If there's a demand for something, the market will respond. For proof, you need look no further than EverQuest 2 gold. Although EverQuest 2 gold has no existence in the real world and probably never will, for more than a year hordes of people have been buying it like it's going out of style.

How's that work again?

Back in 2001, a gamer named Edward Castronova noticed a curious thing: that the economy of his favorite game, the MMORPG called EverQuest, was doing better than the economies of a lot of real-world countries. Since Castronova was also a professional economist, he did a few calculations and came to the startling conclusion that people in Norrath, the EverQuest gameworld, have a better per-capita income than real-world Bulgarians. In fact, Norrath ranks as the 77th richest nation in the world -- or would if it were real. Real or not, EverQuest's platinum had become a valuable commodity on the Internet; and EverQuest 2 gold, the currency of the EverQuest sequel launched in late 2004, has become more valuable still.

The scramble for EverQuest 2 gold

It may seem like a fantasy (and a decade ago it would have been), but the rise of the Internet has made even virtual cash like EverQuest 2 gold worth trading. Internet commerce has become so simple that it's a snap to purchase EverQuest 2 gold online. Whereas EQ platinum goes for a mere $0.54 per thousand, you'll have to pay an average of $0.17 per EverQuest 2 gold -- and it takes 100 EverQuest 2 gold to make a platinum. Not too shabby, that. Of course the value of EverQuest 2 gold varies from day to day and from site to site.