1. A method for maintaining group shared inventories in a virtual universe, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system comprising a group inventory manager and one or more processors coupled to memory, usage information for one or more inventory items each shared by a group having a plurality of users, wherein the group inventory manager comprises software components for maintaining shared inventory, and further wherein the one or more shared inventory items comprise one or more copies, pointers, or references; storing the received usage information for the one or more shared inventory items; analyzing the stored usage information for at least one of the one or more shared inventory items; and performing an action based on the analysis of the stored usage information for the at least one of the one or more shared inventory items.