Lead Architect begins liquidating holdings on TSO, plans operations in other MMORPGs
by Alphaville Herald on 22/07/04 at 5:12 pm
In this interview we talk to Lead Architect, a big player on TSO as seller of simoleans and rares, and (as his name suggests) home design. But the buzz on TSO is that he is liquidating his holdings of simoleans. What are Lead?s plans? It looks like he is going to stake out territory as a dealer in at least a dozen other MMORPGs. Read on for details.
urizenus_sklar: Lead, rumor has it that you are liquidating your supply of simoleans and are going to be branching out to currency sales in many other games (as your new site suggests: http://creditsfast.com/). Any truth to the rumor?
Lead Architect: yes
urizenus_sklar: lol, so what’s the long term plan — I mean besides becoming a Really Big Dog.
Lead Architect: i don?t have a long term plan i am just tired of seeing my sales falling from where they were a few months ago to what they are now i need to move more volume if i want to stay ahead rather than just sitting on my stock waiting for it to gain value
urizenus_sklar: Do you think the drop in sales reflects a drop in users on tso?
Lead Architect: no i think the drop in sales reflects the growing interest in the virtual vending business that has sprouted over the course of this summer, there are alot more sellers now than before and many more choices for consumers than previously, even tho supply is still just as hard or even harder to come by now days
urizenus_sklar: If there is so much competition, how come the prices are holding, if not going up?
Lead Architect: because simoleans are still incredibly slow to produce, i try to find people to buy from rather than wasting time producing them myself, it is just a fact that its faster to buy them than to make them
urizenus_sklar: Well, ok, but you have, by many accounts, accumulated a huge inventory of simoleans. Some say you may have up to a billion. Care to comment on the size of your tso inventory?
Lead Architect: no comment
urizenus_sklar: lol, but you are currently looking to sell off a large chunk of your inventory?
Lead Architect: yes
urizenus_sklar: Is the though that you will reinvest it in the other games listed on your site?
Lead Architect: yes i will invest in those games plus i will invest in even more throughout time, to this day i have always been a 1 person operation but i may consider following the lead of success that another big name company has set as precidence
urizenus_sklar: are you talking about IGE or Online Gamebucks?
Lead Architect: i am talking about IGE, onlinegamebucks sells for IGE, although that is a good way to start it doesnt validate your position.
urizenus_sklar: Well, I notice that for now, for most of the 12 games listed on your site you have click-throughs to IGE. I gather that in the fullness of time you would like to have your own operation in those games?
Lead Architect: i will indeed have my own operation in every one of those games and every server on each of those games
urizenus_sklar: 
urizenus_sklar: every server in every game?
Lead Architect: well out of the games i have listed on my site, but i definitely plan to be in at least a few more games than just those
urizenus_sklar: Sounds like you will need some help, if for nothing else then for deliveries.
Lead Architect: i don?t plan to stay a 1 person operation for much longer
urizenus_sklar: How are you going to compete with IGE? Will you be less expensive?
Lead Architect: i wont have to compete with them really all i have to do is offer everything that they do at a very close price to them just because they are well known doesn?t mean i cannot become as well, look what i did in tso in only 7 months time from scratch
urizenus_sklar: true, so you think the market is big enough for several players then
Lead Architect: i believe it is for those who have the desire and drive yes but it takes dedication and it takes pre-thought out planning
urizenus_sklar: Since this is now the Second Life Herald, let me ask when you think you might be up and running in Second Life.
Lead Architect: I have no official date set yet as to when i will be vending my own currency in second life, however i plan to be in the game within a month
urizenus_sklar: Do you have an agent there, or will you set up your own account in the game.
Lead Architect: i will set up my own account in the game
urizenus_sklar: Are you going to continue offering other services like home design?
Lead Architect: probably not, because of the time constraints that just doing what i do now sets on me.
urizenus_sklar: What about rare objects. will you still be selling those in tso and other games?
Lead Architect: yes i will
urizenus_sklar: Is the cannon business still booming in tso?
Lead Architect: absolutely not, but i never thought it really would get that big considering the massive amounts of cannons introduced into tso by ian
urizenus_sklar: and he did all that with his temp accounts?
