; no group is needed; 3 lucky chairs are located inside the central courtyard of the new store)
  • Belle Epoque (clothing; no group is needed; there are 5 lucky panels on the lawn in front of the store)
  • Brii Underground Wear (complete outfits with shoes; you’ll need to join the Brii Underground Wear group for L$200 to be able to play these 9 lucky chairs, located at the far back wall of the store from the right-hand side entrance)
  • Caboodle (clothing; you’ll need to join the Caboodle group for L$50 to play the 3 lucky panels here at the back of the store)
  • Cynful (clothing; located on the second floor; join the Cynful group for free to play these three lucky panels)
  • monaLISA (clothing and shoes; no group is needed; these panels are located to the left of the main entrance, next to the group gifts; at least one of them appears to be broken)
  • Oubliette (clothing; located just inside the store to the right; join the Petite Mort & Oubliette VIP group for free to play these four lucky panels)
  • Petite Mort (clothing; located just inside the store to the right; join the Petite Mort & Oubliette VIP group for free to play these four lucky panels)
  • Wow Skins (skins; no group is needed; the lucky chairs and panels are located in the far left wing of the store from the main entrance)
Lucky Chairs at Alien Gizmo's 22 May 2018.png
Lucky chairs at Alien Gizmo’s

What are your favourite lucky chair locations in Second Life? Feel free to leave a comment on this blogpost if you know of one that I’ve missed.

UPDATE May 24th: I forgot about the lucky chair location at MODA. (It’s hidden away in the back of one of the three sections of the sprawling store, so use the provided SLURL to find it.) You do not need to join the MODA group to play these 4 chairs for women’s shoes and clothing.

There is yet another good lucky chair location which I had forgotten to mention, that offers both men’s and women’s clothing. It’s at ADN Designs, where you can find 8 lucky chairs and 8 lucky panels on the wall above them. You don’t need to join a group to use them.

ADN Designs 24 May 2018_001.png

UPDATE Sept. 2nd: I also forgot to mention the eight lucky panels located next to the 7Seas Fishing pond at Sn@tch; you don’t need to join a group to use them. Also, Shoenique Designs has now split into two separate stores, Shoenique (shoes) and Ellnique (dresses and gowns), each with their own set of lucky panels (you do need to join the respective groups for free to play these panels). The new stores are rather large and spread out, so use the in-store map to find the lucky panel locations, or just follow the red arrow from the SLURLs I gave you to find the right area of the store. Good luck!

UPDATE Sept. 3rd: Forgot another one! There are nine lucky chairs at Sweet E’s clothing store…no group required!

UPDATE Sept. 11th: There are eleven lucky panels for women’s clothing at Nala Design; no group is needed for 9 of them and the other 2 require you to join the Nala group.