Breakfast Topic: Selling Your Account
by David Nelson 
Sep 19th 2006 at 8:00AM
How much do you think your WoW account is worth? $200? $500? Maybe even $1000? If you head over to Ebay, you will see thousands of WoW accounts for sale. I figured out that my AQ40 geared priest and Tier 2 geared warlock, along with various alts and several thousand in gold, is worth approximately $700-$900. I didn't do the exact math, but the time spent leveling all the characters and gathering all that gold and loot...well...let's just say that the new guy working at McDonald's makes a lot more per hour than I'd generate if I sold my account.That said, if a person was totally finished with WoW, never to return to Azeroth again, why wouldn't they at least consider selling their account? Granted, the return on your time would be bad, but it is better than the zero return you would generate if you never sold it. On the downside, I could see account selling being a popular target for scams, and it is, afterall, against the Terms of Service, so you could expect no help from Blizzard if something goes awry.
Personally, I don't think I could ever sell my account, as I have a lame emotional attachment to my characters. I just can't imagine some stranger playing my characters I worked so hard on.
What do you folks think? Is account selling on the same level as gold buying? Would you do it?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
FullGUI Sep 19th 2006 9:14AM
As much as you would like otherwise, those 60's that you spent years playing AREN'T yours. They are Blizz's and you are just renting them. To prove this point, try not paying next month and then log and use "your" toon. You can't. Soooo, you can't sell them cause it's illegal to sell something that doesn't belong to you.
Steph Sep 19th 2006 9:36AM
"Soooo, you can't sell them cause it's illegal to sell something that doesn't belong to you."
Uh, no kidding. Gold selling/buying is illegal too. That sure seems to stop people!
Buruko Sep 19th 2006 10:49AM
It's against the Terms of Service, or the EULA. So your violating a contract that you agreed to adhere to and you bound to honor whatever terms therein for doing so.
I don't know what Blizzard has on there EULA/TOS for those who break it, but failing to honor that EULA/TOS is the illegal part.
So selling toons/gold not illegal, just violation of EULA/TOS, not honoring terms for breaking EULA/TOS is illegal. This should be made clear as IP debates rage everywhere with much ignorance.
I would imagine the only terms in the EULA/TOS is suspension/banning/removal of service.
Tryst Sep 19th 2006 12:04PM
I think you meant to ask if you COULD sell your account WOULD you? And, no, I probably wouldn't. I don't want to see someone else running around with my toon. She has her own personality and character. She's mine! No matter what the stupid TOS says.
Swift Sep 19th 2006 12:06PM
Selling an account is not actually against the EULA in America. You can transfer your account to another person as long as you transfer all the cds, box etc as well. It is however against the EULA for the European version.
CM Sep 19th 2006 1:34PM
This is looking as if it's going to degenerate into the kind of comment forum we had on the gold buying/selling last week.
That being said, what does someone who isn't going to be playing anymore care about the TOS? Not that I advocate this, but if you've decided you're WoW'd out and will never play again, you really wouldn't have any more incentive to adhere to the TOS. Under those circumstances, I could see someone making some quick real cash off of something (s)he spent a period of his/her free time enjoying. If the account gets suspended after purchase, hey, you got your money and the n00b who purchased the account should have known better! Heh. Now, when the servers come back up I'll go back to playing my characters that I'm not going to sell to you. =)
Mike Schramm Sep 19th 2006 1:48PM
Strangely enough, I'm extremely against gold buying and selling, but I'm pretty ambivalent about account selling. Heck, you should get something for all your hard work in the game, and if someone else is willing to pay just to jump in on your 60, I say let them go for it.
Maybe it's just because it hasn't directly affected me yet-- all my guildies are self-made 60s, and I couldn't imagine playing someone else's character, just like I would never give someone else my characters. But if both parties are OK with this, I say let them go for it. It doesn't devalue my work on my character if someone else sells theirs for money-- in fact, it makes it more valuable, literally. Sure, you might get epic 60s running around not knowing the game, but that's what the ignore list is for.
Kel Sep 19th 2006 2:19PM
Well what if your level 6o you were selling just happened to have 2000 gold, then wouldn't that be selling gold indirectly? And #6 said "heck, you should get something for all your hard work in the game," and what if that involves the hard work of farming gold?
