Bling Gnomes follow the you around and collect Gold for you, and convert rubbish and junk into Gold, so you don't have to take it all the way to one of the Merchants to do it. They are only obtained by buying the Bling Gnome box (in real life) or by recieving 3 free ones in-game. After these 3 free ones are used, you may only get more by Buying the Box. If you logout, you lose one of the 3 free Bling Gnomes. It is a close cousin of the Garden Gnome, which stays perfectly still to ward off would be attackers.