I own about $20,000 of notional fractional interest in an absolutely ginormous pool of paper slips with numbers on them. Except, there isn't actually any paper anymore, since they made it all electronic. But if there were slips of paper, they would number in the billions, each saying that I own fractional interest in the real property and future earnings of a particular person. No person named on any of the non-existent pieces of paper actually exists -- that is the point of having the paper in the first place. Or not having it, as the case may be.

I have also paid for software, music, videos, text messaging, online connectivity, phone time, concerts, priority boarding, and World of Warcraft.

But I wouldn't ever pay money for virtual goods, oh no, that stuff just isn't real.

(Moral of the story: it is all how you sell it.)

If you think you've talked me into buying you "kiss under mistletoe" you're wrong.

you as an individual are too much of a small sample size for the recognition of any pattern; and a self-selected sample of your peers is too biased. That's why God created market studies and published research. Hint, 12% of Americans bought Virtual goods online. Worth 1.8 billion.

http://gigaom.com/2009/07/30/12-of-americans-bought-virtual-...

Thank you. I'm pretty happy to see this. Will investigate. Even if it's 10% true, that's pretty healthy.

Yeah but there's a big difference between buying a parrot-secrets ebook (or buying Horse Armour in Oblivion or new tracks in Guitar Hero) and buying "flowers" on facebook.

Virtual goods paid my rent in Tokyo for a year. I wouldn't buy them, you wouldn't buy them, but ... some people buy them. Enough people.

Hey caffeine, I'd love to talk to you about this. Please ping me tmhaines a@t the google mail system if you see this.