What has gotten into this world and MMORPGs?!

I also cannot fathom why you would pay real money, and such a large amount for mere online items, even if you did enjoy the game. If you really had nothing better to do and you were exceedingly rich, then whatever floats your boat. Although if you aren't exceedingly rich, buy mass amount of items with real money, or pay an insane amount for something, then you've lost me. I just can't think that these people really have nothing better to do though.

It actually reminds me of playable trading card games as well. For example, when "Cyber Stein", an exceptionally rare Yu-Gi-Oh! card sold for like a couple of million dollars. Right.
There you could make the case that you physically have something (not worth the value, but it's there). With MMORPGs though, it's still just data :S

Jam it back in, in the dark.