Ethics and the Economy

Most of the time, ethics doesn't cross my mind when buying and selling on the auction house.  As far as WoW goes, I live by caveat emptor.  Let the buyer beware.  I'm not going to get into real life politics too much, suffice to say in the real world, a market ruled by caveat emptor alone is a really, really bad idea. 

In WoW, it's a much different story.  No one can come to personal or financial harm as a result of auction house transactions.  Well, mostly.

Before I continue, please keep in mind I'm only referring to the auction house, and to gold only transactions.  I would strongly advise you to NEVER get involved in any transaction that involves real money (TCG codes, Blizzard store pets/mounts, game time, etc).  Also, if you buy anything out of trade that seems too good to be true, it probably is.  So three rules:

1. Only pay gold for something that can be traded in the trade window, and even then, be careful.
2. Don't do anything against the ToS, or that involves real money in any way.
3. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  Walk away.

Buying from the AH is almost always fine (from Blizzard's standpoint).   Outside the AH, you could run into issues.  Follow the above three rules, and you'll probably be fine.  With the disclaimers out of the way, let's get to the meat of the issue. 

If you buy a item, or number of items for a ridiculously low price, it's generally for one of 4 reasons:

1. It was a typo.  Unfortunate for them, but they'll learn the lesson, and probably not make that mistake again.  
2. They're clearing out their bank. They might prepping for quitting the game, getting out of buying and selling on a regular basis, or a myriad of other reasons.  They're purposely selling stuff really cheap.
3. It's a hacked account.  Someone's account was hacked by a third party, said third party is selling all their stuff, then probably selling that gold for real money.  They'll sell as much as they can, cheaply, because they want the gold off the account before Blizzard or the account holder figures out what's going on, and the account gets locked down.
4. It's materials from a gathering bot.

Obviously in case 2, there's no ethical issue.  In case 1, there might be an emotional or courteousy issue.  There's circumstances under which I could see myself returning the item (assuming they refund me whatever I paid for it).  Rare circumstances mind you, as I can be heartless, but I'm not completely so.

Cases 3 and 4 are tough to determine.  It's hard to know for sure if it really is a hacked account or from a bot.  It could be case 1 or 2.  It can be case 1 even if it's a lot of items; they may have typo'd in an auction mod and just didn't notice it.  The more familiar you are with the game and auction house, and the economy on your server in particular, you start to have a better feeling for when it's a hacked account or bot.  Still not ironclad, but odds are you have a pretty good idea.

This is where the issue of ethics comes up.  Hacked accounts are not good for the affected individuals, nor the community as a whole.  It's ultimately bad for the economy, and hurts people that are legitimately gathering by driving down prices. Bots are also bad for the economy (at least everyone besides the botter), for the same reason.

So let's say you're reasonably certain the items in question are botted or from a hacked account.  Do you buy them?  Why or why not? 

Your competitors will probably buy them.  The buyer might not even be buying for crafting mats or resale.  They may just be leveling a profession.  There will definitely be at least one person that won't even consider the ethics of the situation.  But will you?

It's hard to say if there's a right answer.  If it could be answered on a macro or community basis, I think the consensus would be that no one should buy them.  It would make bots useless (they couldn't sell the mats, at least in great quantity as they'd risk detection).  Hacked accounts would be somewhat less valuable (besides the gold, which is obviously liquid), which could lead to fewer compromised accounts.

Just some things to think about.  If you persist in the gold making business, odds are this situation will come up eventually.  Make the choice that you'll be comfortable with, even if it means less gold in your pocket.