Where is Darren when we need him?
Surely this will bring him back for another post!
Yes, Blizzard has turned that corner at last and is now selling in-game items for real life money. No more buying trading cards… well, actually, you’ll probably still have to do that if you want every possible item… the cash store is open, show us the money!

For Sale - $10 Each
For myself, I am going to again restate my indifference to buying items in game. It is a PvE game, so my fun is generally detached from your fun regardless of how many trinkets you buy. You want the $10 pet? Knock yourself out.
Will I buy these pets? I am going to say no. $10 seems like a lot of cash for either of these guys, the panda’s contribution to charity fig leaf not withstanding. Get back to me when there is a special mount for sale.
However, this evening my daughter will get to log into WoW and she is going to see that Panda on the splash screen and she is going to want it.
At that point I will have to start on another futile discussion about money and how it is not infinitely generated from the plastic cards in my wallet. Then she will want to spend her own money on it (her saved up birthday, holiday, and tooth fairy money adds up to the low three figures, so she has declared herself “rich”) and I will feel compelled to nip that in the bud.
My big hope is that she’ll just zip through the splash screen the way she zips through quest text and miss it completely.
But at some point she is going to see it or see a panda in game and the question will come up. Pandas have that effect on a sub-set of females in my experience.
In fact, you should have seen Ula’s reaction when I mentioned a panda on guild chat last night. Sorry about that Skronk.