Lead Architect: i will not assume anything that i dont know for a fact so all i will say is i do not know how he did it or even why he did it on such a large scale as i believe if he had introduced maybe even just 5% of the amount he did he could have made a much more long term profit on them as well as other sellers
urizenus_sklar: well how on earth could he get those cannons without using his temp accounts?
Lead Architect: i personally got quite a few cannons into tso myself without the use of a single temp account, i actually purchased the full games from wholesalers and then gave them away for free to people who agreed to become a referral for me.
urizenus_sklar: Last question: have you been having any trouble with clones lately? or has that problem dissipated.
Lead Architect: i havent had many recent complaints or questions about clones so maybe he has decided to do something different, in any case most people are already educated about them thanks to your article
urizenus_sklar: OK Lead, keep us posted. Especially let us know when you are up and running in SL.
MattyS
Jul 22nd, 2004
hehe I know how much $$ he gots
.and sorry to hear tso aint working out for you i figured you were doing so good….oo well gl in the future
MattyS
RB
Jul 23rd, 2004
You don’t need to assume how “Sir” got all those cannons in, it’s automatic
lol. There are a couple that did abuse on a massive scale. No, i will not say anything.
And yes it’s nobodys business how much lead or anything one else has for that matter.
And home design by lead? I don’t recall it. Probaly stopped around the same time he started selling tho. And he did not start from scratch btw. Let’s be totally honest Mr B
And Lead has big plans, BIG plans indeed. This is why people like him succeed. They think BIG and never stop trying. As for the recent ebay influx, i also assume this flood of amatuer sellers looking for quick bucks will go away once the american summer is over.
Then things will be back to normal. And you wonder why rares don’t sell? No one wants to pay almost $600 for just a pink poodle or robo pet. lol. Ludicris pricing.
I am also eager to see how this pans out and wish lead only the best luck in his future ventures
- RB
*shameful business plug*
p.s see me for $45/Mill. all cities. hehe.
*end shameful business plug*
Charlize
Jul 23rd, 2004
Exacto. The pricing is absolutely insane. There are people selling poodles for a hundred bucks and he’s still sitting there waiting for someone to pay a ridiculous amount for a virtual pet. Sometimes there has to be a boundary between gaming and reality. I know designer clothes you could purchase for the price of one of his rares. Why would people want to spend so much money that they could be enjoying on RL luxuries for their game? Maybe they don’t have much of a life. I have purchased simoleons, but never paid more than $150, and as I look back on that now, that seems a little stupid.
MattyS
Jul 23rd, 2004
The most i spent on sim money was 25$ lol at a time and only did that twice
urizenus
Jul 23rd, 2004
“And home design by lead? I don’t recall it.”
RB, there is a link to his home designs in the article.
Ian
Jul 23rd, 2004
I think he meant he doesn’t remember it. I don’t remember it either, but I know he did it.
Crush
Jul 23rd, 2004
Lead is a liar. He is buying up simoleans as we speak. He isn’t getting out of TSO at all. This publication was just used by him shamelessly.
MattyS
Jul 23rd, 2004
ya, I talked to him and he said he had no reason to leave tso. and that I didn’t understand the article.
urizenus
Jul 23rd, 2004
The article doesn’t say he’s leaving. It says he’s raising cash so he can branch out into other games. I’m sure he’ll still buy if the price is right.
RB
Jul 23rd, 2004
Liqidating at dictionary dot com.
Liquidating in plain english:
Going out of business or moving to another business. This does not involve spending more to keep current business going longer.
Bad article title or Lead needs to make up his mind.
- RB
urizenus
Jul 23rd, 2004
that isn’t right, RB. You *could* liquidate your business, of course, but you might also liquidate some of your assets to raise cash. In this case the claim was that he was begining to liquidate his holdings (i.e. in game assets). I suppose we could have said “*some* of his holdings”, or “beginning to reduce his position”.
Crush
Jul 23rd, 2004
RB is completely right.
urizenus_sklar: lol, but you are currently looking to sell off a large chunk of your inventory?
Lead Architect: yes
Looking to sell off simoleans but buying like crazy? You guys just need to admit that this guy uses you for advertising.
urizenus
Jul 23rd, 2004
We went to him. He didn’t come to us.
