In this day and age, it seems that everything is shifting to digital—our social interactions, our shopping, and even our most prized possessions. In fact, there has been a rise in people spending their money on virtual goods lately, even if they cost more than their physical counterparts.
For example, a virtual bee-embroidered Gucci Dionysus bag just recently sold for 350,000 Robux on the gaming platform Roblox. Such is equivalent to $4,115, which is almost a thousand dollars more than the retail value of the real bag.
The virtual Gucci bag is not an NFT, but rather a digital accessory that can be worn by the user's avatar in the game. Alexis Ohanian, an internet entrepreneur, explained on Twitter that the bag has "no value, use, or transferability outside of the Roblox world," yet it's worth way more than the physical one.
Roblox introduced the virtual Gucci bag as part of an exclusive two-week event called the "Gucci Garden Experience," where users could purchase limited-edition accessories for their Roblox avatars. It may seem ridiculous that anyone would actually spend thousands of dollars on a grouping of pixels, but clearly, there is still a market for those types of intangible commodities.
It's not the only outrageous digital sale that has been made in these past few months, either—one customer recently purchased a $24,000-worth Hermes Birkin bag NFT, which serves no other purpose than to be a collectible.
Selling virtual goods is not a new trend—video game companies have been profiting from such a system for years, selling skins and accessories that can be equipped by players during play. Of course, most of those goods are more reasonably priced to appeal to middle-class gamers—rarely are they marked with luxury price tags like the virtual Gucci bag was.
Gucci has seen the potential of sales in the digital fashion and has partnered with other gaming platforms like Pokemon GO to sell their branded virtual goods there. At this point, it's only a matter of time before virtual goods take over as the most valuable assets you can own.
