There are two main ways of selling your items, either via a simple box, or via a vendor system such as JEVN or hippoVEND. Obviously the vendor system is more expensive, as you would need to buy the vendor system you wish to use. However, the main advantage that a vendor has over a simple box, is that if SL is having problems and not delivering items, it is easy to spot if an item was not delivered and redeliver the purchased item.

By Box:

To create a simple box to sell your items, click Ctrl-1 which will bring up the edit/creation tools. Click on the wand icon and then the box icon, followed by clicking on the ground near you. Hopefully a wooden box has just appeared near you, if not then you might not be in an area in SL where you can rez objects, so you might like to try and visit a sandbox to rez your box.

To set up your box to sell your items, do the following:

  1. Under the General tab enter a suitable name for your box (usually related to the items that you wish to sell from it) with a description if you so wish. Tick beside For Sale and then enter the price which you wish to sell your items for next to Price: L$. Don’t forget to tick whether you wish the next owner to be able to modify, copy or resell your items (otherwise known as Mod, Copy, Trans). Also select the Buy object from the drop down list under When Left-Clicked.
  2. Under the Object tab you can resize the box to a suitable size.
  3. Under the Texture tab you can change the texture and colour applied to the outside of your box. Quite often, you will wish to change the texture for an image that you have created to show what the items are that your box contains. Assuming you have already uploaded an image into SL, click on the Texture box and then locate your image from your inventory and click the select button.
  4. You may have noticed that the image is applied to all sides of your box, which might not necessarily be what you want. To place an image on one side of your box only, click to the left of Select Texture and then click on the side of the box that you wish to apply the texture to and then follow the steps in stage 3 to apply the texture.
  5. Under the Content tab is where you need to place the contents you wish to sell. Simply drag the items you have created from where they are stored in your inventory and drop them on to the Contents folder.

Close the edit/creation tools menu and left-click on the box it should now pop up a little window allowing you to buy the contents of the box.

Tip #6: It is useful to buy any items you sell from boxes or vendors to check what permissions you have set for the next owner (whether that be any or all of Mod, Copy, Trans) and to also make sure that you are giving out the correct items.

By Vendor:

As I’ve only used the hippoVEND vendor, this section is related to how the hippoVEND vendor works.

So having visited Hippo Technologies Main Store in SL and brought the hippoVEND vendor (which currently retails for L$1,750) and followed the hippoVEND Getting Started Guide to set up a user account you’re all set to go playing with a vendor.

Unfortunately, you can’t start with the vendor as you need to do some setting up first, before you can actually configure a vendor to sell the items you want to sell. So to start you need to be in SL:

  1. Rez a server (i.e. find your hippo server in your inventory and take it out of your inventory).
  2. Right click and select edit.
  3. Under the General tab give the object server a unique name, I tend to include the name of the sim in the name to make it easier to spot on the Hippo website which server I’m looking at (but more about that later).
  4. Under the Content tab you should find a config note card. Open the config note card and change the name and password and save.
  5. Still under the Content tab place the items you wish to sell (drag from your inventory into the content tab window). (Note: Items that are to be sold are already normally packaged up in a box before being placed in the server.) Add any note cards that you wish the vendor to hand out, plus images that are to be used on the vendor to show off your items.
  6. Reset the server, either by right click and choose Touch or come out of the edit mode and simply touch the server to bring up the blue menu system, and choose Reset.
  7. In the blue menu system, select Go Online and then select Load Inv which will load your server inventory items to the Hippo website.

Tip #7: It is important to give every item being placed in the hippoVEND server a unique name whether that be the item to sell, a note card or image, as it will otherwise confuse the server.

Next you need to open a web browser:

  1. Log in to the Hippo website and click on hippoVEND. (This will take you to your servers and inventory page, showing what servers you have and what inventory is in them.)
  2. Click on Servors & Inventory and scroll down to the name of the box that contains the items you want to sell and click on the blue plus to the right of it.
  3. You change the name, add a description, allocate an image for the vendor texture and any note cards associated with your creation.
  4. The most important part is to assign a price. The categories section, simply makes it easier for you to search for items on the Hippo web site.
  5. Once you’re happy everything is okay, hit okay for your item to be created on the web site.

For the complete guide to how to use the hippoVEND system click on The Complete Guide To hippoVEND.

Back in SL:

  1. Rez a Hippo vendor in SL. (I tend to use the single panel vendors - single panel vendors are quite common amongst clothes stores).
  2. You will need to grant debit permissions twice when the yellow pop-ups appear, this is to deal with setting up the vendor to pay you money when somebody buys an item.
  3. Right click the vendor and edit, and position the vendor appropriately, it’s also a good time to give your vendor object a unique name (I tend to use the name of the outfit and the price to make it easier to spot on the Hippo website).
  4. Download the items to the vendor, either by right click and chose Touch or come out of the edit mode and simply touch the vendor to bring up the blue menu system, and choose Download. (Note: If you are using a single vendor go back to the website and modify what the vendor object sells by clicking on the wrench (edit) image and entering the product name under Product Name Contains. Then back in SL touch the vendor and select Reset and Download again (this time it should have only one item)).

So now you should have a fully operating vendor that will sell your item(s).

Tip #8: If you have shops in more than one sim, it is useful to have a server positioned in each sim with all the inventory items that you need to sell all of your creations. If SL is having problems and one of your servers is “inactive” for a time the vendors can still use a server in a different sim to deliver the items a customer buys.