PXP highlighted a specific vendor system recently, called "VendeX".  It immediately caught my eye, since I had just been vendor-shopping.  This was a lot different, though, and you'll see why.  Maybe you've already heard of it!

Here's an excerpt from the creator(Sol Columbia)'s description of said product:

VendeX by SoLur Industries

VendeX is a market indexed vendor system where prices are set in US$ and goods are sold in L$. This allows the freedom to set one price on an item even as the L$ varies in value. Set the price in US$ and never worry again about the value of the Linden dollar again! Please have a look at the pictures for some graphical information.

Once an hour, the server is refreshed with up to the minute financial data from the Second Life Lindex page. In turn, the vendors themselves request the latest conversion rate once every 24 hours.

There are three components, the VendeX server(no copy/no mod), the vendor script (copiable), and the settings notecard wich accompanies the vendor script in each vendor.

Vendex is available for sale at SoLur Industries stores in Igbo, Couture Isle, and Celestial City for $L1000 (and soon on SLX and SLB).

Firstly, this isn't a networked vendor; the server component is used to update the soul feature of using this system: $L->$USD fluctuations.  Now you can sell your wares with the comforting knowledge that you're staying ahead of the Exchange Rate Game.  If you choose to do so, that is.

This idea presents the Second Life community with even more to think about.  Just how does $L/$USD exchange rates affect our time in SL?  Detrimentally?  Positively?  Not at all?  It's always been there, exchange rates, in the undercurrent of marketing, waiting to be grasped and molded to the money-conscientious individual's whims.  However, now, we're taking that and putting it in the face of the consumers.  The ones that spend their $L, whether or not they cash out.  This exposure isn't selective, though, and that is where the VendeX system will meet its biggest threat.

Not only is the vendor taking advantage of the exchange rate game, but he's showing any customer or potential customer that that is what is important to him.  Ethics enter into the picture, next, and then he may have one helluva debate on his hands.  Are vendors in Second Life prepared to show their customers just what is important to them?  Are they prepared to bare themselves in the face of skepticism, praise, economical interest, and drahma?  It looks that way.  Their success isn't in their hands in this matter.  It's in the hands of everyone out there with $L in their virtual pockets, ready to spend.

We'll see, won't we?