I’m a sucker for gaming schwag, especially when its branded with a game that I happen to like such as GTA or the more recent Red Dead Redemption. A “rare” bar of soap and some dice branded with Red Dead Redemption regularly sold for over a hundred dollars on eBay–also consider the recent Bioshock 2 Splicer Masks selling for hundreds on auction. Yikes, and I thought I was bad paying 40 bucks for the GTAIV Statue of Happiness figure when it first released. I saw the prices for the Red Dead promo items on eBay and said screw that!

That is, until I found out they’re now available from the Rockstar Warehouse online store and they’re at reasonable prices–reasonable considering they previously cost an arm and a leg on eBay.

I’ve come to believe there’s quite a market for gaming collectibles, especially when a game is recent and hot. I’m glad to see 2kgames selling cool stuff for Bioshock 2 and now Red Dead Redemption. Fans pay a reasonable price for the useless (but cool) items they don’t really need and the publisher or developer gets a cut instead of some Gamestop employee who ransacks their division’s allocation of free loot and sells it on the bay. Lots of untapped potential out there for schwag, I still can’t believe there aren’t any acrylic life-size Zelda rupees being sold as of yet.

Anyways, here’s the Red Dead goods. First the candle, it comes in a Red Dead branded box and I was surprised by the weight of it. It’s pretty solid and has a wick in the very center piece of “dynamite.”

The soap under the candle box above is weird, I would have passed on the soap but I got it because it was cheaper to buy a set of items. I mean, black glycerin soap? Soap isn’t really prevalent in the game either… I would rather a shotgun shell USB drive or a glowing manure cake or something… The playing dice below come in this cool little leather pouch thing branded with Rockstar and Red Dead, they’re just cheap little dice but I like them.

The skull playing cards are very cool, these were given out for free at some Walmarts and Gamestops but the “Deluxe” ones on the warehouse site have a nicer clothbound case:

I’m thinking of building a rustic old looking wooden chest and buying three more of the dynamite candles to put in it. On second thought, maybe not.