The usual trend is to upgrade things to the next higher level. There are instances, however, where downgrading may be preferred. Such is the case with World of Warcraft player Shiv. The player wondered if there's any way to downgrade an account to its pre-Burning Crusade days.

Fortunately, Blizzard blue poster Slorkuz took up the case. Find out what Slorkuz and other Blizzard forum members said after the jump.

For those who have been waiting for the latest World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG) expansion, Fires of Outland, the wait is finally over.

Upper Deck Entertainment has released Fires of Outland. It contains a total of 249 cards (that's 246 for abilities, quests, equipment, among other stuff, plus three loot cards). If you're really lucky, you might pull out a Spectral Tiger loot card - and maybe be US$ 2,000 richer if you put it up on eBay. Though it might actually be better to keep the Spectral Tiger to yourself, imagine the cool points.

Anyway, you better cross you fingers and take out your lucky horse shoe or four-leaf clover. A mount is in there in one of those Fires of Outland packs. Stay tuned for more World of Warcraft news and info.

The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG) expansion Fires of Outland is slated to be out this August 22. Those who joined the pre-release events were able to get hold of some of the cards early on. Some players were even able to get a few loot cards which normally sell for a lot of money.

The Spectral Tiger Loot Card was recently sold on Ebay for a whopping US$ 2,000 by chucknorrisx5. The card is decent, granting +1 health to elusive allies if you're alliance, or a +1 attack boost to horde characters with ferocity. However, it was sold for such a high price because the loot card can be redeemed for an exclusive in-game mount.

So far this is the most expensive single TCG card purchase we have ever seen. Consider that the Saltwater SnapJaw loot card which was considered to be one of the most expensive cards in the game never reached the 2000 dollar range.

Judging from the way the TCG market works, if you have this card, now would be the perfect time to sell it off. Once the expansion goes live, the price will be dropping as more and more boxes are opened. If you want to see the auction, feel free to click on our read link.

   

A report from tech news site Slashdot reveals that Ebay is now de-listing all auctions for "virtual artifact" from the site. "Virtual artifacts" in this case includes currency, items, and accounts/characters.

If you folks are thinking that those too lazy to grind their own high level character in your standard MMO, and only those involved in third world farming are affected by this, keep in mind that even the relatively cute and harmless neopoint - used in the popular Neopets - is not exempt from this decision.

Speaking for eBay, Mr. Hani Durzy explains that the decision to pull these items was due to the "legal complexities" involved with virtual property. After much thought, the company felt that this was the proper course of action. This is "for the overall health of the marketplace."

Moreover Durzy pointed out that the company is now just following through with a pre-existing policy. Their 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 debatable nature of ownership of virtual property in online games, eBay has decided that for now, it is apt to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other properties via eBay's service.

We now wonder if this will mean less or more income opportunities for third-world farmers. Moreover, given the absence of eBay as an avenue for income, we wonder if smaller virtual businessmen will now be forced to turn to larger RMT entities.

For more information on eBay's existing policy, you can scrutinize it via our read-link below.

 

Remember that custom Dell World of Warcraft laptop that would be auctioned at eBay? Just to refresh your memory, Michael Dell announced during the concluded CES 2007 that two custom airbrushed Dell M1710 laptops featuring some TBC artworks will be auctioned off on eBay, with the proceeds going to the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S. - Second Harvest. It's for a good cause and it's always nice and a bit heart-warming to follow up on stories that bring back your faith in the human race.

You may ask, how is the auction going? Pretty well, actually. The Mike Lavalle airbrushed Dell M1710, Burning Crusade Edition, which bears the signature of Michael Dell would be open for bids until January 25th. The current bid is US$ 4,250.00. Nice to see that people don't mind coughing up some dough for a good product and a good cause, right?

Anyhow, if you're interested to help out or get the laptop, you could click on our read-link below to check out the actual eBay page.

Michael McWhertor of online gaming site Kotaku reports that two custom airbrushed Dell M1710 laptops featuring World of Warcraft artwork will be auctioned off on eBay soon. Proceeds of the laptop auction will go to the Second Harvest organization, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States.

This was announced during Michael Dell's keynote speech at CES 07, where Dell expressed continued interest in targetting the 12.5 million MMO players worldwide. Having already infiltrated Second Life, it seems Dell is now looking towards WoW's 7-million-strong player base.

If you're willing to drop quite a sum on a new laptop and help a few people in the process, you might want to check out the auction when it gets underway. Keep checking back here on QJ for more updates.

With the release of the much-awaited WoW expansion coming up this month, and even with all the trailers, screenies and what-nots we've already seen, it seems that everyone still can't have enough of The Burning Crusade. And what else can they not get enough of? The Collector's Edition of the game, of course.

Containing the game discs on both CD and DVD, a DVD of behind-the-scenes footage, a hardcover artbook, an exclusive in-game pet, WoW TCG starter packs and exclusive cards, a Map of Outland mousepad and a soundtrack CD, people are just clamoring to get their hands on one of these. We just didn't know how much.

So, upon checking Amazon and eBay, we were surprised to see that copies of the Collector's Edition of WoW: The Burning Crusade were going for prices of up to US$ 150, or even up to a shocking US$ 400. Both price tags are still way more than its original retail price of only US$ 79.99.

Well, I guess everyone just wants their WoW...

Okay, so we've heard of over a million stories of how far people would go in pursuit of their WoW passion. Some would go as far as selling the clothes on their back to support their gaming needs. Heck, there are even over 7 million people who said they'd sell their firstborn child for this game.

But to sell one's hair on his back?!?

Not exactly alluring, eh? But that's what Chris Snead is exactly doing over at eBay. With a current bid of US$ 0.99, the auction will supposedly run until the ninth of this month at 20:26:01 PST. Why is he doing this? Well, because he needs money to support his habits of the WoW, so to speak. Or at least that's what it says on the item description.

Anyway, you never know. He just might be able to sell this for a good deal. After all, hair is a growing industry. Yeah, where did you think Fergie and Beyonce get those hair extensions, huh? Those aren't fake. But those aren't from some guy's back, either. Whatever. Point is, beauty salons do get some nice profit rolling in because of that.

So, red, curly back hair, anyone?

To check out more of this, er, product, just click on the Read link below.

The eBay of WoW is now accepting new traders. Your auctions and trade posts can be transacted via Tradewarcraft.com. Well, all you really need to do is get the important bits when selling and bidding in the additional information section of the page. Like eBay, you'll find featured auctions, the most recent bids, when they started, when another bid would start and titles of these auctioned items.

World of Warcraft, like most other MMORPGs, won't be without trading. We guessed that was primarily the reason why Tradewarcraft is created - it's sort of a democratic place where everyone gets a chance to sell and bid using the warcraft coin as the exchange currency.

WoW players who haven't entered this online territory will find the additional info page helpful. For one, it'll teach you how to sell, bid, and what to do if you're offering and paying for trade items and services you have won. Once you become a member, you get to learn the rules for auction watch, item watching, Dutch auctions, and wanted ads, and even open a shop. It's a whole lot of trading in one place, so if you think you need to create an alert for everyone who wants to bid for a Hammer of Ji'zhi, have it on display at this "WoW-eBay" site.

Buy: [World of Warcraft]