Introduction:

I had the great opportunity to witness the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, first hand. I also had the opportunity to see what happens years prior to the events, and the aftermath. Two years before the games officially started, Olympic Pins were being designed and pressed by a local jewelry artisan company, O.C. Tanner. O. C. Tanner was also the provider of all of the Olympic medals that the winning athletes adorned. Olympic Bid Pins (pins provided for all cities and their respective countries that vied for the opportunity to host the games) are designed and made several years before the events come to fruition. These pins are highly sought and if the city is lucky enough to be the site of the Olympic games, these pins are highly valuable and seem to retain their value well after that particular Olympic Event has occurred. Pins thereafter are minted and processed, most having to do with the Sporting Events, the Mascots and the Venues in which they take place. There are however, those pins that are produced to reflect the culture, the agriculture and businesses of the host city, these, as you will learn, tend to deflate in value.

Enter the World of Food Pins

Food Pins were a phenomena in Salt Lake -not only did they reflect our culture, but they represented the seemingly innocent pieces of enameled metal that were highly sought after. They were highly valued and had a rate of inflation in the beginning that defied all odds. One of the first “Food Pins” was the “Fry Sauce”, a pink concoction, native to the peoples of Utah. It is a condiment of mayonnaise and ketchup, used, obviously with French fries. It is a staple in every Utah fast food restaurant. In this humble writer’s opinion, it tastes much like pink paint. Ah, but it is cherished, and only rightfully should it be the most sought after pin in all of the Salt Lake City Olympics. The original price was $7, then it skyrocketed. The price ultimately landed in the $200 range. Newspaper articles, News programs, highway signs all sang the praises of this little pin. It was neither the prettiest, the most innovative, or the most original pin - but it was after all, it was Fry Sauce.

People were going nuts over food pins and this Fry Sauce pin. They were attending pin fairs, haggling, trading, selling and standing in lines for it. My then-husband held out, until he ultimately needed it to complete his “Food Pin Collection”, and paid the $200.00. I thought he was nuts. But being a savvy businessman, he sold his collection during the Olympics for an astounding $2500.00 to a vendor hoping to sell it for double. Later, we found out that he not only didn’t sell the collection but took a $2000.00 loss after breaking up the set and selling the individual pins.

The Green jell-o, another Utah phenomena, was hot.

 Hotter, still - the funeral potato (don’t ask, I couldn’t answer you). Food was big in Utah and the food pins were even bigger.

olympic pins

Pin Fairs - Not a roller coaster ride:

Pin Fairs start about two years before the Olympics do. They are a sea of booths; at Malls, Libraries, stores, parking lots, etc., where seasoned veterans come to share their knowledge and make a lot of money on passers by. The Pin Fair is a great place to see the newest, the oldest, the rarest and the pins no can get rid of. There are hats, briefcases, neck chains, etc. that hold and display your pins proudly. Anything that a pin can secure itself to, is automatically a pin collecting kit. There are; kids, adults, boy scouts, newbies and old time pin traders with collections from Olympics past, there to share their wealth of knowledge and to collect from your wallet. I loved these fairs. We would spend hours and my husband would haggle and deal, buy, sell and trade - always keeping an eye out for the “Fry Sauce Pin”. Eventually, he broke down and bought a “Fry Sauce” for $200.00 His food pin collection became so extensive that by the time the Olympics came to town, he had acquired all of the Food Pins made to that date. He had them in an enormous glass show case, all 300 food pins, with the coveted Fry Sauce at the top! He was a great salesman and knew when to strike - when the Olympics were at the halfway mark - and Olympians were receiving their medals, he received $2500.00 cash for his Food Collection. The dealer who purchased this collection had hopes of making twice his money back. Later we found that he not only didn’t sell the collection, but had to dismantle it, and sell the pins piece lot. The gentleman took about a $2000.00 loss, which leads me to the point of this guide - What to buy, When to buy and When to sell.

guide book for olympic pins

1. Buy, cherish and use what you like - this makes the investment that much more collectable to you.

I bought pins that were of my old schools, pins with cows on them ( I like cows), and pins from Eastern Europe.

