How do you sell a World of Warcraft account?

April 10, 2007 8:22 AM

So, how would one go about selling a World of Warcraft account?

After a couple of years I just can't bring myself to play anymore. I realize selling an account is against Blizzard's TOS, but this is pretty much the only way I can guarantee that I'm not going to "relapse".

posted by ssmith to sports, hobbies, & recreation (14 comments total)

www.playerauctions.com

I know many people who sell Everquest accounts on that site and I know they have a section for WoW.
posted by Octoparrot at 8:31 AM on April 10, 2007

Even that won't help. Sorry, but even if you sell the account and change the password, you could get a new password as the orignal owner. That's WHY it violates the TOS. Because there's zero guarantee in account sales.

Drop the account and change your password to whatever keys you hit when you drop a potato on your keyboard. That's equally as secure, and it doesn't violate the TOS.
posted by FritoKAL at 9:10 AM on April 10, 2007

I believe if that you contact blizzard and specifically ask to be deleted, they should delete your player files.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:19 AM on April 10, 2007

One of the ways that MMO companies try to lure back subscribers is by reminding them that their old characters are still there, ready to play. To reduce your vulnerability to this pitch, follow these steps:

1. Strip ALL of your characters of ALL their equipment and gold. Give it away to other players and make their day.

2. DELETE all of your characters. BUT FIRST:

Wait 24 hours. This will ensure that the useless version of you character makes it to the backups. This way if you "relapse" and call customer support to restore your accidentally" deleted character, all you'll get is the naked and penniless version.

Your incentive to return to the game will be greatly reduced if your existing characters are unavailable or mostly useless.

Good luck!
posted by DWRoelands at 9:23 AM on April 10, 2007

If you're quitting wow, what do you care about the TOS? Put it up for auction, make a few bucks.

If you're really concerned about a relapse, and you absolutely don't want to use the character ever again, download a botting program, use it, and have a friend report you.
posted by felix at 9:30 AM on April 10, 2007

1. Log in to your profile on wow.com and remove as much personal info as you can - especially payment info. If you've been using pay-as-you-go cards this is best.

2. List your account on ebay containing screenshots with your character name edited out of the photos

3. Do offer to provide the original disks to the buyer. At minimum they will need the CD Key (most just want this by email)

4. At auction close and when they've paid you, immediately provide the CD Key, Username/Password, and the answer to your secret question (mother's maiden, etc.). They'll need the latter to change payment info on the account.

5. Profit! (and get your life back)
posted by OpinioNate at 9:45 AM on April 10, 2007

I should mention that I've personally sold two of my accounts over the years, and both were smooth transactions. My email address is in my profile here if you need any other help.
posted by OpinioNate at 9:48 AM on April 10, 2007

eBay it. I had a few guildies who sold their account, some for $300+ with T2/T3 pre-BC (I have no idea how much highly geared accounts go for now). As already mentioned, be sure to edit out pertinent personal info on screenshots.

If you don't care about the money, botting is a good idea though it can take a while to get caught. I had a friend who was a week from GM and got banned for a wall hack while a bunch of students at school had been using glider for over a year before they got caught. Bannination in WoW is usually pretty final.
posted by jmd82 at 9:54 AM on April 10, 2007

I have no experience selling or buying, but IGE buys/sells avatars, too. Saw some going for $800 earlier today, but I don't know what their markup is like.
posted by heresiarch at 10:08 AM on April 10, 2007

Selling your account is not a way to stop yourself from "relapsing", it's a dodgy way of making money that cheats your realm and the game in general. If you were serious in your claims (I think you're just out to make a lot of money from something you perceive as valuable), you'd delete your characters, pack away your game discs, delete the RSS feeds of WoWInsider et al, and get over it.
posted by saturnine at 1:36 PM on April 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Selling your account is not a way to stop yourself from "relapsing"

And AskMe isn't for editorials, but it worked pretty well for me. Everything else you said might be true, but really, this is his life and if he wants out selling the account is a great way. For keeps.

Any talk about honoring his realm and the game is just sour grapes because that one time in UBRS you grouped with an eBay'd warrior who wiped your party.
posted by OpinioNate at 3:54 PM on April 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

Thanks for all the responses everybody.

I do have to say that a couple of these posts (especially saturnine's) have me rethinking whether or not selling the account is what I *really* what I want to do.

And also, I'm glad I didn't ask DWRoelands for advice on selling a car. "Well, you might want to drive it again, so you should give away the tires, smash out all the windows, set it on fire and maybe roll it off a cliff."

As far as quitting WOW goes, it's pretty decent advice. But it just made me laugh out loud at trying to apply it to something in real life.
posted by ssmith at 10:48 PM on April 10, 2007

UPDATE:

Just returning to this thread because I still get a lot of emails from people asking for help in selling their accounts.

Earlier this year ebay made it their policy to remove any auctions for virtual goods (accounts, gold, gear etc.) so that is no longer an option. Since this is my only experience with selling accounts I'm afraid I can't field any more questions on the matter. Good luck!

PS - you might try checking any of the major gold sellers as they sometimes buy accounts [at pawn shop rates].
posted by OpinioNate at 4:08 PM on July 18, 2007

The question was how to sell a wow account, it had nothing to do with relapsing or destroying it. Let's re-rail the topic and get a professional response. (I have done this for a living.)

Ebay doesn't work. Period. You need an alternative. playerauctions.com is a nice try, but no cigar. Registering to actually SELL there (not just buy) is difficult, the requirements are too high (scan or fax your ID), and takes too long. Don't bother unless you're a professional.

How to sell? Easy. Use a forum if you want to sell it on your own. If you don't, then the question is where, not how. (accounts.net, toonstorm, kcjaccounts, etc., you'll find plenty of resellers if you google it.)

Top forums are markeedragon, buysellmmo, and egamingsupply. Forums have fraud problems due to poorly written or poorly placed anti-fraud guides. If you want the best anti fraud guides in the industry, go to rpgreseller. If you take the time to learn how to trade safely, you'll be ok. You can skip most of the information in the guides and condense it into a three step process.

1. Get their land line telephone number (not cell phone.)
2. Look up their address at 411.com using the reverse search tool. (save it)
3. Call them and make sure they pick up their phone.

Public record (the telephone book) verifies their identity and address. That is all that is needed to prosecute them in small claims court if they attempt to defraud you. They know this, and they really don't want a criminal record. So if they're a scammer, they aren't going to verify. Do NOT send payment via Western Union. Use a postal money order. If someone defrauds you when paid with a POSTAL money order, it becomes a federal crime. - Money orders also require identification to cash. If you write a money order to Nancy Drew, her sister will be unable to cash it. Also, they will be receiving this at their address so you now have a positively identified name and address. Receiving mail at an address which is not your own, (eg. picking it out of your neighbor's mailbox is also a federal crime.)

If you REALLY want something that will stand up in court (for expensive wow accounts) I recommend sending the buyer the password and login name only. Put a parental password on the account, keep it in your email address, and do not send registration information except via mail. (this opens up the option for them to play right away if they pay with something such as paypal, however, you can recall the account if they recall their payment. Sit tight for 45 days (the amount of time which a paypal dispute can be filed.) and then send them this information via tracked delivery. The post office will require ID check and signature for a few extra bucks.) I recommend things like this only for top accounts. I've sold some gaming accounts that were worth over $2,000. Most are only worth a few hundred.

Note on ebay selling, you actually can use ebay for wow accounts, but not for selling US wow accounts. If you have an EU wow account, you are welcome to sell it at ebay.de -A little nugget I picked up from the trading guides.
posted by wow_accounts at 3:23 AM on March 31, 2008