I just got home; I dropped just over $4K total, which in retrospect seems pretty stupid, but I got some extremely cool stuff. Over half of my haul is that I bought two of the Desert War Sets. As a set, they were a show special; you can buy the Gladius for $627, the BOSS Jack for $267, and the BWM for $347 individually, but as a set, you get a $150 discount (stated as, that you get the BWM for $197). It's hard to be sure, but I think those BWMs started out as Competition Finish versions -- all three are VERY nice in that desert sand finish.
![[Linked Image from i80.photobucket.com]](http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/jerrybusse/KnobCreek21.jpg)
I also bought a pair of Desert Storm Fighters -- it's not really my favorite design, but they were another show special: for every two that you buy, the first is $267 and the second is $217, so I bought two black-bladed DSFs with orange/black G10 handles. Finally, I bought one of the show special Jackhammers (don't worry about the price because they were all gone in about 3 minutes) -- I had two, but somebody asked if anyone had an "extra", and since I had so much in my basket, I handed one over. Thus ends my Busse Combat chapter.
Moving on to Swamp Rat, I bought a pair of PaRATchute ManDus -- they were a custom shop RMD variant having black G10 handles and a 3/4 sharpened spine. I passed on them when they were a
ShamRuckO'Ganza offering, but went for them tonight.
![[Linked Image from i80.photobucket.com]](http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/jerrybusse/RMDCustom.jpg)
My other Swamp Rat buy was an EH3 Military Overrun Mini Mojo -- they were released in 2007 at $178.95 and I actually paid more than release price ($199), but they're fairly rare. If I'd remembered how much the original price was and said something, they probably would have changed it, but I didn't. I also bought a Vex from Clint (Intel440); he'd sharpened it, but it was otherwise unused, with SteelNut kydex and a large tek-lok for $150. He'd been trying to sell it on BladeForums, but had no luck -- I thought that was a great deal and had the cash, so it's mine now.
I carried around a Chopweiler for a while (again), but eventually put it back because the handles just don't feel right in my hands. I also proxied a tanker Taz Rat for Jeff (Rainwalker), and will put it in the mail tomorrow (I may take a couple pictures in my hand first, but the important thing is to make sure to get it in the mail so he'll have it to make sheaths). RN asked for a review in another thread -- I don't love the Taz Rat and I don't hate it. It doesn't fit my hand perfectly, but feels better than a Chopweiler, so I'll leave a real review to someone who feels more strongly one way or another about the handle and blade design.
As for Scrap Yard, I only picked up one (for myself) -- a BDLE. I asked Garth about SoDs becaue there weren't any on the tables, and while looking, he came across a few Mudders -- there were a few Scrapper 5 SEs (I'm not sure if they all sold or not) and three BDLEs. Somebody else reached over and took two of the Bird Dogs from his hand, so I took the last one. Still no Muks though. SoDs were in another box: Alpenwoe, Garth wrote up your order and put a tanker SoD in the box for you.
I was surprised that only two people contacted me about a proxy, but I think the economy has a lot of folks cutting back on discretionary spending -- I know that I sure need to for the rest of the month, but I got some really great stuff. I just need to make sure I stay employed to pay the bills. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.
