EVE Online Gold Magnate cover

EVE Online Gold Magnate Auction Concludes with 1+ Million PLEX Winning Bid

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Published: January 27, 2020 5:30 PM

An EVE Online Gold Magnate auction has concluded with an astonishing bid of 1,001,001 PLEX from none other than YouTuber Scott Manley, and that entire last sentence is going to need a heck of a lot of explanation for people who aren't super familiar with the game.

First, players of EVE Online will note that I wrote 1,001,001 PLEX and not Isk, the game's standard currency. That is not a typo on my part or a research failure — Scott Manley was, for some reason, holding onto approximately 160 years worth of game time, represented by the PLEX premium currency. Convert that to real-world dollars, and you have the equivalent of around $40,000.

The PLEX for GOOD Campaign

The auction of the Gold Magnate is part of CCP Games' "PLEX for GOOD" campaign, an in-game event that operates on a simple premise. PLEX can only be earned by spending real-world money. Therefore, they collect PLEX in-game and then donate the equivalent amount of money to a good cause in the real world.

PLEX for GOOD first came around in 2005 to raise money for people affected by the South East Asian tsunami. It's now been brought back to help out our friends in Australia who are dealing with the aftermath of terrible bush fires across most of the country.

PLEX for GOOD has since concluded, and one of the biggest events of this charity drive was the sale of a truly valuable ship for a massive amount of premium currency. But why is the Gold Magnate so special?

EVE Online Gold Magnate Scott Manley inventory

What Makes the EVE Online Gold Magnate So Special?

The Gold Magnate is, at its face, not that impressive of a ship. It's a unique variant of the Amarr's Magnate frigate, a ship so low on the EVE Online totem pole that you can have all the necessary skills to fly it in approximately 25 minutes. For context, it can take days, weeks, or even months to be able to fly some of the more impressive ships in the game through the passive skill-training system — and that doesn't include the skills you'll need for all of the weapons and various devices on it.

The blinged-out variant of this ship is rare. So rare, in fact, that a grand total of five of these ships have ever existed in the game as special rewards for tournaments and other feats — and three of them have been destroyed. That means that Scott Manley now owns a ship that only has one other copy in the entirety of the EVE Online universe.

Now he just needs to find somewhere safe to park it.

What do you think of the EVE Online Gold Magnate auction? What ship would you love to get your hands on? Let us know in the comments below!

A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

More Info About This Game
Learn More About EVE Online
Game Page EVE Online
Developer
CCP Games
Publisher
Atari
Platforms
PC
Release Date
May 6, 2003 (Calendar)
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