eBay No Longer Allowing Virtual Property
Posted on January 26, 2007 by
Adie 
News 
10 Comments
According to a recent article on Slashdot, eBay has decided to delist all virtual property. This is targeted at online gamers who have been selling virtual items such as in-game currency, items, and characters for years. eBay has been the largest marketplace for online goods since there was a demand for them.
Now that eBay is no longer allowing virtual property to be sold through their website, I can only imagine how much more IGE will grow. IGE has been a major retailer of virtual items next to eBay since 2001; however, unlike eBay IGE acts as a virtual goods merchant rather than providing a user-powered auctioning system. IGE offers to purchase users’ virtual items but at an extremely low price (compared to what one could get on eBay).
Now there is a gap in the industry with no big player left to fill it. There are a lot of small auction sites for virtual items, but an eBay of the virtual world? There isn’t one. Now that eBay has cut off the sale of virtual goods, I think this is the perfect time for someone to step in and take their spot.
Popularity: 5% [?]
If you like this Article then please subscribe to my full RSS feed.You can also subscribe by Email.Related Posts
That stinks. I made some good money a year or so ago selling mtgo. But then got scammed from someone in paypal, so I got out.
I actually considered doing a sort of virtual property arbitrage (can’t think of a better way to phrase it) after I sold a couple warcraft accounts. There’s definately money to be made in it, but I guess eBay just decided the money wasn’t worth the potential future lawsuits.
Damn eBay is going downhill! Not only do they raise their rates, but now this…and they pulled me domain auction 4x a week ago…all for stupid reasons. I hope a competitor emerges for eBay, but sadly, I don’t see that happening any time soon.
I hope not all will go to IGE, but rather other wow gold or MMORPG currency site.
eBay is having the time of their lives. They basically have no competition out there. Someone needs to step up…soon.
I agree, and I’m hoping some will step up for the competition, if they can stand still, it will eventually cause a huge fight over customers and traders, causing the rates to go downhill, instead of the service.
(PS: I left a comment on your personal blog, hope you read it soon)
Allen.H
I used to play EQ back in the day… 4+ years ago. Haven’t played much since, but I recall http://www.playerauctions.com being available back then. That site is still online & auctioning off game items and accounts. They are probably loving the fact that ebay is dropping all the mmorpg business.
Good call John, I do remember that site. I don’t know if this site is all that authoritative though, but yea I’m sure they’re enjoying the new eBay terms enforcement. Now would be a great time for them to really kick up their marketing.
This unwise move by eBay will lose them millions of dollars in auction fees and double the profits of giant companies such as IGE. The MMORPG industry shows a high demand of in-game currency and where’s a high demand, marketers will always provide a wide array of offers such as Power-Gamers RPG Vault. Games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, EverQuest, StarWars Galaxy, Guildwars, SilkRoad, Lineage and the list could go on forever, are highly addictive and players will go to great lengths to enrich their gaming experience and otherwise enhance their virtual characters by purchasing the items and in-game currency for real cash.
I actually decided to try a go at this, MMOBay just opened about 2 days ago. Right now Im just advertising on my sites, but am planning on doing a adwords campaign starting this weekend and go from there.