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FunctionBuilt t1_j0vig8y wrote

My buddy in middle school was duping hacked armor on Diablo 2 and listing it on ebay for hundreds of dollars and selling it privately through PayPal. Internet was the Wild West back in the early 2000s and he ended up making well over $10k at 14 without getting caught or paying any taxes on it. He did however eventually get caught stealing around $800k worth of software from Microsoft when he and his brother had access to the buildings as movers. They were dumb enough to use the key cards MS provided them to get in and out of the building after hours and were caught and arrested.

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LigerXT5 t1_j0vn7ch wrote

I've heard similarly, people would power level their MMORPG accounts, and sell them on ebay. Blizzard cracked down on that. I think Everquest was the start on that.

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garash t1_j0xi7pp wrote

Sold my Ultima Online account for $2500 back in the day. That bought my car.

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ojedaforpresident t1_j0zjjjn wrote

I’m not sure what’s more nostalgic, a used car costing 2500$, or an EQ account costing that much.

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garash t1_j0zlgq7 wrote

And it was a 1969 Barracuda. Granted I had to do a ton of work on it.

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ojedaforpresident t1_j0zlugg wrote

Damn! Way to trade up!

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garash t1_j0zvzli wrote

Until I blew the engine, it was a great car. Dumped the coolant out at speed and I didn't notice it until it was over.

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sregor0280 t1_j0ypun6 wrote

In vanilla wow I would level you to cap in like 6 days for 250. I would level 4 accounts at a time, I played a tank and would multi box with macro software to emulate key presses when I would press a key mapped in this software on box1 it would press a mapped key on boxes 2 through 5.

I made about 1k a week playing wow this way.

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ojedaforpresident t1_j0zjov1 wrote

“Playing”

You do you, but that’s work, and you should be paid for that.

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sregor0280 t1_j0zunsr wrote

And I was. Did you miss the part where I said I was making 1k a week doing this?

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ojedaforpresident t1_j0zwi3y wrote

No, but characterizing that as “playing” is just not correct. No need to get defensive, I can read.

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Adebisi5 t1_j0xpa0b wrote

it was the same for wow. ppl making 500-2k a account.

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r0gue007 t1_j0wtd2f wrote

Wouldn’t that just be against the TOS though?

Not illegal

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LigerXT5 t1_j0wycye wrote

Illegal, no, but against TOS. At the start of WoW, I don't know, but I do know it became a big deal years later when the activity became more noticed.

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postmankad t1_j0y6f8p wrote

I sold my EverQuest account for $2500 back before any expansions came out. It helped that I was a member of Fires of Heaven and had loot from the world first kills on Lady Vox and Nagafen.

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