30,000 pairs of sweat sox

I have $1,425 in plastic.

Or so it seems:


Adam Warlock $10.00
Amazo $20.00
Anthony Stark $25.00
Apocalypse $17.00
Ares $47.00
Arnim Zola $4.00
Arthur Curry $10.00
Atom $20.00
Baron Mordo $6.00
Baron Zemo $12.00
Batman (Green Gloves) $5.00
Batman (Vampire) $20.00
Beta Ray Bill $20.00
Bizarro $12.00
Cain Marko (FF LE) $7.00
Captain Marvel $15.00
Catgirl $9.00
Catwoman $4.00
Commissioner Gordon $5.00
Count Nefaria $24.00
Crimson Cowl $8.00
Crystal $5.00
Cyclops (IC) $4.00
Deathbird $6.00
DeSaad $1.00
Despero $10.00
Dormammu $10.00
Elektra $10.00
Enchantress $8.00
Fantomex $15.00
Flash (GA) $10.00
General Zod $12.00
Giant Man $10.00
Gladiator $24.00
Goblin Queen $10.00
Hecate $5.00
Hulk (CM) $20.00
Hulk (X-plosion) $15.00
Hulk LE $12.00
Iron Man (Unique) AW $6.00
Iron Monger $5.00
Jane Foster $35.00
Jocasta $3.00
KC Bat Sentry $15.00
KC Batman $27.00
KC Flash $47.00
KC Magog $27.00
KC Shazam! $10.00
KC Superman $50.00
KC Wonder Woman $20.00
Key $1.00
Kilowog $10.00
Leader $7.00
Lex Luthor $8.00
Loki $30.00
Longshot $20.00
Mad Thinker $5.00
Madame Hydra $6.00
Magneto (Armor Wars) $12.00
Martian Manhunter $30.00
Medusa $10.00
Metallo $12.00
Mimic $7.00
MODOK $10.00
Moondragon $14.00
Mordru $9.00
Mr. Bones $6.00
Namor LE $3.00
Natasha Romanov (U) $5.00
Nick Fury $15.00
Nightcrawler (CT) $50.00
Nightmare $3.00
Norman Osborne $4.00
Oracle $20.00
Parasite $1.00
Patsy Walker $5.00
Professor X $17.00
Prometheus $15.00
Quasar $7.00
R'as al Ghul $5.00
Red Skull $6.00
Ronan $8.00
Samadahl Rey $6.00
Sauron $12.00
Selina Kyle $5.00
Sentry $13.00
Sersi $5.00
Shadowcat $10.00
Shathra $4.00
Shazam! $10.00
Siamese $2.00
Silver Surfer $30.00
Silver Swan $6.00
Simon Williams LE $5.00
Spider Man (CT) $10.00
Spider Man (FF) $15.00
Spider Man (IC) $10.00
Spider Man (Xplosion) $10.00
SpiderWoman $6.00
Steel (Giant) $5.00
Sue Storm LE (FF) $14.00
Super Skrull $15.00
Superman (black) $5.00
Ted Kord $5.00
Terra $6.00
Thanos $12.00
The General $10.00
Thomas Oscar Morrow $3.00
Ultra Humanite $4.00
Vindicator $12.00
Vision $10.00
Warbird $14.00
Witchblade $10.00
Wolverine (Armor Wars) $8.00
Wolverine (FF) $10.00
Wolverine LE (IC) $10.00
Wonder Woman $20.00

TOTAL "$1,425.00"

Ranging from a pathetic low of $1 (poor Desaad and Parasite don't get no respect) to an impressive high of $50 each (Nightcrawler and the Kingdom Come Superman), these prices are culled from recent searches on Ebay. I essentially simply took the lowest Buy It Now! price I could find on each figure. If I knew how to actually search on auction results, I'd average the most recent three final auction prices, which I'm sure would give me a much more accurate price on many of these.

Still, it's a place to put my feet.

At this point, it's simply an exercise in curiosity; I'm not planning on running any HeroClix fire sales any time soon. Still, it's nice to know that there's a grand or so in silly little plastic figures sitting around the apartment if we need it.

Focusing only on Uniques (including the upcoming Collateral Damage set), here's stuff I'd still like to have:

Adam Strange
Brainiac (Icons)
Captain Boomerang
Captain Marvel (CD)
Crimson Avenger
Darkseid (Hypertime)
Dr. Psycho
Eclipso (Cosmic Justice)
Felix Faust
Green Lantern (KC)
Guardian
Jonah Hex
Kalibak
Kara Zor-El
Krypto
Lex Luthor (Icons)
Mongul
Owlman
Professor Zoom
Superman (WOW)
Superman (Son of Darkseid)
The Flash (Icons)
Ultraman
Ant-Man
Bastion
Hulk (Ultimates)
Thor (Ultimates)
Iron Man (Ultimates)
Mojo
Morgan LeFay
Mr. Fixit
N'astirh
Natasha Romanoff (CT)
Nimrod
Nova (both)
Phoenix (Ultimates)
Rupert (Mole Man LE)
Shadow King
Silver Dreadnaught
Silver Surfer (Defenders TA)
Spider-Man (Armor Wars)
Spiral

Also, I totally forgot to add Terrax and the Scientist Supreme to the list of Uniques I own. I can't find an Ebay listing for the Scientist Supreme, but Terrax seems to go for around $15, so that will bring me up to around $1,440 and change.

