[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Ban selling of in-game items for real cash?

[Yumiko]

I'm involved in the administration of a game that has about 500
simultaneous users.

The owner of the game accepts "donations" from players to help "keep
the server running", and gives them in-game items in return for
their donation. After the server costs are covered, the extra
donation money goes into the owner's pocket to keep him interested
in developing and maintaining the game.

Recently, we have noticed some players selling in-game items for
real cash. Many times, they sell the same items available via
donations but for a cheaper price. Speaking from a business
standpoint of profit maximization, would it be a good idea to ban
such practices? The arguments I can think of are:

Ban:

  Item sellers are getting money that might otherwise be paid to the
  server owner. In economics terms, they are directly competing with
  the owner's donation business.

Ban:

  Selling of items can make players who don't have money to spend
  like that feel like they are treated unfairly, and stop playing as
  a result. (Well, accepting donations for items does this too, but
  at least in that case the server owner gets money.)

Don't Ban:

  A ban on such practices may cause players to resent the
  administration for not letting them dispose of their in-game
  assets as they see fit.

Also, other than banning the *selling* of in-game items, what about
banning the *buying* of in-game items? It may not make business
sense to punish players for trying to buy in-game items, because
they are the ones who might pay money to the server owner since they
have proven themselves to be the kind of person willing to spend
real money on in-game items.
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