Pin mania sweeps the Games
Small collectors items are everywhere on everyone
 | Pin vendor David Pretty displays his pins for customers in Athens. Pins can be found on hats, neck chains, bags and shirts on just about everyone in the city. |
Rachel Elbaum / MSNBC.com |
ATHENS, Greece - “I’ll trade you a Micronesia and Cayman Islands for that bobble head pin,” said Linda Wade from her trading post at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.
“Throw in India and you’ve got a deal,” replied a pin collector eager to get his hands on the hard-to-get pins Wade was offering.
Pin mania has swept the Games and these small collectors items seem to be on the hats, neck chains, bags and shirts of everyone in the city.
“Will trade tickets for pins,” read a sign in one downtown square and at least 10 traders sit at the feet of the white arches “agora” in the Olympic stadium.
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Rachel Elbaum / MSNBC.com David Pretty, left, shows his Olympics pins to a customer. Unlike other collectables, many pins lose their value after the Olympics, and some people take part in the hobby just to fill time or meet people during the Games. |
“Someone gave me my first pin in Calgary and it’s just like heroin, it’s addictive,” said Harvey Cash, a native of that Olympics city who has come to every Games since 1988. Unlike many of the other traders, Cash trades his pins not only for other pins, but also for money. At his makeshift shop outside the media center, groups of journalists gather around his collections stuck into black velvet covered boards. He’s got two complete sets of pins from the Sydney Games representing each Olympic sport, Coca-Cola commemorative pins, NBC badges and other assorted pins from every Games since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Pins in the Olympic stores sell for between 9 and 11 euro, but on scores of traders’ websites prices can reach as high as $65 for a five-pin set or close to $50 for a “return to Athens” badge. Pins with moving parts, like bobble heads of Katie Couric, are particularly valuable and can be traded for the sought after pins from small countries like Vanutu or United Arab Emirates.
Serious collectors study the backs of pins for the codes that give the total number of pins produced in that particular design. Those numbers can also give an indication to a pin’s likely value if it is sold or traded – the fewer available, the more it’s worth.
“I like this but it isn’t real,” said Treisevegeni Vorgaridi, as she turned over a U.S.A. pin with the Olympic rings and a 2004 logo. As is the style in this Olympic city, the lanyard around her neck holding her volunteer credentials was filled with pins from the Mexico team, Athens organizing committee and sponsors like Xerox and Swatch. A tough bargainer who only picked up the trading habit last week, Vorgaridi ended up trading a pin produced for the Games by Xerox for two track and field pins in Wade’s trove.
Other serious traders collect only the pins put out by each country’s organizing committee or by news outlets.
Though at the Games they may seem like the hottest accessory on the market, many pins lose their value after the Olympics and most people involved in this hobby do it only to meet interesting people or to fill up extra time between events.
“It’s just something I do for a little fun every four years,” said Simon Hicks, the official cameraman for the judo competition, whose lanyard was filled with badges from judo teams around the world. “I have a Great Britain shield from the last five games and if I can’t find it this time then I’ll give in and buy that.”
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