With the Manconnomy Mini-store added in to TF2, contributers got paid a percentage of what people paid for the virtual items.

And paid is the operative word.  The first checks came in... and they were between 47,000 and 39,000 dollars.

Not to bad for what was probably a weeks worth of work.

Apparently valve is giving them 25%.

Which means the virutal items have already made valve... well a shitload.   Average of $40,000 per polycount pack to be on the low side.

Times 3 for Valve....  times 5 polycount packs = $600,000.

Not a bad chunk of change... oh and that's not counting the Key craze for crates, or their other items they sell.

While I'm not a fan of having these things cost money, though it's better that they're hats and weapons than other things like maps, game modes and such, it's nice to see that Valve is not only supporting people who make custom content by officially including it in the game, but these people are actually making some money off it.

Oh wow, there are a bunch of people on the TF2 boards throwing a hissy fit about modeling items not worth 40K too.

Funny stuff.