Time to get your gold-farmer on.
If you happen to have $19,999.00 USD (honestly is anyone still fooled by that missing dollar’s worth of difference?) lying around and a deep-seated yearning to be a Blizzard employee, your time has come at last. What better way to pretend than to hold in your hands the mythical five and ten year service awards of an honest-to-god ex-employee?
eBay vendor Gemmintwen specializes in selling Blizzard collectibles, and fresh up on the auctioneer’s block (that is, a Buy It Now listing), is the “Blizzard Employee EXCLUSIVE 10 year Sword & Shield – Gift Warcraft Blizzcon WoW.” Oh baby.
As service awards go, I’d say that’s some pretty classy swag. The Swords and Shields ceremony is held every year to commemorate those employees who’ve stuck it out under the thumb of the gaming behemoth. Five years into your employment at Blizzard nets you the sword, and ten years the shield. The swords may change in style every year (you can check them out in the Swords and Shields website here) but the shield stays the same. In comparison, the fifteen-year mark employee ring just doesn’t seem to cut it, does it?
Though the former executive’s name has been removed from the wall-mount, the seller is willing to provide it upon the buyer’s request as proof of authenticity for the collectible. Now I’m no stranger to spending ridiculous amounts of money on a shiny (virtual) hat, but twenty grand is still a bit above and beyond what I’m willing to shell out for this 20 pound wall space hog. (And let’s be honest, the Master Sword accepts no imitations and no reflected glory).
However, if you fancy yourself an interest in this one-of-a-kind bit of Blizzard history, you can still find your newest piece of precious here.
