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Man buys virtual space station for 330k real dollars
Welcome back to Joystiq's Flip This House, finding you the best deals in gaming real estate! This week, we're looking at a doozy of a fixer-upper: it's a beautiful space station called the Crystal Palace, with multiple fine amenities, including four bio-domes (full of alien species to hunt), Trade and Revival Terminals, a working auctioneer, and the universe-famous Stahlsteiner's bar. In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's a virtual place, and did we mention the asking price? 330,000 real world dollars. That's what MMO Planet Calypso (formerly Entropia Universe) player "Buzz Erik Lightyear" paid to "own" an in-game hub. As you can see above, he paid 3.3 million "Project Entropia Dollars" for the virtual real estate, and those PED were purchased with real dollars -- 330k of them. What does he get for his money? The station is one of the nicer setups in the virtual universe, and since players pay PED to shop, hunt, and hang out there, "Erik" can set tax rates on the payments, and turn fake bucks back into real cash. We're not sure how much real cash (depends on where he sets the rates, and that will affect the place's popularity as well), but it'll probably be a while before he can ... flip... this... house! [Thanks, Kreyg]
