Heh. I was a convert to merino yeaaaars ago - after receiveing a gift certificate for a pair of boots for my graduation present for my BSc (1991). Having gone in and picked boots, there was gift certificate left. I initially scoffed at "expensive" socks having always worn the old ragg wool jobbies, but not having anything else in mind, ate up the rest of the gift certificate with two pairs of "yuppie socks". As you can imagine, my skepticism was totally wrong, My ragg woolies didn't last
long in my kit after that.