Second Life Marketplace commission changes

As I'm sure most people will be aware of, even those who aren't retailers in Second Life, Linden Lab have recently changed the commission they charge merchants who sell via the Marketplace. For as long as I can remember, probably back when it was XStreetSL and the Lab didn't yet own it, the cost for selling there has been %5 of the sale price. As of yesterday this has doubled to 10%.

I just wanted to take a moment to reassure Z&A customers that this won't change anything in my store. I have no plans at all to adjust prices to take this increase into account. Personally I think it's a fair change on the part of the Lab. While the MP has had its issues in the past, and likely still has some, it's a big and complex website that has the benefit if linking in-world in useful ways.

Over the years I've seen significant improvements to how it works (I really don't miss magic boxes!), stability improvements and speed improvements. All of those things take work. All of those things require people to do the work. Those people deserve an income. Etc. As someone who makes a RL living from software development, including web development, I'm pretty sensitive to the value that the MP delivers me, as a Second Life merchant.

Meanwhile, I've seen alternatives come and go, and have even been caught out by one of them.

Simply put: in almost 10 years of trading in Second Life, this is the first time the Lab have asked me to chip a bit more in to maintain a tool I don't have to maintain myself and which has helped Z&A exist. For me it's still fantastic value compared to, for example, maintaining an in-world store -- that takes more work and takes a far bigger chunk of my (in-world) sales. The MP still looks like really good value to me.

So... prices will stay the same. I just want people to have affordable kinky RLV fun. :-)