Is it legal to buy used accounts?

I want to buy another GW account. It seems to me that there just has to be people out there who don't play anymore who might want to sell their account for cheap. If so:

1. Is this legal?
2. Is it reliable? (How can I make sure I'm not buying a blocked, stolen, or fake account?)
3. Where can I find sellers?

well first off people sell accounts with titles/acheivments etc and im pretty sure its against EULA.

Secondly, buying an account from a random person off the internet will 99% of the time end up being a scam.

So...I would only buy accounts from friends or meet the person(kinda wierd)

In my opinion, just buy any accounts you need when there are sweet deals......right now its 10 bucks for NF, Factions and 12 for platinum Proph on newegg. I doubt any person would sell for much cheaper....

1. No.
2. No.
3. No.

oh, newegg is perfect.

Of course, I kinda wanted Nightfall, and it's $60 on newegg ($30 at guildwars.com)

Thanks!

1. No, not legal.

2. No, you're just asking to get the account reclaimed as "stolen" as soon as they've got your money.

3. You don't. See 1 & 2.

Technically it is legal to buy a second hand copy of Guild Wars, but it is against the EULA and NCSoft is under no obligation to allow you to play the game. When you buy a second hand copy of a game, you are normally buying the box and the disk. To my knowledge a EULA clause that precludes second hand use has never been tested in court.
My advise, protect your self. Buy a new set of accounts. Doing so will save yourself alot of worry and provide a lot of security for your peace of mind.

1. Is this legal? yes, but it is against the user agreement that you(or the potental "seller") clicked(yes,i agree)on.

2. Is it reliable? (How can I make sure I'm not buying a blocked, stolen, or fake account?) no there is no way of telling if it is.

3. Where can I find sellers? wrong place to ask.

@Ricebol - no, it is not illegal in the sense that your are committing a real world crime. But it is against the EULA as stated in the Legal section of guildwars.com and, thus, ArenaNet/NCSoft are free to enforce their rules.

They do that by blocking the account in question from use. They have no provision for changing account ownership (changing the login name) and, if asked to do so, will assume you have stolen someone's account.

In the event that you can prove you purchased the account from another player, they will block both players accounts.

So you are left with an account that can be reclaimed at any time by the original owner. Why take the chance.

By the way, don't post in guru or in-game, asking to buy an account. That is also against guru rules and the EULA.

It is an interesting thing.

Ok in the news recently there was a car dealership that took their new cars and drove them across the state lines and then sold them and kept the profit.

The people that stole the cars are now in jail but what happened wit the cars that people took out loans to buy the cars with. the buyers did not know that they were illegal.

So the buyer of the account did not disclose the agreement that they had with ANET and someone else -unbenounced to them- bought this game off someone who was tired of it and just started to play it. Can ANET ban the account if it finds out that it was sold? That is a legal question that I do not have the answer for.

There was a Very rare Violin that was bought by a pawn shop in NY. Upon getting the violin appraised the shop owner realized that this violin was hotter than hell on a summers day. He returned the violin to the owner but was compensated for his trouble. Beggs the questing be asked - does the buyer get compensated to buying something that should not be sold because it is property of Anet.

Anet would have to show Intent to defraud I think

I think you are confusing all the legal red tape and 'innocent until proved otherwise' of the real world, with the Net.
In GW, ArenaNet rules supreme (since it's their game) and they will close the account if you break the EULA.
Unless you are interested in going to court for a few years out of your own pocket to back those technicalities they are unimportant.
Remember: the account is not yours, only the permission to play the game is sold and this cannot be passed on.
If the account is passed on, ArenaNet is then well within their right to close the account without recompensation.
You signed a Term of Agreement when you started the account that specified this and this is binding to the account even if you pass it on to another.
Just like in real life: if the bank discovers you depositing a C-note you didn't know was fake, you don't get a refund. They just hand the note over to the police and let you cover the loss.

No
No
there are sites for it, trust me my firend looked for them. Takes a while though to find a good site that people use.

Ha ha, I love how people do not understand "legal."

Things are illegal when the government will get ya. Breaking contracts is not illegal. When someone sells you an account they are breaking the contract they have with ArenaNet. The government could care less. Therefore, it is not illegal. Now, ArenaNet can nuke that account, but then if you read the license closely they can pretty much end your account for any reason. Again, not illegal.

All you need to know is never buy accounts ingame.

To anybody who wonders about the first sale doctrine, maybe this helps: ANet is essentially running an all-you-can-eat pizza joint. When you buy a ticket you are handed a disposable plate and mug and you are then free to eat and drink as much as you want. After you are full, you are free to sell the used plate and mug to somebody else. However, that does not give them permission to eat pizza. That would fall under acquiring services by fraudulent means. However, this doesn't seem to be so self-evident to some people when the services provided consist of intangible goods.

Well if you bring me a fake c-note - I work in this industry - then I call the police and they will take the bill and your ass to the cop shop. While there they will question you as to where you got it from. If you are legit and did not know the bill was fake then you can Sue in small claims court for your 100 bucks to be reclaimed. It costs 15 bucks to sue in small claims up to a maximum of 5,000 dollars. So um you will get your 100 bucks back.

If someone sells you an account and it has tones of sweet stuff and gold on it and you pay more than 15 bucks for it and Anet then closes your account...your BEEF is with THE SELLER. Not Anet.

SO the Seller of the account you take to court not ANET as it were in this case. ANET's User agreement is your proof as it were for the case in small claims against the person you purchased the account from.

the cost of the account + Mental Anguish should be enough to get several hundred backs back ontop of the amount that you paid.

How is Anet ever going to find out that you actually bought the account if you sell it. Your paranoid to think that they can find you.

That said I spent over 3,000 hours on my account already so giving it up is like giving up one of my children... how sad is that.