eBay - Internet Game Listings

This eBay auction search is consists mostly of the auctions of Internet game characters, statistics, accessories, accounts and other game-related things. These auctions are targeted at other users of these online games (World of Warcraft, Diablo, Runescape, etc.), and maybe even people who are interested in joining - but don't want to spend all the time of building up a character. At the time I checked this link (Wed. night - 11:30) there were over 16,000 auctions, with what appeared to be at least one auction (most of them multiple) listed/expiring per minute. Many of the auctions had the "buy it now" option, free shipping (since most of the auctions are usernames and passwords), and a well-documented description of the items for sale. The prices ranged anywhere from 1 cent to the highest asking price of 1500 dollars. This shows just how prominent Internet gaming has become in the United States as well as on a global scale, as well as the money that is being invested in it. An interesting statistic I heard today in Prof. Jean Camp's Security class is that World of Warcraft can support up to 250,000 simultaneous users. I have a hard time imagining how much resource power would be needed to maintain full-functionality of a user-base that large.

Here is an image from one of the auctions on the eBay listings: