Most Expensive Items Ever Sold in an MMO

MMO games are big business nowadays, and people spend millions of dollars every year playing them. The range of virtual worlds you can engage in has grown rapidly. There is a real choice for people about what kind of character they want to be, what kind of environment they want to play in and what kind of action they are looking for. While World of Warcraft is top of the pile when it comes to MMORPGs, there are also some extremely popular MMOs which focus on social interaction over gaming.

Titles like Second Life allow people to chat, perform, construct buildings and games, and charge others for entertainment. While selling objects for real world money is frowned upon in games like WoW, it is positively encouraged in MMOs like Entropia where the game economy has a real world value. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the most expensive items ever sold in an MMO.

According to estimates from the European Network and Information Security Agency, who carried out a study on virtual worlds towards the end of 2008, the real money value of virtual world objects being traded each year is $2 billion. That figure is likely to be much higher in reality because much of the trade is carried out on the black market to circumvent game rules which generally prohibit such sales.

In last years Guinness Book of World Records (2008), the title of “The Most Expensive Virtual Object” went to Club Neverdie which is an asteroid space resort in the Entropia Universe. The resort includes a nightclub, a sports stadium, a shopping mall, bio domes, a space dock and over 1000 apartment buildings. Jon Jacobs bought the asteroid for $100,000, mortgaging his house in order to fund the purchase and he made his money back within a year. The resort is now estimated to be worth $1 million and it generates a large monthly income for him. Jon also paid $10,000 for a rare green egg which is on display at his resort. The Entropia world has an economy which values 10 in-game dollars as 1 real U.S. dollar and people can deposit and withdraw money. The developers estimate the daily turnover on their world exceeds $1.25 million.

It is harder to track sales in games like World of Warcraft because the practice is against the game rules, and eBay has banned the sale of in-game characters and items. However, in 2007, a Rogue character with swords dropped by Illidan Stormrage and an almost complete set of Tier 6 armor was sold for 7,000 Euros which converts to around $9,000. Sadly, the guy who bought the account was banned shortly afterwards, and it seems highly unlikely that he was able to get his money back.