There are, of course, other clix I both own and do not own but would like to that are REVs, but that's a whole 'nother effort to make, at some entirely different time.

Moving on from that...

Those of us who are both opinionated and outspoken will receive responses, and since there are a lot of foolish, emotionally retarded, and cowardly people out there who feel empowered by distance and anonymity on the Internet, many of those responses will be silly, irrational, childish, hypocritical, and gutless.

Sometimes, though, you hit the Internet equivalent of a trifecta, and while idly ego seaching on the net last night, I found one of those... but before we get to that, let me further exposit: one of the most common criticisms that people post about me, and my work, runs something as follows: It's really, really long.

I get this a lot. Okay, I tried to read that insane thing he wrote about Busiek, and I couldn't even get through the first couple paragraphs, but you're right, he's nuts. Or I'd read your blog, Darren, but I only have so much time to read blogs and the blogs I read I can read all the new stuff on in five minutes or less. Or My God this guy just goes on and on and on and on!

Etc ad nauseum.

It seems evident that, according to the vast majority of people out there, everything I write is too long. My novels. My short stories. My essays. My blog posts. My comments to other people's blogs. All of it, every last damned bit, is simply too lengthy, too voluminous, too massive for the larger audience out there to be able to encompass within their tiny little minds.

I love this. No, I really do. What people are essentially saying here... well, no, what they are actually sniveling, or wailing like three year olds, here... is We have no attention span! And... it's HIGHLANDER's fault!

I will also note, just as I go by, that the majority of folks who seem to hate my work the most... have, by their own admission, never actually read any of it in its entirety.

And, again... somehow or other... this is my fault. They can't spend more than five minutes reading something. They feel free to formulate and spew toxic, insanely personal opinions in response to things they can't be bothered to read completely. And yet, in the end, in what passes for these people's minds... all of these profound mental failings on their part somehow, in some way they cannot clearly articulate, add up to me being an asshole.

It's... you know, delightful... to have so many people dislike me and my work who are so obviously and irrefutably moronic.

And, speaking of that, here's a comment thread I found recently, over at some blog whose name I can't remember, but I think it was something like sayimagiganticdroolingfucktard.blogspot.com, or something close...

Ragnell said…
Pally, you forgot that the whole ADD diagnosis is yet another sign of parents not wanting to believe they just have annoying, ill-mannered children who need proper discipline.

Drugs! Ludicrious! They need some freaking attention and for someone to teach them right from wrong.

Jon said...
Yeah, but I remembered that posts over eight hundred words drags me into Doc Nebula/Highlander/John Jones territory, and that's something I'd just rather not be.

Besides, ADD, while certainly overdiagnosed, at least has the backing of a few honest-to-god doctors, not just crystal-reading hemp-wearers that stink of patchouli.

It's totally a crutch, though, you're right.

And now that I've invoked Highlander, he will no doubt appear here and make my life a living Hell of thousand-word responses. Damn me.

Ragnell said...
Just don't link to him. He'll never notice you that way.

Jon said...
I have five bucks he Googles his nom de web with a "- swords" or "- there can be only one" in an effort to find more people he can mock based on the unfortunate timing of their birth.

Highlander said...
"Yeah, but I remembered that posts over eight hundred words drags me into Doc Nebula/Highlander/John Jones territory, and that's something I'd just rather not be."

Yeah. God forbid anyone think you have an attention span.

Say. NOW you're linked to me. Isn't that fun?


Just a few final notes. Jon, whoever he is when he isn't launching ad hominem attacks on someone he doesn't know and has had no interactions with at all, has two blogs. One of them is called Face Down In The Gutter.

Honestly. I couldn't make stuff like this up.

Now, as to Ragnell... this is someone whom I have not only never said a bad word about, but have, in fact, said many many nice things about over the past few weeks, on my blog and over at hers. And, you know... this is what I get for that.

But, well, I suppose it's foolish to expect anything else, from anyone who would ever open a paragraph with the non-word 'pally'.

Not to mention someone who likes Kyle Rayner's butt.

POST SCRIPT: Wait! I just noticed! The Idiot's other blog isn't actually called Face Down In the Gutter. Its real title is: Facedown in the Gutters.

So, you know, he's not only a gutless whiney wank with no attention span who thinks that people who can actually focus on something for more than 800 words are hateful and evil... he's also, pretty much, subliterate.

Well, you know, he fits right in with the rest of them...