First experience converting $Linden to $USD to pay tier fees

On Friday 2/4/06 in SL, I registered a second account for the year ($72 USD). This makes my total US contributions to the game just under $200USD since 12/31/2005, which includes buying some items, premium membership fees for the year (buying a year’s worth of service is the best deal).

Saturday I had my first land tier fees coming due for $25 USD so earlier in the week I converted $7,500 Linden into USD using the “Sell $L” option, which at the then exchange rate of $281L per $1 and after the 3.5% transaction fee ended up being converted into $25.76. Gross was $26.70, but Linden Labs (LL) keeps the transaction fee. Sort of like Virtual bank fees.

On Saturday when LL stopped by to collect tier fees, they looked in the USD account first before banging my credit card and took their $25 USD. So now I know that each month I need to make sure there is at least enough $USD sitting in the account to pay the tier fees and in December have enough to pay another year of premium dues ($72 USD, if the fees don’t increase).

The selling of $Linden to $USD process was not immediate, unlike buying $Linden. It took about 24 hours to fulfill the order as other people need to buy at the rate I sold them at. I noticed on the graph (shown above) that some were selling $L at much less desirable rates. Even as low as $1L to $1USD — ouch. Through the SLexchange, you can also buy and sell $Linden, you don’t have to do it only through Linden Labs. The SL Exchange interface is a little more involved allowing you to choose different exchange rates to buy and sell at, which I imagine is how that resident was able to set a $1L to $1USD ratio. You can see the advanced marketplace stats by going to your SL account options and choosing “advanced” view.