Saturday, January 23, 2010

Duchies for Sale

Recent months have seen a number of Caledon duchies change hands or be offered for sale. Miss Ilsa Munro just announced the sale of Loch Avie; Miss Diamanda Gustafson is shopping the Sound; Perenelle changed ownership from Dame Ordinal Malaprop to Miss Anna Darwinian and Mr. Ambiant Kukulkan to Miss Alana Steamweaver and Miss Kitsuko Pelazzi, all in a matter of months; and the changes in Rothesay have become the stuff of legend, with Miss Gabrielle Riel returning to the duchy (Carntaigh) she once sold.

Below two pictures: Loch Avie




Below two pictures: Carntaigh (in Rothesay)




Below: Perenelle


Below: the water-filled Sound


Is this a good time to be buying a duchy? Or a good time to be selling one?

4 comments:

Mako Magellan said...

I'll tell you what I think, here.

Rhianon Jameson said...

Wow, Primverness, too? That might be the biggest surprise of all.

(And sold to Miss Darwinian? Didn't she just sell Perenelle? Good grief, it's come to this: I need a scorecard to keep up with Duchy ownership.)

People's needs and circumstances change; I understand that. I'm a little surprised by the frequency of Duchy sales, though, and even more surprised at the supply of willing buyers.

HeadBurro Antfarm said...

I'll have one. Rhia. Over hear! Can I have one, please. There. That one! Hand it over, please. No, to me! I'm here, next to you! Hand it over! Not there, no! I'm here!

Oh for goodness sake woman, will you please just pass the duchy to the left hand side!

Ay thank youse!

Rhianon Jameson said...

For goodness' sake, sir, these are large properties, not doughnuts, or deep-fried Mars bars, or some such treat to be handed out willy-nilly!

Ahem. Anyway, I am impressed at the amount people will spend on these things. My back-of-the-envelope calculation (actually, my HP-12C calculation, done with my shaky memory of how many prims I have) suggests that a duchy costs on the order of US$1400 annually. It's one thing if the owner has a revenue stream, even if it doesn't cover all the tier, but quite another to pay that just to have some fun. And yet people do it. Go figure.