As long as this topic is heading in a ... direction.
Being new to LA, I took advantage of my Young Player status and took a loot at the pricing of things on Vendors.
To say the least Sticker shock came to mind very quickly.
Doing numerous Googles to try to catch up on the changes to UO since last I played (I spent the first 14 days on TC1 to determine if UO could interest me) I could not help but see there is a very active Real Life Selling market. I did see something about 400 accounts being banned etc. None of this is terribly relevant by the way, just an observation.
It would seem to me that there may be a scenario by which one sells gold to be used to buy resources ... that recycles the gold to be sold for Real Life Currency ... to buy resources .....
If one needs to increase ones Real Life Income, then one increase the price of the resources, not the Real Life Price of the Gold to buy the resources.
I am not making any statements of ethics etc, I am, in a round about way, digging for Ultima Online Cultural changes.