Sorry to hear you're unsatisfied, xKaruriex:.

We would love to give our users event item rares for simply participating in the event. We used to do that, actually. But at the moment, coding events isn't something we can afford to spend either time or money on.

The next best solution we have is to put them into the shops for gold. Unfortunately, that does make it difficult for the users who've just joined the site, but the way we've priced the items should make them worth something in the future. Pricing them too low would only mean they'd be very common and worthless.

The good thing is, if you take the time and effort to enter any of the staff contests (the threads stickied at the top of this forum), you can earn one of the EIs for just participating, even if you don't win. There are several contests that should be very easy to enter and we hope that you do!