If you’re thinking of buying London 2012 Olympic Games replica Gold, Silver or Bronze medals I’d think twice before parting with your money. With prices ranging from a couple of pounds for what’s obviously not an official medal but happens to have the word London on it, right up to replica Olympic medals costing £120 per set you’ll find plenty of choice on both and Amazon.
Some are described as “Ideal For Olympic Theme School Parties” and although infringing on the Olympic trademarks are very obviously not authentic replicas. However those described as “Replica London 2012 Olympic Medal” are a little more misleading, especially those with Olympic branded ribbons which are selling for around £120.00 per set.
The official medals are the largest ever made for an Olympics, at 85mm diameter. The gold medal is made from 92.5% silver, just 1.34% gold and copper with the raw materials valued at around £400. To make the silver medal it would cost about £200 for the 92.5% silver and copper needed but the bronze medal manufactured from 97% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin would cost less than a fiver for the raw materials.
I spoke to LOCOG this morning to ask if there were any official replica medals available for purchase. They told me that they can’t comment on what’s for sale on Amazon or eBay, but that official replica merchandise is available in London 2012 online shop. I couldn’t find any replica Olympic medals available in their shop, nor on the Royal Mint website.
The best advice is if you’re intending to spend serious amounts of money on souvenirs is make sure you know exactly what you’re buying and assume it’s going to be worthless compared to what you pay. If you’re thinking of selling items make sure that they .
5 Responses
I see eBay’s duplicate policy is working as well as usual. 😐
Take them down eBay.
In the Daily Mail July 30th there is an item about Olympic Souvenirs – Prices for Olympic souvenirs were said to be cut by up to 80 per cent and some like the one-eyed Games Mascot Wenlock was said to be difficult to sell, possibly because it is not seen as “cuddly” by children(I’m not certain that many adults would find it “cuddly” either)
Of course the question should be “Do you buy souvenirs of almost anything to make a “profit” on them or rather so that in years to come you can look at them and it brings back(hopefully) happy memories.
Will I be buying any Olympic Souvenirs? Unlikely. Did I watch the opening ceremony? No there was Cricket(the West Indes-New Zealand Test Match on Sky Sports) on at the same time.
Have I watched any Olympic Broadcasts – Yes The Beach Volleyball for about 10 minutes(befotre going on to Sky Sports looking for Cricket).
I’m surprised the IOC have not got the items removed using the vero technique….:-)
I have also looked @ eBay for various, Olympic related products and the sad part is that most of these products are effectively illegal – using logo, without paying any royalties of course. Starting from mugs, t-shirts and nail art stickers – ending up with medal replicas.
It seems that eBay is totally cool with this as there are probably tens of thousands of products currently listed with official logo, illegally.
VERO fails once again!
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THE ULTIMATE ‘BLING’ POSERS ITEM FOR Down the PUB…..
Conversation goes;
Poser; Just won the 500m Running event.
Posers Mate: Did you take the Beer Gut too…..