Ian
Jul 23rd, 2004
I was going to say that what Uri does. Uri always goes to people for stories, the only case in which he didn’t was Debra Messing. If the person came to you for a story, that is more of an advertisement of self-promotion rather than ‘news’. Lead is an interesting person and I was going to try to get an interview with him before I departed from here. Crush it sounds like you have some type of ‘personal vendetta’ with Lead. He is a person just like YOU and ME trying to make a buck in the world. You may question his ethics, such as I, but in the end, it’s just business. He really is liquidating his funds, he offered me a lump sum, for a good resale value; but he is buying lower than he sells. But let’s look at it this way. If you try to get smaller in funds, but then you see a good deal, that you know you can profit from, wouldn’t you?
RB
Jul 23rd, 2004
You don’t know the whole story Ian. So lets just stick to the lead issue and not deviate.
Uri you are correct, and the title just made it seem like full on leave.
- RB
Charlize
Jul 23rd, 2004
I just hope that he didn’t say that all his simoleons are hard earned in game. I probably misunderstood. All I know is that he spent 9k RL money on simoleons, which he breaks up and sells for insane prices on eBay.
TBT
Jul 24th, 2004
Anyone got hipwaders the shitzle is getting deep!
Unknown
Jul 29th, 2004
On behalf of several people i behold the truth of L.A. Through talking with out people, it has been shown that LA used FAKE GENERATED CREDIT CARD NUMBERS to get his cannons. But he did not do this act alone, no no no. He paid 2 people to do the deed cheap USD to produce the cc’s and accounts for cannons
he has around 3 billion simoleans, much of which is from suppliers
He is said to be liquadting about 700 million so ya
Ian
Jul 29th, 2004
Proof? BTW I know for a fact, be bought 80% of all his cannons and he paid someone to make the accts for him. You can’t enter “Fake cc’s”…The TSO credit card servers, I am sure are routed with some type of verifying server.
RB
Jul 29th, 2004
What load of utter bullshit. I’d suspect that of someone else, not lead. I know for 100% fact that he bought like 50-100 copies of TSO from a wholesale wharehouse really cheap and used the codes from those.
Such lies. just like the 3 billion mark. And is liquidating due to slowing down sales. not because of having too much. Leaving TSO eventually, so who cares? lol.
- RB
Charlize
Jul 29th, 2004
Just one question: If this guy is sadly making a rl living out of selling computer game currency, what about the long run? Eventually Maxis will shut down TSO due to low subscriptions. This is really getting ridiculous. Some of these people are going to go crazy stressing over in game issues such as this.
Urizenus
Jul 31st, 2004
presumably this is the reason he is branching out into other game currencies.
Crush
Jul 31st, 2004
I can’t count the lies in this post much less the lies told by Lead in that article. His lastest Yahoo Message stated “Swap me your simoleans for SWG credits”. The stupidity of THAT boggles the mind. Think about it.
Maybe he meant he was looking to liquidate TSO subscribers?
Lead Architect
Jul 31st, 2004
Actually I have over double the amount of SWG credits as I do of simoleans on various servers, and since i am having a much easier time selling off simoleans as I am selling off my credits, it only makes sense to turn them into whatever sells the fastest if i am trying to raise cash.
online poker
Aug 10th, 2004
4647 ok you can play online poker at this address : http://www.play-online-poker.greatnow.com
Mafioso
Aug 10th, 2004
What is with these damn advertisements..
urizenus
Aug 10th, 2004
cleaning spam is a full time job and when both the phantom and I are on the road it shows.
Mick Lite
Aug 11th, 2004
Just to clear it up, we don’t sell for IGE, we sell with IGE.
The click throughs gets us a commission. We also supply them with money in many games and they supply us in others. We help them, and they help us. IGE and OnlineGameBucks are many people working together. This is why we are so successful week in and week out. Lead is a one man reselling operation and does not compare. The reason he is as “popular” (for lack of a better word) as he is, is because he plays the game.
Who cares
Aug 14th, 2004
Uri, Are you sure you didn’t visit pornsites while you updated your website?
who cares also
Aug 14th, 2004
“Lead is a one man reselling operation and does not compare. The reason he is as “popular” (for lack of a better word) as he is, is because he plays the game.”
He just spends stupid amounts of money on advertising. buys attention. hardly popular. again for lack of a better word.