Entropia Universe’s Club Neverdie
Entropia Universe, an MMORPG that uses an economy with cash that can be withdrawn as real-life money, has set a record for the most expensive virtual item ever sold, at $335,000, for a zone named Club Neverdie. One of the more obscure virtual worlds, Entropia Universe has a reputation for high profile real estate deals. Somewhat like EVE’s system, Entropia Universe has a legitimate gold farmer system whereby players can trade rare and elite in game items with equivalent real world value.
Now, an Entropia Universe fansite is reporting that the remaining portions of Club NEVERDIE have been sold to a gamer named John Foma Kalun in a transaction valued at $335,000.
The most interesting factor of this story isn’t that the virtual item set a statistical record, but that there ever was such a big previous record to break. In 2005, player Jon Neverdie Jacobs bought the asteroid space resort for $100,000, becoming the most expensive virtual item ever purchased, beating the previous item’s, Treasure Island (also from Entropia Universe), record of $26,500. The space resort was installed into the game December 19th, 2005 and Jacobs claimed he reached profitability less than a year later on August 18, 2006, from players funding the economy on the space station, which included taxes, apartment sales and shop sales. Three years later in December 2009, player Buzz Erik Lightyear bought the Crystal Palace Space Station for a whopping $330,000, dwarfing Club Neverdie’s $100,000 purchase.
Now, as reported by Entropia Planets, Jon Neverdie Jacobs has sold off the remaining available space in his Club Neverdie space resort for $335,000, setting the record for the single most expensive virtual item ever sold to date. The overall sale price of the entirety of Club Neverdie’s realty over the years? $635,000. The only reason why this number isn’t being reported around the Internet is because that number wasn’t reached within one sale, as various areas of Club Neverdie were sold throughout its lifespan via separate transactions.
The wacky transactions aren’t even limited to large virtual realty or items that are even known to have any use. There’s a mystery egg that has been floating around the MMO since 2006 that people occasionally buy, recently purchased for $70,000, with the hope that it would either do something extraordinary, or could be resold for a profit.