Reasonable price for an Olympic medal (G/S/B not participation)

[JMEnglish27]

I imagine there's probably an Olympic medal collector on the board. With the games rolling around again, this has kind of been a back of my list want for awhile.

If I were to jump in on a genuine medal, gold, silver or bronze, not particular about the era...what might I expect to pay? What are the basics on what to look for (and where to look)?

Thanks for any help...

[Michael B]

North of $7,000 is a fair estimate. A few will sell for slightly less,but I would use that as your general starting point. Most Summer games medals will be less than the comparable medal for the winter games as there are less medals awarded during the winter games. Bronze is usually least expensive with silver next and gold, but it is not necessarily exponential. A medal that can be associated with a specific sport may carry a greater cachet. Most medals since at least 1996 have had the event engraved on the edge. 1968 medals had a small icon attached to the ribbon denoting the sport. Prior to that it is impossible to tell what event unless there is solid provenance. Winners medals prior to 1960 had NO ribbon or chain. The first ones to have them were 1960 which had very nice chains which looked like Olive leaves. 1972 had simple gold chains with an eyelet that screwed into the top of the medal.

Steer clear of 2008, 2012 and 2016 medals as reproductions are being made and sold on the bay for less than $100.00. Jostens also made samples of 1984 medals in a stand up wood and glass case, but they are not anywhere as valuable as an awarded medal.

Your best bet on a medal is one of the Olympic auction houses - Ingrid O'Neil from California, Ulf Strom from Sweden and Wolfgang Fuhr (AGON Sportsworld) in Germany. RR Auctions has had some winners medals in their last two Olympics auctions and a few were rather affordable. You can contact me if you would like to contact any of them. I can also contact a few people privately to see what they have for sale. I know a few collectors/dealers who may have one for sale.

[bbcard1]

As timing would have it, there's an interesting story on Money today about that very subject....

http://time.com/money/4418118/olympi.../?xid=homepage

[Michael B]

The article is a bit misleading regarding the USOC paying for winning a medal. They are known to pay for any medal won. I believe it was $25/15/10,000 or $25/10/5,000. However, if an athlete is still in high school or college and want to retain their eligibility they cannot accept the check. If you are someone like Missy Franklin or Katie Ladecki who was still in high school when you won your medal and your parents could not afford the just about guaranteed $100,000+ scholarship/education you would receive from a top school you turn it down.

This is also true with any endorsements or advertising. A good example is the 1998 Women's ice hockey team. Not all of the members of the team were on the Wheaties Box. The five who were still in college or high school did not appear on the box - Sara DeCosta (Providence College), Sarah Tueting (Dartmouth), Tara Mounsey (Brown), Jenny Schmidgall (UMinn/Duluth) and Angela Ruggiero (Choate Rosemary Hall)

[drcy]

I bet you could get a bronze for a thousand. Just a guess. I look at Olympic stuff in passing, am no expert.

My related story is, I'm a former track runner and like track stuff, and won for the minimum bid of $9.99 a 1950s German track medal on eBay. I showed it to my dad and, after looking closely at it, he said "This looks like an award setting a world's record." I translated the German inscription and, sure enough, it was given to a Russian hurdler for setting the world's record at the meet. Something I entirely missed. Raised the value by a factor of about 30x.

[CW]

Another AH to watch is Heritage. They've auctioned off multiple medals of different types over the years. They're currently auctioning off some Olympic stuff, although I don't think it's exactly what you're looking for, John.