Small ad. Big news?

    FOR SALE
    ITEM: XFX GeForce FX 5500 256MB TV/DVI AGP Video Card
    CATEGORY: Video Cards
    SELLER: FlipperPA Peregrine
    PRICE: L$20,000

    Get it HERE.

So does a currency become ‘real’ when you can buy physical stuff with it? Even if that stuff is, irony or ironies, a video card?

Props: to FlipperPA for doin it and Aleks of gamesblog for spottin’ it. 

Comments

[qDot]

1.

We recently had an article on MMOrgy (Link NSFW) about how this could effect other types of markets. It's gonna be an interesting time, esp. with the massive volatility of the Linden Dollar right now.

[Craig Fry]

2.

Like any currency, the "reality" of it lies in the perceived worth between the buyer and seller. In the US, gold creates the worth for our "dollar". The dollar in and of itself has no value without the gold to back it up. The currency in SL is valued based on the amount of SL in the world and how easy/hard it is to get. It does not have a tangible rare item to value itself against so in the end it's only the perception of value that matters.

It will be interesting to watch how things factor into finding a price for a real item worthwhile over just using real world currency to purchase the same.

[Arnold Hendrick]

3.

An interesting bit of data regarding this is that as of the posting date (1/2/3/06) I need to spend $85.00 to purchase L$20k (see http://gamerzfix.com/index.php?page=buy_linden).

It's important to think about exactly what kind of goods graphics card represent. There are vast numbers and varities of graphics cards available, especially in the last year now that the new PCI-Express motherboards obsoleted a whole generation of hardware overnight. Without technical knowledge and some serious work tracing down reviews, it's impossible to separate useful hardware from crap that will waste your money. In short, it's a perfect environment for exploitation of unsuspecting consumers.

This exact card is currently available for $59.99 at many online sites, some with a $15 rebate that lowers the price to $44.99. In other words, it costs about as much as ONE boxed game in the RW.

In reality the 5500 is probably worth much less. The card was designed as a low-cost option in the pre-PCI-Express world, optimized for movie video playback rather than 3D gaming. It can do 3D graphics, but with less speed and capability than many other cards now available at a similar price. Nvidia themselves, makers of this card, now consider it a "legacy" product, rather than something actively advertised on their website.

Finally for a person with a low-end PC who is trying to update, much depends on the motherboard's AGP speed. If your motherboard is only AGP 1x or 2x, that may become a bottleneck that degrades any graphics card upgrade you make.

In short, I'm not convinced this is a realistic example of real-world goods that can be purchased for virtual-world currency. Instead, I think this represents unloading a low-end, outdated, and nearly worthless video card on an unsuspecting gamer with more $L than sense.

[Mithra]

4.

Craig Fry>In the US, gold creates the worth for our "dollar".

This is a bit off topic, but... that used to be the case yes, you could take your "silver certificate" dollars bills and redeem them for gold or silver. That relationship no longer exists, and the Federal Reserve prints new money without having an equivalent amount of gold to back it up. Money has become itself a commodity to be traded, and represents more accurately the value of work, work which is to a great deal expressed in terms of oil.

[csven]

5.

I still think his first sale should have been a puppy.

[TB303]

6.

I agree,
this card is crap, it probbaly won't be able to run Second Life on it.

[Michael Hartman]

7.

Craig Fry wrote: In the US, gold creates the worth for our "dollar".

Actually no. Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard on August 15, 1971 (sometimes known as the "Nixon Shock.") By 1976, all of the world's currencies were floating.

8.

If you pay $85 for L$20000, you are getting ripped off before you even get to the card. Go to www.secondlife.com/currency - when I checked a few seconds ago, it was at $72.51

Of course, the US dollar worth need not apply at all. The crazy thing about selling that card is that you never need pay a single real world peso to purchase it. Sure, I might hesitate buying it at that price in US - but when if I just sold 100 pairs of virtual pants at L$200 each - and it took me 2 hours to make those pants - why not?

[Tess]

9.

Are skeeball tickets a real currency? 'Cause, you know, I can buy teddy bears with them. Honest. In fact, I hear you can even buy honest-to-goodness game time with Chuck E. Cheese tokens! Man, what will they think of next? I think I still have a few of those around, somewhere. I'll have to look.

[Tom]

10.

Tess said: "Are skeeball tickets a real currency? 'Cause, you know, I can buy teddy bears with them. Honest. In fact, I hear you can even buy honest-to-goodness game time with Chuck E. Cheese tokens! Man, what will they think of next? I think I still have a few of those around, somewhere. I'll have to look."

Skeeball tickets are real enough to the issuer that unredeemed tickets can be counted as a business liability.

This decision states that "In an order filed on September 26, 1996, the district court rejected the Commissioner's argument that the expense of slot club points is not incurred until the points are redeemed for a prize. Rather, the court held that Gold Coast had properly deducted as an expense the value of those slot club points that had been accumulated by members with more than 1,200 points in their slot club account [the minimum redeemable amount]. However, the district court disallowed Gold Coast's deduction of the value of slot club points attributable to members who had not yet earned 1,200 points."

[Tess]

11.

Tom --
Impressive sleuthing!

After I wrote my post, I got to thinking on the matter more.

Are poker chips real currency? Surely, the casino players consider them to have value. Yet, I can't take them down to my bank, or the local currency exchange, and cash them in. Poker chips are, in a way, more real than (most) virtual money -- in the sense that there IS guaranteed to be one authority (the casino) which recognizes their value, and will redeem them. Most virtual currencies have no authority backing them up with anything.

[Prokofy Neva]

12.

Actually, with the LindEX, where a lot of people buy due to its ease (it's the official LL interface for currency exchange and debits right off the same credit card you give to register), the $20,000 today is worth $3.55/1000 as we speak. So that's $71.00 US. I have no idea what that graphic card is really worth once you start shopping for it, but it was probably something Flipper had in his basement.

I'm just wondering if the practitioners of the World's Oldest Profession, even back in TSO or much earlier games with some kind of cashout our ebayable currency, beat Flipper to this historic first of selling something real for virtual money.

[Matt Mihaly]

13.

Prokofy Neva wrote:

I'm just wondering if the practitioners of the World's Oldest Profession, even back in TSO or much earlier games with some kind of cashout our ebayable currency, beat Flipper to this historic first of selling something real for virtual money.

I actually bought a stereo from one of our players once years ago in exchange for 'credits', our in-world virtual currency that you purchase with real dollars, and I knew people exchanging real-world stuff for in-game currency as far back as 1994.

--matt

[Matt Mihaly]

14.

I should also note that I've had numerous offers for many other real-world goods and services in exchange for in-world currency. The funniest was a team of carpet installers who all played Achaea. They offered to come to my pad and recarpet the whole thing in exchange for some in-game currency. I said no, but only because I didn't want a team of players in my house asking me questions about the game for two days.

--matt