MyMMOShop.com, a site specializing in the acquisition and sale of virtual goods and currency in the online gaming realm, has been sold for $10 million to private firm My MMO Inc., reports Kotaku.

For those unaware, sites like MyMMOShop.com are brokers for the sale of virtual goods. In general they use cheap (often foreign) labor to accumulate large sums of gold and items in online games (such as the above-pictured Age of Conan) that is then sold for a huge profit to impatient gamers.

Hunter Crowell, media relations agent for My MMO Inc., says his company purchased the site in reaction to the tumultuous economic climate. Virtual goods, he says, are one of the few investment vectors that have not become wildly devalued as part of the massive market fluctuations of the past few months.

As Kotaku points out, the real question here is how much of the $10 million will see its way into the hands of those doing the actual gold farming. As the enterprise is inherently a gray market, I wonder what, if any, incentive exists for the higher ups at these firms to not simply pocket all the cash in the continued exploitation of the grunts in their employ.

Correction: An earlier version of the story had incorrectly attributed the above image to Blizzard Entertainment. We apologize for any confusion.

Image courtesy Funcom

Gold Farming Website Sells For $10 Million [Kotaku]