The Alphaville Herald

Interview with Ian, from SimoleansPlus

by Alphaville Herald on 03/03/04 at 7:31 pm

In this interview we talk with high school student and TSO entrepreneur Ian, who, through his SimoleansPlus site carries on a brisk trade in simoleans, rare pets, other rare objects ranging from dead Christmas trees to TSO anniversary cakes, and last but not least: his business selling 14 day trial account codes. He talks about how he got into being a Simolean dealer, about various maze bots, and his high hopes for Nyk‘s Pizza bot, which is entering beta imminently.

Urizenus: So Ian, I just visited your site simoleansplus.com, and I see that you are much more than a simolean seller. What are some of the products you offer?
Urizenus: *your site
Ian: Simoleans, Rares, and now about to offer TSO Trial account codes.
Urizenus: Rare pets, but you also have other rare objects, no?
Ian: yes, like a tree, cake, and a maze.
Urizenus: Chistmas tree?
Ian: yep
Urizenus: how much does that sell for?
Ian: hmm about 5 or 6 dollars
Urizenus: and the cake is from …?
Ian: its from the 1 year anniversary.
Urizenus: ah, about the same price?
Urizenus: 5-6?
Ian: Yep
Urizenus: do you ever sell simmys?
Ian: I used to, but it has become hard to buy/find one, since exploits, made it aware to basically all founders what the item is worth.
Urizenus: so how much does a simmy go for these days?
Ian: Hmmm from what I have seen $70-80…more or less
Urizenus: wowzers. So I guess the question has to be, how come people want this stuff, given that it is basically… nothing?
Ian: lol, that is what i am trying to figure out too
Ian: For non-founders really, it means nothing…but it is more of a hmmm “memory” persay
Urizenus: I guess it is just one of the few objects that happen to be rare, hence valuable.
Urizenus: I guess what I really wanted to ask you about was the trial account code business. What is that exactly? What are you selling?
Ian: well trial account codes, are like registration codes, however they last for 14 days to the registrant. It’s a 16 digit code that is just like a register code You register them the same way you would a regular code on the simsonline homepage…
Ian: However many people find different uses for these codes.
Urizenus: Why would someone want a 14 day trial account?
Ian: well it is a register code, but not the ones you would buy in store
Ian: Good question
Ian: 1) Mafias….they love them….You can obviously guess why…to tag enemies
Urizenus: haha
Urizenus: good way to build your friendship web too I expect
Ian: 2)….with a trial account you get actually 15 days…not 14…sorry…it says 14….the first day you register doesn’t really count….but my point is you can retire 3 sims …..9 sims total on all the sims you can create
Ian: so…if you played in TC..you could potentially get 90k
Ian: or in any other city you could make up to 30k the whole period…or in one week you could make up to 50k
Ian: So if People wanted to buy these accounts for profit there it is
Urizenus: oh, I see, so you give the money to your main sim before you retire
Ian: Yes, well the owner of the account does
Ian: and 3) like you said for friendship webs…dont you remember the sims with 200+ sims on the friendship web….funny thing all the sims names looked alike
Urizenus: lol, but all this could change when the changes are institute to change the linking in friendship webs
Ian: Yes
Urizenus: will that kill this part of your business?
Ian: Oh it will damage
Ian: But there are always those money makers out there
Ian: I mean it’s like free money
Ian: you see 1mill on ebay goes to $45+ and rising!
Urizenus: Mafias will still need them, even if not to tag
Ian: Well I would think so, I don’t give out client info, but some people buy 100 codes+ and I know it’s not all for tagging
Urizenus: yup. So how much do you charge for a trial acct?
Ian: Right now 20,000 simoleans
Urizenus: How many clients do you have that buy in quantities as large as 100 codes?
Ian: Several
Ian: We have only been in operation since Saturday and haven’t really gotten the word completely out and we don’t have our site up…frankly I am surprised by all the orders
Urizenus: in different cities?
Ian: Mainly Alphaville, in fact I prefer alphaville
Urizenus: we all do!
Ian: LOL LOL, its the best
Ian: But we do have a few clients in BF
Urizenus: BF, hmmm I wonder who that could be. hehe
Ian: LOL
Urizenus: Do you have any nonmafia customers?
Ian: Hmm
Ian: Maybe 2 LOL
Ian: But I think I did get one reseller
Ian: But you can tell Mafias, obviously by the sim name, or where the hood is
Urizenus: ok, where do you get these things?
Ian: Sigh, a magician never reveals his secret
Urizenus: haha
Urizenus: Yah, but I can prolly find out anyway! The AVH knows all you know.
Ian: LOL
Ian: well you need patience, i will tell you that
Ian: Well not just patience, but a lot of time on your hands
Urizenus: lol, I won’t press you.
Ian: oh its fine i am used to it
Urizenus: But you haven’t automated the code finding process? Maybe this is a job for Nyk!
Ian: hmm two answers
Ian: 1) it will be automatic soon
Ian: 2) nyk lol, he is just too good, I don’t even think he would waste his time on this
Urizenus: hehe
Urizenus: You are still selling simoleans, no?
Ian: Of course
Urizenus: Do you produce your own, or do you have a supplier?
Ian: I produce my own
Ian: Also the codes give me simoleans
Urizenus: oh right, of course
Urizenus: Are you running any bots now?
