Newbie Tutorial 3: Buy stuff & Unpack boxes
“Hmmm… Buying stuff? But I don’t have any money!” you might think. Well, you want to get your hands on some nice freebies, don’t you? That means that you have to buy them… for 0 L$. That’s 0 Linden Dollar which is the currency in Second Life. And later, when you have some cash - it will work exactly the same way to actually buy stuff.
Vendors
A vendor is an object that contains and displays the things to buy! It can be a big board in a big shop with nice pictures of the items that’s for sale. Or it can be a default building box that displays what is for sale with text floating over it. That is the two most common ways but a vendor can actually look like whatever.
For example: This is my Yardsale. As you can see there are both vendors with pictures and simple small boxes with floating text.
Buy
People that are selling stuff in Second Life have some different methods to choose from. What YOU have do is: Either Right-click-and-Buy or Right-click-and-Pay.
Right-click-and-Buy
‘Right-click-and-Buy’ is the absolute most common way for selling and Buying in SL. This is how it works!
- Right-click the Vendor and a Pie Menu will open. Select Buy.
- A window will open and show you the name of the vendor/product, the items inside it, the name of the seller and the price.
- Remember the products name, make sure the vendor contains the stuff you want and THAT THE PRICE IS RIGHT!
- Press the Buy button and the items will be transferred to your Inventory.
Maybe you will come across vendors that are Left-click-and-Buy. That will be indicated by a green L$-sign when you hover the vendor with your mouse. But actually you may also use Right-click-and-Buy on them - so they work the same way!
Right-click-and-Pay
The ‘Right-click-and-Pay’ method is not that common for free stuff, but as soon you start paying real lindens you will most certainly have to get familiar with it. This is how it works!
- Right-click the vendor and a Pie Menu will open. Instead of ‘Buy’ it will state ‘Pay’. Select Pay.
- A blue pop-up-window will open and hopefully the price is already stated. Otherwise you have to type the price in yourself.
- Press ‘Pay’ or the ‘Price button’.
- A new blue pop-up-window will open in the upper right corner stating that the object has been sent to you.
- Remember the name. Then Press KEEP! That’s KEEP, KEEP, KEEP and nothing else.
- The bought item will be transferred to your Inventory.
The thing that could go wrong with the ‘Pay-method’ is that once that second blue window pops up there are three buttons: Keep, Discard and Mute. You must click KEEP or the stuff will be gone - and your money too
Another thing that might be a little annoying with Pay-Vendors is that you don’t automatically get to see what’s inside… If you want to check that out: Right-click the vendor - and before you select ‘Pay’ select ‘Edit’ instead. This will open up the ‘Edit- window’. Click the content-tab and you will see the vendors content. If you’re satisfied - close the ‘Edit- window’ and Right-click again to ‘Pay’.
Where is my stuff?!
Ok! So now you bought the stuff - but where did it go? Well, people that are selling stuff in Second Life have two options. Sell a vendors content / Sell a copy of the vendor.
Buying Content
If the seller is selling the vendors content a folder with the same name as the vendor will be placed in your inventory. You can find it because you remembered the name, right? Use Inventory Search if your inventory is messy. You may also try the Recent Items tab. You should be able to easily find the item you bought there…
- If you bought clothing, shapes or skins, you can Right-Click the items in the folder and select Wear.
- And that goes for ‘prim-attachments’ to - such as a Sword or Prim-Hair or Prim-Skirts (the icon is a yellow cube).
- Or right-click the folder itself and select ‘Replace outfit’ to take off everything you are wearing and replace it with your new stuff. Or choose ‘Add to Outfit’ to add the clothing to what you already wearing (this is a really useful feature!).
- If you bought a house (also prims with yellow cube icons)… Well, you should NOT wear it…

If you did? If you did buy a house and are wearing it? Right-Click the house you are wearing and choose ‘Detach’! And don’t be embarrassed about it, now! I have been wearing a LOT of houses… And a horse… And a bicycle…
Buying a Copy
This method is very common when someone is ’selling’ freebies. Instead of the content inside the vendor - you are buying the vendor with the items inside - the items are so called ‘boxed’.
In this case you bought the whole ‘Object’. Since it is an object (the icon is a yellow cube) you will find it in your ‘Object-Folder’ - and it has the same name as the vendor (actually it is an exact copy of it - size, looks and all).
Since this is a kind of package you have to unpack it. The items you bought is INSIDE the package (boxed). In order to be able to unpack this package you have to ‘rez it’ - put it on the ground. To do this you must be in a location that allows you to build. Start by trying it where you got the box. If its not allowed - go to a sandbox!
Unpack the box
- Find the item you bought in the “Objects” Folder in your Inventory.
- Select the item, and drag it to the ground. This will ‘rez’ the object so you can work with it.
- Right-click on the rezzed box. A pie-menu will open on your screen.
There you will se an option that says “Open”. Click it, and the list of Objects inside the box will appear in a ‘content-window’.
NOTE! This might take some time depending on the amount of items and how busy the sim is - be patient. - Click the button: ‘Save to inventory’.
This will create a new folder in your inventory with the same name as the original object - with all the items in it.
NOTE! This might ALSO take some time - be patient and wait until all items are loaded. - Find the new folder in your Inventory and open it: Voalá! There is your new stuff!
- DONT FORGET TO ‘DELETE’ OR ‘TAKE’ THE BOX ON THE GROUND! DON’T LITTER!
Right-click on the rezzed box on the ground. At the pie-menu:
Choose ‘More >’ and ‘Delete’ if you want to delete the box.
Choose ‘Take’ if you want to take the box back to your inventory.
Note: A ‘deleted’ item will be stored in your Trash-folder until you empty it. If you make a mistake you will find it there!
You may also drag the objects from the ‘content-window’ one by one to your inventory. Smart if you don’t need all the objects…

Ooops! Did you accidentally wear the box instead of unpack it? Right-Click the box you are wearing and choose ‘Detach’.
That’s it!
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Updated: March 2008