For a long time gamers have paid subscription fees to play online games. These fees could rack up to $60-70 a month, especially if the player subscribed to more than one game. However it seems the tables have turned thanks to a new “virtual item” website Vgoodz.com, which lets gamers sell their in-game items to other players.

Vgoodz.com was the brainchild of South Australian, Evan Mitchell. After months of planning, Evan launched his site offering online auctions for in-game items and characters. “There is definitely a market for it” says Evan, “at one time during the planning of the site, over $9000 of items were selling on Ebay for one game” (Ebay does not allow virtual item trading, however occasionally items will slip through their filters).

Many Gamers are frowning upon the launch of the site and Sony Computer Entertainment, the makers of the game Everquest have expressed their disapproval. “They don’t like what I’m doing” explains Evan, “But I am just connecting people who want to buy to people who want to sell”. Many online games, including Everquest state in their rules that items and characters should not be traded for money, however judging by the success of Vgoodz.com so far, the people don’t seem to agree. “We have had one seller spend over $US15 in listings in 1 day, that’s over 25 average listings.”

“If you’re spending money to access these games and spending your time getting hold of these items, why can’t you gain from your effort?” asked Evan, when questioned about his website. “After all, you're essentially selling your time.”