Uber upgrade?

[nameless noob]

If the reason you oppose item purchase is that any such purchase might not be legit, then in fairness, you must similarly oppose item trading.

Wrong. Absolutely, positively, 100% wrong. This argument is one of the most frequently used by those claiming purchasing items is fine. However, it's also dead wrong.

You know it's statements like this that really bother me. The holier-than-thou unsupported almost puritanical obsession with the rightness and wrongness of other people's activities. Consider for a moment that we might know something that you don't? If "we" all use this argument, maybe there's a good reason? Maybe then I'm only 99% wrong? Or 1% right? 1% right is infinitely more right than 0% right... and if I’m 1% right I suppose that makes you infinitely wrong?

Rejoice in your wrongness my friend! Wallow in it! Embrace it! And next time you make an absolute moral judgment like this, please, please, PLEASE make arguments directly on the point so I (or "we") can address them and not you.

You've tried to turn my arguments into:
(1) Hacked/duped/botted items are wrong;

Do you disagree with this point? This appears to be the start point for your argument even as you have stated it. If hacking/duping/botting items is NOT wrong, well then your harangue against the mere mention of item purchase seems totally out of line. Let's assume you agree that you agree that these practices are wrong (100% wrong even) and reorganize...

My argument consists of three <edit by nameless noob> parts:
(0) Hacked/duped/botted items are wrong
(1) Items purchased from websites such as d2items.com are virtually guaranteed to be the result of hacking, duping, or botting;
(2) Purchasing such items drives the market for hacked/duped/botted items and therefore contributes to constant stream of new hacks and the use of bots to obtain these items.

Point by point then?

(0) I for one am willing to concede point 0 without any quibbles.

(1) One wonders why you would assume this? You mention common sense, but I wonder the basis for said sense. My experience with retailers, both on the 'net and in the physical world is that they generally don't want to cheat me because they want me to come back for more. So the reasonable expectation here is that I should expect for-profit sites to sell legit items unless I have information to the contrary. B)

I don't argue with the Wal-Mart employee about whether the made-in-USA gloves I'm looking at are "fakes" made by slaves in China, so why would I argue with an e-tailer?

The fact that I know that hacks exist does not change this. I know that counterfeit "real" money exists, but I do not run chemical tests on the change handed to me at the grocery store. Common sense has told me to accept such things at face value. Someone who did otherwise would be called paranoid... (though I suppose that in fairness I must admit that even paranoids have enemies.)

So when I see items for sale on ebay, and when I see good feedback on the sellers, I assume that these items are legit. I'm not entirely sure WHY I should assume otherwise other than it might stop the flood of angry electrons issuing forth from your computer...

(2)This last item is also undeniably true. Purchasing or assigning value to any item drives a market for counterfeits. This is a basic economic fact, but doesn’t tell us anything special about the case at hand.

Is that a REAL Rolex ™ you are wearing? Are those genuine Honda ™ parts? Is the money in your wallet "real"? If an item is sufficiently valuable, there will be fakes. Move on people. Nothing to see here.

Nothing to see unless you believe that the existence of a market itself is WRONG... If you submit that the opportunity to trade time for money in the acquisition of items is wrong in and of itself (that is to say regardless of the legitimacy of the items being traded) then your objection is basically philosophical and neither RIGHT nor WRONG in the absolute sense, but if you call a plumber next time your pipes explode then you are a hypocrite. :P

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So then the crux of your argument seems to be that everyone should assume that ALL (or so nearly all as not to make a difference) items of sufficiently high level are fake. We should assume this then because we know that fakes exist, and because you assure us that some (or even many) of these fakes have been sold and are available for sale as "real". Because there are so many fakes, we shouldn't even discuss the acquisition or use of such items. And, oh yes, anyone who actually has one is part of the problem and CERTAINLY shouldn't sell it or trade it.

-nameless noob