The Summer Olympics are barely over, and already people have begin capitalizing on Olympic fever. Want an Olympic gold medal? Check out ebay (there seems to be an abundant amount of medals from the 2004 games in Athens).
From a collecting point of view, owning a gold medal is a highlight. Everybody knows what a gold medal is, and how one is earned. There’s a catch to the ebay ones, however. They were unawarded. Invariably, the first question someone will ask upon seeing your gold medal is “Whose medal is it?” Having to explain that it was unawarded diminishes the collectable, in my opinion. Every time you show someone, you’ll have to talk about it.
You don’t see many actual awarded medals up for sale, and when you do, they’re usually older medals, given to athletes before money was big like it is in sports today.
Checkout Grey Flannel Auctions. They currently have a 1976 Gold Medal from Walter Davis (basketball).
I’d much rather own this medal, as it WAS awarded. Be prepared, though, for the inevitable second question of “why did he sell it?” That’s always a tough one to answer (and I might get into some of those reasons in a later blog).
Owning an Olympic medal is very cool! It’s instantly recognizable to people from around the world. Just as with any other collectable, be prepared to answer questions.
In related news, I read this article on NBCNEWS.com . . .
It looks like you can own just about anything from the Olympics . . . from beds to batons! I look forward to seeing these auctions. I think it’ll be really interesting to see what some of these items sell for, and can imagine a bidding war for items like a baton from the Jamaica World Record setting 4 x 100 relay!
Finally, a personal connection. I was fortunate enough to attend many events at the 1984 Olympics! Some were a blast (team handball, volleyball) and some were duds (archery!), but everywhere you went, there was Olympic pin trading! I had my selection of pins and brought them with me to every event. I loved trading with other people (and being an 11-year-old made it easier). I still have the pins somewhere. I’ll have to find them, and show my kids! Perhaps I can get them involved in the Disney pin trading thing. That would be fun, right? Right?
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