Millions of people play massively multiplayer games now but many players are not teenagers: they're adults with real life jobs and responsibilities. Virtual trading companies like iGameTrade exist to serve customers who want to leverage their real world income to improve their gaming experience. When you don't have the time to advance your character like a college student anymore, how can you safely purchase virtual items to develop your character?

iGameTrade has been selling virtual items for over two years and we'd like to share some important safety tips with our eBay customers.

Buy from a reputable seller:
Watch out for the thousands of listings of items under a $1. Many of these have a form which lets you select the amount of currency to purchase and send you directly to PayPal for payment, circumventing eBay's fees and safety features. The sellers often have just 10 points of feedback, enough to qualify them to list many items, likely generated by "bot" programs placing fake bids. If the seller is unscrupulous enough to list items at a fake price and try to avoid paying eBay's fees, what guarantee do you have of them delivering your order?

Contact the seller BEFORE you buy:
Many sellers have their contact information listed on the auction. For example, iGameTrade can be contacted by email, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Yahoo Instant Messenger. For companies touting 24 hour delivery, 7 days a week, make sure they are online and responding to your questions before you commit to making a purchase.

Double check your character information:
Make sure your character name is spelled correctly and that you have indicated the server or district you want to meet in. If you are unclear where to meet in the game after purchasing an item, be sure to contact the seller and ask about the delivery procedure before buying.

Provide your contact information:
Since virtual item companies are often the target of hackers who've stolen eBay and PayPal accounts, iGameTrade requires all new customers to submit their phone number and billing address for order confirmation. We will use whatever means availiable to contact the account owner and verify that they, infact, did place an order with us. Leaving out your contact information will delay the delivery of your order and make it more difficult to contact you if you can't be located in the game.

Check your PayPal email address:
Any communication about your order will be sent to your PayPal email address. Please check your email for updates to your order's status. Also, you can email the seller or send the seller an instant message in many cases to check the status of your order.