Bad news for Gold Farmers and MMO junkies looking to make their fortunes virtually - eBay, the world’s largest auction house, has begun quietly closing all listings for virtual property including “currency, items, and accounts/characters”. This is all according to poster on Slashdot who talked with a representative from eBay and got the following explanation:

The policy on digitally delivered goods states: “The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner.” Given the nebulous nature of ownership in online games, eBay has decided the prudent decision is to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other parties via their service.

Of course, we doubt that this will put an end to payment for virtual online property - I’m expecting to see WoWbay.com to get bought out any day now…