Man sells diamond engagement ring to buy Master Chief armor

By Mike Flacy November 16, 2011

H3_WSJ_CHIEF — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Recounted in full detail at the Bygone Bureau blog, Eric Smith found himself devastated after his long-time girlfriend confessed to cheating and broke up with him. At the time, Smith was prepared to propose to his now ex-girlfriend and had even obtained her perfect image of an engagement ring. Specific to her description of the perfect ring, the diamond was shaded canary yellow and set on a white gold band. After the breakup, the engagement ring remained in his closet for months. Due to the unpopular design, he was unable to sell the ring in-person to anyone, but did find a buyer on eBay and shipped off the unused jewelry.

With a substantial amount of money sitting in his Paypal account, Smith decided to get rid of the cash to destroy any lingering memory of the ex-girlfriend. While Smith still had graduate school loans to take care of, he decided to spend the entire amount on a complete set of wearable Master Chief armor from the popular Halo series. According to Smith’s comment on Reddit, he hired a Detroit-based artist on Etsy before the site shut down the alchemy section during early 2011. The suit is mostly constructed out of steel as well as fiberglass and weighs approximately 40 pounds. Designed by an armor-builder based out of the Philippines that’s known for Stormtrooper designs, the helmet utilizes LED lights and has the shiny golden sheen typical of Master Chief’s armor. The various parts of the suit arrived in seven shipments over eight months.

Since the purchase of the armor, Smith likes to walk around as Master Chief at various conventions. It takes two people to help Smith put on the armor and he has to walk around slowly to avoid breaking any section of the armor. According to Smith, he identifies with Master Chief and doesn’t regret the decision to spend all proceeds from the sale of the engagement ring on the set of Halo-inspired armor.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

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