Ian: Of course I am
Urizenus: lol, which bots do you recommend right now
Ian: www.mysimsonlinecheats.com is the only one I am aware of
Urizenus: Are you looking forward to the new bots that Nyk is working on?
Ian: Oh gosh, honestly I can’t wait, he was supposed to have a Beta out today, but he needs to make one more improvement
Urizenus: Are you short on inventory right now, or do you have a decent supply of simoleans on hand?
Ian: Well, I dont have that much on stock
Ian: But then again I haven’t received many consumers….I really have not made the site public yet, but it is open for business
Ian: But I have a good amount in stock
Urizenus: Do you think that Nyk’s new bots will lead to another price drop in the simolean?
Ian: Absolutely not
Urizenus: why not?
Ian: You see his last program the mazer…
Was super fast, on better pcs….2.4 GHZ P4+ made 3,000,000+ per PC
Ian: and many of us had multiply Pcs running
And every seller was in it. But the Pizza prog will be human speed or less
Urizenus: ic
Ian: its not nyk’s fault, or his skills
Ian: its just the way the game is
Urizenus: pizza takes time I guess
Ian: With the maze, there was a bug maxis never fixed with the “Celebration”, Where it says “You won $465″ and you had to press OK. That was meant to slow you down to wait for another maze
Ian: Also, when you beat a maze, you get about 20 seconds of the sims celebrating, However a maze kept restarting
Ian: So the celebrating let you maze in the red bars lol
Urizenus: lol,
Ian: but the pizza is not fast enough, because you have to wait for a call and put the pizza in the oven, which makes you stop
Ian: But there are some honest players who make $60,000+ per round of pizza
Urizenus: wow, so the bot should be able to do that too
Ian: Hmm, Well …
Ian: I am no programmer, but with pizza you have 3 choices per person
Ian: And with mysims bot it doesn’t always make the best choice. I watch it sometimes, and it could have made a better pizza than it did. sometimes it makes a “burn” when it could have made a pizza.
Ian: So I don’t know if nyk has a surprise for us, but it will most likely do 50,000-60k an hour
Urizenus: How long have you been in the simolean selling business?
Ian: Oh gee, Hmm since The end of January of 2003
Urizenus: How did you get into it?
Ian: Well I saw that simoleans back then for $250+per 400k
Urizenus: wowzers
Ian: No one ever sold a mill, lol
Ian: and I was playing in game, and when I was a “newbie” in January…(sigh *just missed the beta*..actually my CD’s didnt work) but anyways…i lived in MF and lived with a guy who was very generous
Ian: Looking back now…i think he exploited
Ian: He probably fed me $500,000 total
Ian: Then I saw a TSO exploit forum and instantly signed up
Urizenus: was that TSO Extreme?
Ian: Yep
Ian: There, I met Wholesale sellers, who really got me into it
Urizenus: When did you start farming your own simoleans?
Ian: You mean stop reselling?
Urizenus: yah, and start making your own.
Ian: Maze
Ian: lol
Urizenus: haha
Ian: My first mazer was revolutionary, but turned out to be shitty
Ian: have you heard of Acidics?
Urizenus: no
Ian: the “first” mazebot maker
Ian: it made 300k an hour back in …i forget when maybe right befor summer
Urizenus: oh ok, defunct now?
Ian: He sold the rights to the mazer
Urizenus: Can I ask you in rough figures what you made selling simoleans in the last year? Total sales i guess.
Ian: lol well compared to that 100k guy…
Ian: LOL
Ian: I probably made $6,000 total more or less
Urizenus: that’s after expenses?
Ian: I would take 500 off maybe
Urizenus: who do you think is the biggest simolean dealer on tso?
Ian: Two guys
Ian: SimoleanMan who has been in a while
Ian: and This new guy, TsoRealty
Urizenus: who is that?
Ian: he’s a new seller on the block I guess you could say lol…he builds houses in the game…and got into selling simoleans
Ian: He is just as good as johnny lace
Urizenus: …who retired
Ian: yes
Urizenus: what about http://www.realsimsonline.com/index.asp. Isn’t that a big seller?
Ian: i have never heard anything about them, i have seen the site
Ian: but i imagine with the traffic they get…
Urizenus: exactly
Urizenus: So how come you do this? Fun? Profit?
Ian: both
Ian: I love making money
Urizenus: haha
Ian: I have been able to buy a laptop and a pc and other small objects
Ian: its fun because it gives me something to do I guess, and makes other sims happy
Ian: but I am slowly understanding the concept of why people buy fake money and pay with real money
Urizenus: Do you have a r/l job?
Ian: Full Time student
Ian: Lol
Urizenus: What do you study?
Ian: sigh… English, Religion, Math, Spanish, Social Studies, Chemistry, Web Design
Urizenus: high school?
Ian: LOL, yes
Urizenus: lol
Urizenus: What do you say to the people on the Stratics Boards that say you are an immoral cheater who is ruining the game for good hardworking sims?
Ian: Well I am sure if they could, they would to
Ian: They don’t understand that this business creates jobs for those who want money
Ian: I really hate to sound like this but….doesn’t this country need more jobs? LOL
Urizenus: what do you mean they would if they could?
Ian: Well if they could get a hold of bots…most people don’t know how to find out about Mysimsonlinecheats.com
Urizenus: so you think the stratics boarders are just jealous that they don’t know how to do this?
Ian: most of them
Ian: but like I said those do gooders don’t understand the world of business opportunity