The sale of virtual goods in massively multiplayer online role-playing games has exploded and, though Wall Street may not yet have caught on, buying and selling imaginary gold is proving to be a wise investment this year. Behind the facade of undead wizards and gnomish engineers lurk hard-nosed capitalists who know how to turn over a buck.

According to data gathered by Advanced Economic Research Systems, a company that tracks eBay sales, through April more than $2 million was spent on World of Warcraft (WOW) gold this year.