Roguedeadguy Sep 19th 2006 4:11PM
I would sell my account if it wasn't too much trouble and I knew it was over for me. I'd let my guild know it was over and not to accept any substitues for the real RDG ;) Right now though, I see no sign of stopping... I'm absolutely hooked and have almost finished my second level 60 toon.
Side track: I would love to see Blizzard step up and manage a way to sell your account completely within the ToS. For example, you could throw your character up on a Blizzard auction block and it could go for any amount as long as Blizzard takes a percentage/transfer fee (since they own it, right?). To make it more "fair" Blizz could even requier that all non-soulbound items be stripped from the toon. It really would provide an awesome way to shake this addiction if I knew I could "legally" be compensated for the time I spent in this game and in the end, if I had a wad of cash in my hand, my wife wouldn't think I was such a dumbass for spending so much time playing ;)
Would I buy an account? No.
Do I really think Blizzard would implement the above idea? No.
Roguedeadguy Sep 19th 2006 4:36PM
I re-read the post and then read my comment and it's pretty obvious I didn't really answer any of the questions proposed. Here's my real comment ;)
Q: How much do you think your WoW account is worth? $200? $500? Maybe even $1000?
A: lvl 60 Rogue on a rogue-heavy server: $50
lvl 60 Priest on a rogue-heavy server: $150
Misc Alts from lvls 15-31: $15
Total: $215+
Definitely, not worth it... but it's something, right?
Q: If a person was totally finished with WoW, never to return to Azeroth again, why wouldn't they at least consider selling their account?
A: I guess they wouldn't if they really became attached to the toons like you said. However, if I knew I was quitting never to return, I wouldn't care if someone was playing my character... if I did come back, it would have to be a different server though, because I'd certainly be a little salty if I saw my old toon running around with shiny, new junk.
Q: What do you folks think?
A: You're the blogger.. your opinion is therefore at least 10 times more important than mine.
Q: Is account selling on the same level as gold buying?
A: No, but buying an account is on the same level and buying gold... huge time saver, controversial topic :)
Q: Would you do it?
A: Sell: yes. Buy: no. HOLD!
Bur Sep 20th 2006 8:27AM
I am for selling accounts, when it comes down to it though yes Blizz owns the toons. So what you are actually selling is the time spent leveling them and the username and password etc. We are all free to sell our time and they cannot stop this.
I dont see why I shouldn't be aloud to do this, I guess Blizz might be loosing some money from the time spent a new user leveling toons but hey I own the account and can what I want with it.. thats how I see it anyways.
Mikey Oct 27th 2006 4:18AM
I would like to say that the above idea of Blizz offering an account auction thing, including a server trade block for people that, lets say find out they have a buddy on another (pvp) server but they are (pve). I remember my first toon took at least 5 months over time, but with alot of hours played each month. Lets be honest with ourselves, nobody really likes re-leveling a toon while the person you try to play with is like 50 levels higher then you and advancing every night they raid. So, yea I would like Blizz to develope a plan where people that have game experiance can purchase/trade with other people that have become bored.
Another thing that puzzled me is this. My roomate was convinced by me to play WoW. He went thru his addiction phase and saved the amount of money that he needed to save to accomplish some personal goals. I consider myself pretty experianced in the game and though I stuck to playing my main most of the time, he still has managed to make more toons and his alts are all higher level then my alts. Now, he has stopped playing due to some other personal issues that he must obligate himself to. What is he to do now? I have talked to him and he said "well, I want to stop playing, but I want to be able to sell my account. I'd rather have someone else be happy with it then let all the stuff I worked so hard for go to waste." And that as well is true, that is how some people feel about stuff that they do.
On the other hand you have people saying "Well its not fair to all of us that have to level up our characters to 60 all the time" That may be true as well. Yea you may have someone that is a complete noob at their new found class playing, or you may get someone that may have had the same class before and knows exactly what they are doing. You never know that people will actually learn their class by playing the full game anyways. I learn stuff all the time even with my main, little stuff that I over look but someone can bring to my attention.
What I guess I am trying to say is it should be up to the Blizz customers on what they want to do with their accounts/characters. Blizz will not benefit from a full tier2 epic priest rotting away. But they will benefit if that account gets picked up within a month, and I am sure they can find a way to get a little bit more benefit out of it once they add on their little charges here and there.