subject: Collecting for 2010 Winter Olympics [print this page] Winter Olympic Sports Memorabilia collections can be around the particular games, a sport or a person. But should the collection be for fun, passion or money? That's up to you but if you start with what you love you will always have something that is valuable to you. See www.winterolympicscollectibles.com.
The winter Olympics are staged every four years, two years apart from the summer Olympics. The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924. Prior to this, figure skating and ice hockey had been events at the Summer Olympics.
The sports that are now in the Winter Olympics are:
Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Bobsled
Cross-country skiing
Curling
Figure skating
Freestyle skiing
Ice hockey
Luge
Nordic combined
Short track speed skating
Skeleton
Ski jumping
Snowboarding
Speed skating.
The Winter Olympics also has demonstration events including Bandy, Ice stock sport ski ballet, Skijoring, sled-dog racing, speed skiing and the winter pentathlon.
As well, the ability to prove an item is "game worn" and can be related to a particular famous game will increase the value. Retirement or death can add value to items for popular sportsmen. However, the need to prove authenticity or the devaluation that occurs when the autograph has a personal address such as the recipient's name, make this market fraught with difficulty. The difficulty in dealing with the large number of fraudulent signatures for sales has led to the need to have a certificate of authenticity and to buy from a reputable dealer.
There is now a wide range of memorabilia for winter Olympics. These include the torches and torch replicas, jerseys, hats, T-shirts, jewellery, coins, pins, scarves and ties. And of course, every winter Olympics must have a mascot and these generate another area for collecting.
Vintage sports marketing which refers to older items have been appreciating significantly. The early Winter Olympics had few commercial collectibles, so any memorabilia are hence more valuable.
Find the value of an item is hard. Searching for valuations for sports memorabilia can be difficult. Until a item is exchanged at auction with interested buyers, the value of any item of sports memorabilia is in the owner's mind only.
But buying something for a sport you love is a good start.
