QuoteHoly s**t. That was the collective reaction around these parts when Valve today announced the initial returns from its new Team Fortress 2 peer-to-peer marketplace, the Mann Co. Store. During the first two weeks of sales, the five Steam community members that participated in the initial round of content creation received royalty checks ranging from $39,000 to $47,000. Per person. Boom.

On September 30, the Mann-Conomy update launched for PC and Mac users, allowing TF2 players to buy, trade, and customize the game's full inventory of items. Valve invited five community members to add their own creations to the digital shelves of the Mann Co. Store as a trial run, and the aforementioned results were staggering.

"At a time when content creators are struggling with changing markets and evolving technologies, the Steam community is sending a clear message with these checks," Valve President Gabe Newell said in a statement. "Platforms that enable this kind of peer-to-peer exchange of virtual goods and services are going to be enthusiastically received. They create an inherently greater efficiency in connecting creators and consumers."

Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm created items for Team Fortress 2 which were then made available to other community members for purchase. Funds from sales were deposited directly into their PayPal accounts, but within days, revenue exceeded PayPal's cap on maximum deposit size. Valve made other arrangements for three of the participants, while the remaining two flew to Seattle to pick up their checks in person.

"It's astounding that so many people want to purchase the items that came out of the community," said Spencer Kern, TF2 community content creator. "The response exceeded my wildest expectations. There really is no doubt at this point that there's a huge demand for community-created content in TF2 and, hopefully, more games will start to tap into this demand."

Valve promises regular updates to the community-created content section of the Mann Co. Store, and anyone interested in contributing should run, not walk, to http://www.teamfortress.com/contribute/.