I have to hand it to Marvel, I really didn’t think they could go any more over the top with their merchandising, but they seem to come up with more and more ridiculous ways to promote their movies, shows, comics, toys, video games, and theme parks every year. Now, Marvel and East Continental Gems have announced the “official Infinity Collection of Gemstones” today at Comic-Con.
It’s being called “one of the rarest collectibles” to debut at Comic-Con, and was revealed by self-made millionaire, Daymond John. “The Infinity Collection of Gemstones consists of the Six Infinity Stones from the Marvel Universe: Time, Space, Reality, Mind, Power and Soul,” reads the press release. The email goes on to detail the stones: the Time Stone is a Columbian emerald; the Space Stone is a Madagascar sapphire; the Reality Stone is a Mozambique ruby; the Power Stone is an amethyst; the Soul Stone is a spessartite; and the Mind Stone is a yellow diamond. “The six stones combined are over 150 carats and come with a total estimated value surpassing $US25 ($35) million.”
$US25 ($36) million! $US25 ($36) MILLION?! This is too much. This is beyond the pale. I feel like at this point, something like this isn’t a collectible, because it’s not valuable because of its collectability, rather it’s valuable simply because it has material worth. I’m hardly a purist when it comes to how fans interact with the media they enjoy, I couldn’t care less about policing what brings people happiness. But something like this, which is pure excess, feels absolutely worthless as far as a “collectible” goes. This sort of thing is a status symbol, much more than something that people will search out with the intent of adding it to their own collections.
Even fans with means will not able to afford any of the Gems — the company is remaining mum about whether or not it’ll actually sell the gems at some point — and there’s nothing about these stones that is anything other than a shiny rock that Marvel has pointed at and said “ours, actually.” So yeah, you could buy these shiny rocks for $US25 ($35) million dollars… or you could fund a film like Everything Everywhere All At Once, which had a budget of… $US25 ($35) million.
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