As we await tomorrow’s opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, many Ephemera collectors are also anxiously awaiting the onslaught of collectibles that will emanate from this years games. But the big money is not in the stamps and pins, it is in the medals, torches, and “victors’ sweat stains”.
Conde Nast in its Portfolio.com website says:
It’s too soon to tell which athletes’ belongings will have legs this year, and experts certainly don’t put much stock in the heaps of official goods. “They’ll make great mementos, but they won’t appreciate,” says Allen of the record 300 products Beijing has licensed to help offset its (also record) $40 billion in infrastructure and organizational costs. Indeed, thousands of Olympic pins, stamps, postcards, and Coca-Cola cans are available on eBay—from games past and present—for less than $20. And while ticket stubs from the storied 1980 “Miracle on Ice” U.S. versus Soviet Union hockey game can fetch $500, game ephemera, too, is best tucked away with your photo albums.
While that may be true for those who make a living on buying and selling Ephemera, there are many collectors out there who will be more than happy to have a copy of the official program or event brochure or ticket stub in their personal collection.
If you have an ephemeral item from one of the past Winter or Summer Olympics in your collection and would like to describe it, have it shown here at Encore-Ephemera, please contact me. I’d be more than pleased to highlight it in one of our upcoming blog articles.
I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.
Tom
Click to see my current eBay items
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