The pins I cherished went into a much smaller glass case. That case is in a drawer somewhere in the basement - but will be passed on to my grandchildren. I also purchased mini pins - set as charms for a bracelet.

olympic charms

shadow boxes

display boxes

2. If you are going to sell, do it prior to, during, or immediately after the games.

I found one of the best resources for selling my pins was Ebay (of course) During the two week duration of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games - I had sold 2 State Fair pins with spinning wheels for $20 a piece - purchased for $10.00 each - not bad. I sold 2 promotional pins - these are free, if you are willing to wait in line for 5 hours and have high hopes that there will be any left by the time you get to the front of the line. These promotional pins were sponsored by Coke. Each day a new pin came out featuring an Olympic event, they were secured on a card, and if you were lucky and liked standing in even longer lines, you could get the autograph of the Olympian featured that day. I had a Bonnie Blaire, she only fetched $9.00, but I got to shake her hand, and an Elvis Stroyko which netted me a cool $35.00. I guess in this case grace won over speed, but I had become the big winner financially thanks to Ebay bidders.

I found that Ebay was truly my best source for moving the pins I had bought for investment, even better than the Pin Fairs - my audience was world wide. I even sold a pin on Ebay to someone who lived within 25 miles of my home!

I found that most of the visitors to our city were more interested in taking home, not only the Gold, but a memento of our fare State. They were more in search of banners, baseball caps, blankets and maps of Utah then the pins themselves. It was the natives that bought the pins, and the traders and savvy customers on Ebay that vested their money into this enterprise.

Through Ebay, I was able to move pins to people in the US, who were watching the Olympics on TV, but were every much as emotionally vested in the events as I. In fact, probably more so, since getting to see an actual event was a rarity for the locals.

3. The Price of even the most sought after item can plummet

Sad buy true, most of the pins that were bought with hopes of financial gain - were later found in grab bags at the Torino Winter Olympics. The thing about a pin, is that it is monetarily only as valuable as cross promotion. The emotional value of the pins is as valuable as you make it.

Most of the food pins - unless they were tied to a National or International Company or a Media Source lost their value. The Fry Sauce pin, because of the hoopla over it’s existence, did retain some of it’s inflated value - it ended up being worth around $25.00 when all was said and done. Most of the other coveted food pins ended up in drawers, in grab bags at other pin fairs, or anywhere else a once cherished memento goes.

Bid Pins retained much of their value, as did Sport Pins, and some Venue Pins.

Pins that have commercial advertising - cross over appeal mostly maintained their value and increased. Due to the fact that if a person collects Coca Cola Memorabilia, they are more than likely to have a Coke Olympic Pin. This is why the afore mentioned one day only promotional pins that Coke gave out - were such a great investment, the fact that they were signed was a bonus.

Pins that depict the area in which the Olympics were housed; Salt Lake City, Nagano, Torino, et al., are very collectable and maintain their worth. These tie in the spirit, emotion and heart of the Olympics.

Pins that are tied to political events, war, division of countries and tragedy - also have tremendous value. They remind of us; of what was, what we went through - the good and the bad. One of my treasured mementos is a patch I purchased that came from the Sarajevo Games. That patch, considering the devastation of that City after the games was of personal interest to me and although is probably worth quite a bit, will never be sold.

Pins are story tellers, they tell of our past, our history and what we have experienced. These pins are more valuable sentimentally, there is no price that can be attached to them in that regard. They also hold their monetary value for collectors of historical artifacts.

Avoid

Pins specific to the regions culture, while they may be cute and fun, but their potential for financial gain is sketchy at best.

Pins that are mass produced in such quantities that everyone already has one. These would include; free give-away pins from local merchants, free event pins, and any other pin that is substandard enough to not gain an asking price.

Pins that do not carry the Olympic Logo - or only carry part of the Logo. They may look nice but unless they carry the City of the Olympics, the year of the events and the Olympic rings, they are worthless in financial circles.

Watch for forgeries - count your Olympic rings, there should be five - 3 on top and 2 underneath. Forgeries are everywhere, even in such prestigious events as the Olympics.

Watch for twists to the sought after pins. One year after the Fry Sauce Pin soared, a knock off, although official pin was made - it was much like the Fry Sauce, but it was next to a bottle of Coke. This may work as a cross promotional, but many inscrutable dealers were trying to pass it off as the “real thing”. The green jell-o pin, later had carrots added to it, again - it was not the first green jell-o that everyone desired, but was passed off as such.

The Unauthorized Guide to Olympic Pins and Memorabilia - by Jonathan Becker and Greg Gallacher

National Olympic Committee Pin, Foreign Team Pin and Olympic Badge Guide - by Jane E Grant

Price Guide to Collectable Pin- Back Buttons 1896-1986 - by T. Hake and R. King

The Fire Within: Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games - by the Salt Lake Olympic Committee

A Simple Souvenir: Coins and Medals of the Olympic Games 2004 - by Peter G Van Alfen

The main thing, enjoy what you collect - the monetary value is far less than the memories.